The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-01-13
BY JOHN T. FLYNN

BY JOHN I. FLYNN
 Copyright 1888, NEA Service, Incl
 The man in the street, who
 is always asking questions,
 is now asking this one:
 Uncle Sam has borrowed and paid out on recovery around IS or 20 billions of
 dollars in the last five years. These dollars went into the
 hands of all sorts of people. But they are still in existence, why aren't they spending them now?
 That's a good question. Let's fol- low one of those dollars.
 Uncle Sam hands it to John Jones for relief. Jones spends it at the grocery. The grocer hands it to George, who works for him. George spends it at the drug store. The druggist buys cotton bandages with 1t. The cotton bandage man buys cotton cloth. The cotton textile man buys raw cotton. The cotton farmer pays it to his hired hand. The hired hand buys a shirt.
 And so it goes, on and on, from worker to store, from store to fac- tory, from factory to worker, to farmer. Obviously while this is go- ing on the dollar is making bus mess at every turn.
 But one day that dollar comes into the hands of a workman who has streak of thrift and he de- cides to save it. He puts it in a tin box and buries it behind the chimney and lets it remain there for the rest of his life. Now it's clear what happened to that dollar. It's done, so far as spending is concerned. And if every one of the relief dollars got into the hands of fellow like this, it would be easy to answer the question and easy to see why there was business last year and not this year.
 Now, of course, not many men put their money into tin boxes noWa- days. But they do save them. There fore, let us suppose this dollar final ly gets into the hands of Brown, who is a saver. He does not want to spend the dollar, but he is willing to invest it. That is, he is willing to lend it to MT. Smith who wants to put up a house. Now while he is looking around for borrower the dollar is idle. But finally MT. Smith comes along and borrowS that dol lar-along with otherS-to butt house. Now the dollar is back again at work, because Smith pays it to a carpenter who takes it to a store and so on-until it comes into the hands of another saver.
 UBloaned Savings Stagnate Business
 But maybe MT. Brown, this first saver of ours, puts his money in a bank-in a savings bank or com- mercial bank. He does not want to ri.k it himself and he prefers to leave it in the bank. But the bank is willing to invest it or lend it. So th0 bank lends the dollar to MT. Smith to build a, house. The result will be the same.
 Now at this point you have to remember two things. One is that if Brown or the bank is unwilling | for any reason to invest the dollar | or lend it to MT. Smith, then the dollar remains idle. Its spending | career is ended as completely as if it had gone into a tin box. And this is what has happened to many | of these dollars. They are in the hands of men and of banks who are | unwilling or unable to lend them or invest them. Hence they are dead dollars-they are out of cir culation-they are non-existent so far as spending it concerned.
 The second thing you have to re- member is that sooner or later every dollar comes into the hands of a saver. It may happen quick ly. It may take months, or even years. But in the end every dollar heads into such ownership. And that is what is happening now. These relief and recovery dollars are slowly piling Up into the hands of those who do not wish for var ious perfectly good reasons to spend them. And hence they are becom- ing Sterilized.
 How Borrowings
 Get Frozen"
 This is but part of the story. The other part is almost too compli- cated to explain very quickly. All