The Coolidge examiner., 1932-03-18
E31

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IM NE of the serious results that
A@ Ia come from the experience
- ga through which our country
80 Es9 has been passing for the ~
80 EH past two years is loss of ~
~ IA faith Because some have
%&S~ put their trust in things
"A. a. which they have found do
~ " not always endure, they draw
u the hasty and unwarranted
X conclusion that it is useless to
have faith in anything. They
propose TO abandon all standards, seek a
only the easiest course, and live merely ~
for the present. en- the theory that they ~
may as we'll eat, drink, and be merry N
for tomorrow they die. .
1t cannot be denied that many people
have had an experience which at first so
thought seems TO warrant such an att Il IS
tude. They had profitable employmen.
on which they believed they could rely
for permanent income That has gone
and they unable to secure work lI4
They had a house which ultimately they 49,
expected would be their own and would W.
make home for themselves and their NM
family. They have been unable to meet ~
the payments due on it and have seen it .M
taken from them Others have found that A
investments on which they relied for pro- Ns
vision for their old age have turned out ~
to be of much less value than had been &2A
supposed. Some have met with losses
through the failure of banks in which
they had money deposited.
1t is easy, in these circumstances for the in
dividual to conclude that these disasters have
arisen through no fault of his own, that it must
be the fault of someone, and he is inclined to
blame something he loosely calls society Some
times feeling of injustice results in a threat
of defiance against constituted authority.
Among all these people, those who most
strongly appeal TO our sympathes those who
seem most warranted in their dscOuragement,
are the ones who want work and cannot find it.
But even they should take the larger view of
their situation 1t is no new experience for
wage Garner to be without employment. Such
a condition has always been temporary. 1t will
be temporary now. Surely the country will go
back TO work, back to production and consump-
tion The condition of the wage Garner in Amer
lea has long been the despair of all the rest of
the world. Some hope should be derived from
what has been and some confidence entertained
that the same again shall be.
But a new element has entered into the stua-
ton of the unemployed. Heretofore, few have
known anything about it, few have cared any
thing about it and nobody has done anything
about it. Now the whole nation is aroused
There is scarcely a hamlet in the land where
there is not an organization and active public
will be cared for in an unprecedented way.
We have had tremendous spiritual awakening
concerning our duty to relieve human suffering.
1t is true some homes have been lost through
default of payments. That risk is always in
CURED when property is bought on credit But
even in this field, where one home has been lost,
an enormous number have been retained. Their
owners now find themselves securely and COM
fortably housed because they saved money and
bought when they had an income, instead of
spending all their money on rents and expensive
living.
If all those who have bought homes in the
last twenty years could be assembled, it would
be found, in spite of some failures, that, as a
class, they were distinctly better off than their
neighbors.
The desire to build and own home is one of
the primal human instincts. 1t is especially
strong in women. Even the present age of hO-
tel apartments and flats is not likely to eradi-
cate strong natural longing. But those who
have given up the effort in despair or disgust
certainly must live somewhere-if not in their
own house then in the house of someone else
Their real position in the world is disclosed by
supposing that everyone else followed their eX-
ample The whole race would be without shell
ter in about generation.
Those who have come to the conclusion that
they will do nothing to make themselves home
are injuring themselves most, but they are also
injuring the whole community.
Any such scheme of things as their actions
preSuppOse could not be put into effect Nature
and reason are both opposed to it.
When we examine the complaints OF those
who have lost through investments we find that
they fall into three classes: Some lost because
they were plainly swindled. We are enactins
more and more laws and setting up more anC
more regulations and safeguards to prevent
recurrence of such abuses The practice of swim
ding is very old, and larceny h; never beer
eradicated from any community where propert!
was abundant. But because someone does wrong
does not prove that we shall all abandon trying
to do right.
Others have used poor judgment in invest
ments Usually they have been tempted to taxi
large risks by the hope of making large gains
Some did not make great profits, while man.
more suffered heavy losses.
Those vino trust to chance must abide by tn
results of chance. They have no legitimate com
plant against anyone but themselves.
Still others using all the judgment possibl
for human beings and guided by the best tinan
cial advice obtanable, have seen their invest
ments seriously impaired. But this simpl
means what everyone should know; that eve