The Washington times., 1934-10-31

lies the soldiers bonus ana Lne
Townsend Plan. It is back OF
devaluation and iva. They all
mean take it away from those
who have and give it to those
who have not. Initiation means
taking value away from the
money of those who have it, in a
vain effort to give it to others.
This is not "relief." No one
denies for a moment the obliga-
tions of society to aid all in
capacitated members and all per-
sons temporarily out of work
through no fault of their own.
The elemental necessity of relief
for those unable to help them
selves, is unqueSticned.
But relief" should be given in
o way to make the burden as
light as possible. and not to dis
turb the orderly business Of So
ciety. In fact. the production OF
wealth should be encouraged so
that the source of relief will be as
great as possible.
All these mixed reform -stimula-
tion-relief schemes, however. are
apt to interfere with the produc-
ton of wealth and hurt business.
They make such relief as is given
cost society twice as much as is
necessary. And they tend to make
more people permanently depend
ent upon others.
Two general results are: (D
The recipients are demOralized,
and come to live on the theory
that society owes us a living"
(2) The goose that lays the
golden eggs is killed, because
productive business is injured.
If nobody can be wealthy, no.
body will try to get wealth.
Then production will suffer,
and everybody will have less
wealth.
One of the favorite schemes
for soaking the rich and sharing
their wealth, is "devaluation" and
other devices for depreciating our
currency, by manufacturing huge
amounts of paper money. "Shar-
ing wealth" usually means Shar-
ing money. You see. a large part
of peoples wealth" consists of
bonds, mortgages. and other
claims to money. Therefore,
when we reduce the purchasing
power of money, we take wealth
away from all those who have
money.
Aside. from any question of
justice, the trouble with this sort
of thing is that it has many
bad results, and does not even
benefit permanently those to
whom the deprecated currency
may be given.
It "soaks" all who have money,
and not only the very rich but
those who depend upon relatively
fixed money incomes. such as
salaries and interest on small
savings. Gndeed, the rich can
often protect themselves by specu-
lation, so that the chief sufferers
are the great middle class)
It takes away with one hand
what it gives with the other. AS
the government gives manu-
factured paper currency, that
currency falls in purchasing
power, which means that prices
rise. The more currency one
gets, the less it will buy. Laborers
always find themselves worse off.
1t hurts business, and thus
prOlOngS depression, keeps more
people from earning money by
production, and reduces the real
source Of all wealth or income.
/ defy anyone to find q case
In which q nation ever recOv.
cred from depression by infla-
tion or relation. 1t can't be
done.
Today we need to be reminded
that if we 60 too far in soaking"
the wealthy, there will be less
wealth to share. The "haves" will
become fewer and the have notS"
more numerous.
We also need to remember that
inflated currency whether green
backs or bank deposits) is fools
gold" The billions" so loosely
talked of are a money mirage.
The more currency you manufac-
ture out of Government debt. the
less it will be worth. And the
more people there are trying to
live on such currency Juggling, the
less real wealth there will be to
live on.