The Redwood gazette., 1937-08-12
1T Is ALWAYS A LITTLE AMUSING,


someone talking about the elimination of |
profit as if it's Punishment were not only
easily possible but highly practical in paw
ing the way for "the fuller life" They do
not realize that no single incentive was as
much responsible for the development of this
country, nor of civilization for that matter,
as the ambition "to get ahead" which is only
another way of saying profit. Settlers came
here not to seek the company of the Indians
or to find an easier life, or even happier,
more independent one, at the outset. They
saw an opportunity to secure cheap land,
capable of raising fine crops. They antici-
pated not only the profit on their produce
but greater profit in rising land values as
the country developed and the less daring
with more ample means moved in.
No business man today fails to figure
his gains and losses at the end of the year,
hopefully anticipating that the gains will
outnumber the losses. No farmer CANDLES
his seed, his work and his investment
against the elements and the insects and all
the other threats to crops for any other rea-
son than the anticipation that he may derive
more from the harvest that he has invested.
Most frequent complaint of the tradesman
and the labOrlng man is not that he has not
enough to live on but that he is not getting
ahead, in other words that after his ex-
penses are betrayed from his wages, he has
little left that might be termed profit.
True there have been exorbitant pro-
fits: The public has at times been victimized
by the greedy and the unscrupulous but only
for the interval in which competition arises
and has its effect on prices. Nor would the
greedy side of human nature be eliminated
If it were possible by one stroke to wipe out
the profit motive The desire for profit has
causer inventors to perfect new conven-
fences. 1t has resulted in the development of
mass production through the hope that by
producing more units cheaper, more can be
sold at prices within the reach of more
consumers, in the end resulting in more pro-
fit for the manufacturer. 1t is interesting to
guess how many cars, radios, refrigerators
and hundreds of other luxuries of a few
years ago would be owned in average fam
lilies today, and how many of their quality
features would have been developed had
their manufacture been a matter of the
state, in the hands of politicians rather than
business men.
We agree that too much profit has ac-
crued to capital, too little to labor in great
many instances. Trusts at times have MIXED
the country, avoided taxes and in other
ways taken unfair advantages. But these
things are matters of adjustment and re-
gulation. They don't indicate a fundamental
wrong IN the system or warrant the sug-
gestion that profitless commonwealth
would be utopia.
UNDER THE HEADING THE GIRLS
Can Help" the following very true editorial
comes to us from the Industrial News Bur
eau It is reprinted for the benefit of Red
wood county bellies:
1.-TWO young men and girl, aged II to
10, were killed instantly late last night return
ing from dance, when their crashed into
tree at hioh afo Of Tbp
member of the party is in critical condition
in local hospital
This news-item, differing only in minor de-
tails, has appeared a thousand times, and in
papers in every state of the Union. 1t reflects
of the most tragic phases of the automo-
bile accident problem-the reckless drivers in
their teens and early twenties. Out for good
time, they careen about the highways and by
ways-and at regular intervals death follows
in their tracks. Immature minds regard it as
act of enviable bravado to ''see what the
old bus will do" In many cases the they
drive should have been sent to the junk pile
long ago-brakes are gone, lights bad,
steering mechanisms faulty, and tires
down to the fabric, ready for blowouts
The larger part of the blame for accidents
that kill and MAIN young people must be put
squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
The fathers and mothers who permit their
driving, too lazy to find out the true
state of affairs, are, to put it kindly, derelict
in duty. Even worse the parents who,
when their children arrested for danger
GUS driving practices, move heaven and earth
to have them freed without punishment-thus,
in effect, telling them to 60 out and do it again.
But youth itself, in the form of the young
girls who 60 riding with their boy friends,
be of the greatest assistance in reducing
this toll by bestowng bit of praise and show
ing admiration for the safe driver and simply
refusing to ride with the reckless one-make
safe driving the price of date and watch
said boy friends slow down.
WHEN GOVERNORS GO ABOUT
settling strike difficulties, it seems invari-
ably they announce the employers are not
only wholly wrong but utterly stubborn.
Could it be that the fact employees cast
more votes than employers sometimes inter-
feres with justice?
PAYING SOVIET RUSSIA Ss5 AN
ounce for all the gold it can dig out of the
Ural mountains so we can bury it again in
LII L.