The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-08-18
They
New York Tines

human annals snow no parallel to
the unselfishness, the abnegation, the
utter devotion which They are now
exhibiting in behalf of Mr.. Hoover.
Who are they? The persons, groups
and associations undesignated who
are now rigging" the stock market;
who are now, as Mr.. Will Rogers sus-
poets, buying and selling among
themselves, in order to hasten the
return of prosperity, in order to as
sure Mr.. Hoover'S reelection.
Consider the simply astonishing
extent to which They must be loving
MIR. Hoover more than They love
themselves. 1t is nearly three years
since the crash. and in that time
They have not lifted a finger to help
themselves. With an indifference
truly sublime They have seen their
stock holdings sag toward the van
ishing point, their bonds and mort
cages melt away, their banks failing
by the thousands, their entire fiscal
structure under pressure. They have
seen the existence of the national
currency in peril, and have heard the
collapse of the dollar spoken Of as
a matter of days only. All about
them They have seen men of great
wealth reduced to perjury, and in the
probate news They have read of great
estates ground to fragments.
Yet all this time They knew what
had to be done in order to stave off
destruction. The only way of escape
was to halt the fall in prices, reverse
the fatal trend, and bring back pros
perity. But did They make any en-
deavor to lift prices by buying and
selling among themselves in Wall
Street? Did They make any attempt
to rig the market at a time when
They would have had the best
wishes of the vast majority OF the
American people for their success?
1t is on record that They did not.
Even the talk of revolution did not
galvanize Them into action. It has
been proved in the radical publica-
tons that They are the masters in
control of the present economic and
social system; yet They stood SUI
pirc!y by while that system was ap-
parently breaking up. They did moth
ing to raise prices while the number
OF unemployed in the country mount
ed to four million, to six million, to
eight million, to ten million. Being
far from stupid, They must have
realized the grave threat to our en-
tire social structure in this enormous
and ever-expanding mass of idle
workers. Being literate, with plenty
of time on their hands for reading
the papers and the magazines, They
must have been aware how close
They stood to the Edge of the Preci-
pice, how hard They were beset by
Catastrophe, Collapse snd Ruin. Yet
They made no move to bring back
prosperity by manipulating things in
Wall Street.
Then it became a question of re-
electing Mr.. Hoover, and an extraor-
binary change came. The lethargy
from which They could not be
wrenched by consideration for them
selves, their wives and children, their
class interests, their country, dropped
from them as II by magic when They
bethought themselves Of MIR. Hoover
Once 1t was question Of insuring the
success Of the Republican ticket. who
would be the weakling to doubt OF
the craven to pause? As one man
They leaped to their telephones and
began buying and selling amona
Themselves, with results now famil-
lar. In this rush to do for Mr.. Hoo
yer what They would not do fol-
themselves we have one OF the SUI
preme examples of unselfishness in
all history.
Educated men are wont to boast OF
emancipation from the anthropo-
morphic God Of their fathers. But
men have remained anthropomorphic
at heart, as Is shown by the ease with
which We invoke They" as the ex-
PLANTATION Of prosperity and depres.
sion. Good times and bad do moi
come from the complex interplay OF
vast impersonal economic and sociaJ
forces. Always 1t must be They who
| Crdatn panics and create boOms as n
best pleases Themselves.