The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-06-04
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
The FORGOTTEN 40 M4LIoN

The FORGOTTEN 20 MILLION
OF all the phrases coined by the recovery evan
gelsts none has attained wider currency than the
POLITICAL image of "the forgotten man" This sym
bolic American is used on every occasion. TO sup
nort every plan" That he IS dressed up to SUIT
any particular argument becomes rapidly apparent
TO anyone who takes the trouble to meet this neg
lected individual as revealed by his dscoyerer, Pro-
lessor William Graham Sumner in 1885. 10 him.
he was
The simple, honest laborer ready to earn his
living by productive work. Independent, seh-
supporting and asking no favors. Wanting TO
make contract and fulfill it with respect on
both sides and favor on neither side. A man
who must get his living out of the capital OF the
country, getting better living the larger the
capital is.
How far the advocates of social justice" have
departed from the Sumnerian concept IS at once
suggested by the direction of public thinking TO-DAY
which popuarizes penury and penalties thrift In
every avenue of national planning it is possible to
detect more than the ominous shadow of will to
discredt success, to coddle the unworthy in the
name of the more abundant life,' to dignity shift
lessness and downright laziness with the speclous
label of "underprivileged'
w e lose SlgnL OF the 1dCt IiidI lhe teiu tott>'
for social ideals must COME from the citizens who
earn those who consume a little less than they
produce, those who sacrifice to save. This is true
whether the bill be paid by taxes through political
machinery or by voluntary contributions. No mat
ter through which conduit it flows it must come
ultimately from ''middle-class America from the
thrifty, productive, conserving army of men and
women You see them all about you, these real
LIZ, J,,,or fo1G
who still have enough of the country's original
backbone in their systems to tread bravely the
hard road which alone will lead to genuine re-
covery.
Nor are the constituents of this sustaining group
mere Pigments of iresde fancy. They are among
the 4O,OO0,O0O painfully employed" They are
the small capitalists" the people who have backed
their belief in business, banks and insurance They
are the home-owners, those with savings in stocks
and bond, buyers of automobiles and the other good
things of life. They are the workers everywhere,
on forge and farm and mine and BENCH who, pa
tient and hnwhimpering, are carrying on They are
the American standard of living in the flesh.
To feel that like the cotton in the South and
the grains in the West the white collars being
plowed under in an excess of experimentation, !"
may be premature as it is alarming. What IS
perism an American custom at the expense of in
dividual competency.
This great intermediate group of citizens may
be willing to as the cannon fodder of the
social planners Who is there to test patriotism BY
income! The unemployed, the destitute, the worker
on bare subsistence wage, the farmer on drought
ravaged land have no monopoly of anxiety, loss and
sacrifice. On the hard path to better times these
40 million citizens lying between the extremes of
afiuence and poverty bearing burdens all the
more exhausting because of the aggressive apathy
in high places. *
Whether it be reliance on their own resourcefu-
ness or the salty lesson of experience, the members
OF the great middle classes expect no Samaritan
They look to themselves for succor. Thew are the
countrys real forgotten and neglected Their trag-
edy is that they are remembered only when their
earnings and their savings are needed to make
good the promises spawned in political laboratories
Merle Thorpe in Nations Business.
! Al the government would help the poor and
make money on the deal, let it offer dime bounty
for our 200 million rats
How strange that smoking cures other raw meat
and Won't do darned thing for raw throat.
The more you observe what the millions fall for,
the more you wonder why swindlers are so few.
Getting rich isn't difficult You just promise
Impossible prohts and let nature take discourse
but how offended We shall be when Jap ships
isaq plannHes manenyer on our side of the Pacific
ISssuA ., 81,