The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1938-10-27

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cost them nothing.
There are no free lunches in nature.
"The early bird catches the worm"
we are told, and it would seem that
he gets his breakfast free; but in the
end the worm gets the bird, and the
meal is paid for.
No, the initial cost, even if it had
been accepted, would not have been
of any consequence; it is the total sum
that any transaction costs that must
be considered. And when we follow
this story to it's denouement, we will
discover that the price paid was ex-
cessive in the extreme.
.Taxeaters are aggressive and their
greed is Unsuitable. They never cease
their demands until the people finally
collapse under the burden. The ac-
cumulating burden in the cost of that
corn" to Israel is revealed in numer-
GUS ways. First the presence of Ben
iamin is demanded and hostage held
to insure it. Next, the presence of
Jacob is required:
Haste we, and go up to my father,
and say unto him, Thus saith they son
Joseph, God hath made me lord of all
Egypt: come unto me, tarry not.
And it climaxes with the informa-
ton:
And Jacob took all that he had and
journeyed into Egypt.
The call that he had" means in
finitely more than his children and his
chattels; it included his liberty, his
personal initiative, his right to think
for himself and be the arbiter of his
own destiny. These are the pearls of
great price which Jacob gave in eX
change for that corn" For it his
children paid in centuries of bondage.
Yes, during that 438 years of
frightfulness "the Egyptians made the
children of Israel to serve with rig
our" made their lives bitter with
hard bondage" and finally in extreme
harshness forced them to make brick
without straw. By reason of it 'the
children of Israel sighed"
This was just another sales tax on
their purchase of that corn"
After their exodus from this
bondage they were not yet through.
They faced the terrors of the wilder
ness on their way to Canaan, the land
of their fathers. There they eXper-
fenced hunger which caused them to
long for the garlic and onions of
Egypt, thirst for which the waters
of Marah offered no relief, the sting
of fiery serpents which brought death
to many, and the awful tolls of forty
years of wandering. In that wilder
ness all that generation gave up their
lives save Joshua and Caleb.
This was the final cost of the corn
to Israel which the sons of Jacob
went down into Egypt to buy.
What significance has this for US?
The major tragedy of our times =
the prodigal fashion in which we are
giving our freedom and that of our
children for "corn," exchanging our
personal initiative, individual oppor-
tunity and right to direct our own lives
for what is popularity called Geo
nomic security"
Jesus said, "The poor We have with
you always" They have always been
here and always will be. l am not
speaking of the unfortunate, nor the
incompetent; l have in mind only the
leeches and deadbeats-the men who
are able, yet too trihing to work. The
more that is given them, the more they
will demand. 1t would bankrupt any
government on earth to feed them,
AS long as this is true, economic Sc
curity" is a human impossibility.
Many times in history excessive
prices have been paid for Corn" and
ours is one of them.
The philosophy that we can borrow
ourselves out of debt and build again
our fortune by the widest waste has
paralyzed the manhood Of the nation
and made of US an aggregation of
parasites.
| make no protest against hardship
and suffering. l have no quarrel with
God if we must endure those trials
that naturally meet US on our way to
the goal He has set for us. We have
no right to our existence if we are
either unable or unwilling to pay the
price of it. What | am trying to pro-
test against is our imagining famine
where none exists and our willingness
to buy corn" of the Egyptians before
we know it can be produced by our
own efforts.
The pinch of hunger drives the wolf
to a wider range. Must the American
people confess they are less resource
full than the wolf?