Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-11-05

Tnation than any sit-down strike OF
More dangerous to the welfare of this
workmen is the sit-down strike OF
capital which today is needed to set
wheels spinning and to put men TO work
in the creation of new wealth. No matter
how hard people may work, the country
will progress only in proportion to the ere
alton of new wealth. That involves spec
ulation-risk and daring enterprise. Gold
is valuable only because it is hard TO
find and difficult to recover. If gold were
as plentiful as silica so that any one
could go out with shovel and get
truckload. gold would have no more
value than sand. The finding of gold and
silver and other precious metals is
hazardous business and the reward must
be large. as compared with the deposit
ing OF money in a bank, at interest.
The president of the United States this
week commented on the large pool of I'M
tapped funds belonging to small inves-
tors that might be made available for
housing expansion in this country.
The chief executive said that in the
period since the 1929 crash reports led
him to believe there are many individ-
uals with amounts from $4,000 to
$4,000 open for investment who do not
know where to place their money. His
suggestion was that they might put their
money into the federal housing bonds
which earn the investor from to 314
per cent This brought to mind the grow
ing tendency of people to look to the
government for everything. even for in
vestment as against the creation of new
enterprise.
Very few people of whom we know
who have become wealthy as measured by
American standards. have had as much
as $4,000 TO start with They are usually
people who started out with a hundred
or two dollars which thew put in an en-
prise which grew until the hundred be-
came two hundred and that became four
hundred-and so on. Certainly no man
ever became rich from savings from daily
wages or from a salary Even the veal
thy professional men we know did not
become wealthy from collecting fees.
alone. Their wealth came from backing
some hazardous enterprise which sue
ceeded and paid them many times their
investment. That is the thing which has
made America the land of opportunity:
where a poor newsboy may some day
become the richest man in the world
Just that thing happened here in the
United States
1t occurs to us that if all the money
in the United States were put to work
at 81 per cent, it would be a greater
calamity than to reduce day labor wages
to 81 per day. The latter would mean
that there would be no more quantity
production of automobiles, radios or the
countless other necessities" of the Am
erican standard of living. 1t would mean
that every poor man shall stay poor and
every rich man will get poor.
\ For all we know, this may be the ideal
thing It is possible that If everyone were
placed on the simpler Japanese standard
of living, with none richer and none
poorer, that a greater number of people
would be happy. Certainly the tendency
is in that direction. Thirty years hence
millions of people will be enjoying social
security payments averaging $50 per
month out of the savings which the gov
eminent is requiring of every employed
person. Today we think it ridiculous for
a man to expect to live on the American
standard on $50 per month 1t may come,
however
However close the approach of the
Utopian era, the writer is of the opin-
ion that the last standard OF American
life to be changed will be individual
property rights We feel that the little
property owner will be protected or
through force of numbers will protect
themselves. That conclusion serves to