Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-10-03
A BIG PROBLEM

been talking through his hat"
when he wrote these lines:
1.-The old advice to young man
was to work hard, amount to
something and save money. The
present day prophets tell us that
amounting to something is dam
gerous and that saving is a sin.
The ambitious individualist is a
menace to society and we must
borrow and spend ourselves out
of the troubles of the day."
If the editor was not spOofing
or just writing to fill space he
could be made to tell us who
says that Saving is a sim" 1t
would also be we'll to know who
claims that ''the ambitious indi-
vidualist is menace to society
providing of course the ambitious
fellow does not carry his ambi-
tions. to such extremes that he
becomes arrogant and dictator.
The old advice to save money
is still good and no normal per-
son will dispute it. Likewise, the
advice to work is also good, pro-
vided the Individual can get work
and in turn money.
But for some of those folks who
are comfortably situated and
think that it is only the fault of
the individual if he is not in
the same good circumstances,
little enlightenment on the sub
ject would not be amiss.
1t is SO easy to throw it off with
wave of the hand and say it is
a persons own fault if he has not
made the grade. But any one who
does that right along in these
times and under the present eco
monte condition is, in many cases,
brutal.
Folks who make such bombastic
utterances should read and learn
a little about the unemployment
situation from a national stand
point if they haven't the eyes to
observe the conditions in their
own environment.
An excellent article on unem-
ployment and the permanancy of
that condition was published in
The st. Paul Daily News. 1t
follows:
We have taken it for granted eve
since 1929 that return to norma
business productivity would autOmat
ically end unemployment. But it
to become evident now tina
this was too optimistic.
Unemployment is revealing itself a
a continuing affair, something tina
exists above and beyond the depres
sion and that will not be dispelled b
a simple return to good times in trade
Rodney butcher, Daley News col
recently pointed out in
dispatch from Washington that re
turn to normal business activity tOda
would leave us with from 100000
to 100000 men who could not ge
jobs. Our productive machinery ha
simply grown so efficient that it ca
do it's job with fewer and fewer mer
Under present conditions, there
no prospect that we can ever abolis
The thing to remember, right herr
is that this is a problem which cut
across all party lines and all socis
and economic theories. 1t is a prof.
lem which would be acute under 81
cialism, communism or faSciSm jul
as it now is acute under capitalism
Put in Washington any kind of al
ministration you like and you woul
still face this unalterable fact-th;
we can grow all the food we nee
mine all the ore, make all the ste'
and machinery, run all the train
and sell all the goods we need wit
several million fewer men than "
have available to do all these jobs.
1t would be bad enough if this pr
cess of displacement had ended b
il hasn't That new mechanical &C
ton picker. for instance. may one de
contribute several hundred thousar
mere names to the list of the jobles
The pre-fabricated house idea may {
the same thing for the buildir
trades.
Some other gadget. as yet locke
in an inventors brain. Is as like
as not to pop up day after tomorro
to do the same thing in another lin
The immediate moral to be draw