The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-11-10
STABIL IZATI0N IS NEEDED
BOTH MENTAL And ECONOMIC
Lou Benshof Editor of Detroit Lakes Record Makes High
Minded Address Over WCCO Tuesday Evening Under
Auspices Northwest Economic Council.

facilities to point OF righteousness.
In many cases the expansion was so
rapid as to form structure similar to
an inverted pyramid and, following the
start our bank collapse back in
1926 and 1927, and the disastrous stock
market crash of 1929, our progress back
to normally has caused mental dis
turbance which bodies i'll for the future,
in my humble opinion.
All values have been seriously de-
flated, and particularly is this true OF
our farm landS-heretofore the basis
of all values. The titles to thousands
of these farm homes have passed from
the individual owner to some holding
company, insurance company, the Fed
eral Land Banks and the Rural Credit
Bureaus-in those states which set up
this form of a loaning agency. Unem-
ployment increased with unbelievable
rapidity, charity lists were multiplied
many fold, some 5000 banks, carrying
billions of deposits closed their doors,
our vaunted system Of free public edu-
cation is in a chaotic condition-With
no living person imbued with sufficient
courage or foresight to predict the ul-
innate outcome.
AS a natural sequence OF the spec
tacular boom days previous to the fall
of 1929, promoters of public improve
ments approved of lavish expenditures
which have resulted in tax burden so
onerous that it has long since passed
the. point of actual confiScation, and
thousands of homes, both rural and
urban, have been thrown into the in
satiable NAV of the tax-collecting
machine. Delinguencies have shown an
alarming increase and conservative
property owners doubt their ability to
carry the double burden of both them
selves and their neighbors who are
unable to pay the enormous levies now
deemed necessary to care for interest
charges, bonded Indebtedness and cur
rent operating expenses.
| From the nation itself, to the smallest
ub-division, this is unquestionably our
outstanding problem, and it should be
faced courageously with an insistent
demand for decreased expenditures
rather than in research for new
avenues of taxation whereby the wage
Garner and home owner will be still
further burdened. The slogan OF
Lower Taxes BY Less Spending" can
not be improved upon and it should be
universally applied. Stricter economies
inevery department of public service
machine Delinquencies have shown ar
in my humble judgement, seems to be
far more fundamentally sound than
is the fallacious proposal that we bor-
row more money to get out of debt, or
to use the time-worn and oft-used
phrase, ito try and pull ourselves ur
by our bootstraps!"
! And so reiterate in an absolutely
bipartisan spirit, that we shall not
receive more than vague and tenn
porary relief from present efforts OF
Government to spend billions of dollars
(Which we do not now have) in a vain
and futile attempt to relieve situation
which is, in the last analysis, an in
herent weakness in our American social
and financial life rather than a defect
due to some governmental activity!
For ages past we have been told that
he who made two blades of grass
grow where one grew before" was a
benefactor; but we now attempt to
reverse that doctrine and appeal to
the patriotism of our citizens to destroy
what they have created, pay them
for so doing land urge them to make
one blade of grass grow where two grew
before. What strange philosophy an6
too contrary to the Biblical admonitior
that "in times of plenty we should pre-
pare for the famine!'
While war clouds gather on the
European horizon, and state of great
unrest prevails throughout the civilized
world, no where do I hear a voice
riased in the advocacy of a general
lower standard of Hving-a return te
the game of Put" as well as Take,
such as our forbears exemplified when
this Republic was founded! There is
no call for an elimination of needless
and extravagant motor travel, for less
public service, for lesser indulgence in
all those things which can hardly be
called the necessities of hfe," and
which bear so heavily upon the wage