The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-03-10

ing opportunity for the human body
to adjust itself to the new condi-
tons.
Now, I am somewhat old fash
toned and hold to the belief that a
whole nation of people, after all,
will make progress if given the
chance to do so. I further believe
that their collective reasoning in the
end will be right. They can not,
however, be turned inside out unless
there has been some preparation for
the ordeal and they can not take a
dose which is poisonous in quantity
any more than my friend, the indi-
vidual, could take it and live. In
making that statement, I must
make clear my conviction that some
of the New Deal prescriptions were
needed. A few of them were badly
needed. On the other hand, think
it can be fairly asserted that good
many of them were never needed,
never were disable or workable.
They were poisons not intended by
nature to be so administered to the
national body.
We can 60 further. It can be
said that no individual who is i'll
can work efficiently, if at all. That
is true of our economic life which
includes business. And business is
everywhere-from the smallest gen.
eral store at the crossroads near
my Missouri birthplace to the gil
gantic Marshall Field company in
Chicago, General Motors in New
York, Aluminium company in Pitts
burgh, or hundreds of thousands of
others. Business can not get going
at its proper pace if it is i'll.
The business of the country has
something more than it's own body,
however, as problem to constantly
watch. That general store that I
mentioned may not be much con-
cerned about Washington affairs,
but it feels the impact of things
done at Washington whether it rec
ognizes them or not. The larger
concerns, of course, feel Washing
ton actions much more directly. So,
in addition to the influence of mar
kets, buying and selling of or among
the general public, business is in
fiuenced by what is done here in
Washington, and that may be bad
medicine or good medicine.
Let us take just one or two ex-
amples of what I mean. One of
the Biblical proverbs Of the New
Deal was the necessity for a law
providing what the theorists were
pleased to call "social security"
That includes old age pensions. New
Deal campaigners sang many beau
tiful songs about caring for the
aged, and certainly there are mil
lions who have needed help. When
it came to practical application of
the plan, however, the boys started
looking for the necessary money.
Thus arose the so-called payroll tax
for unemployment and old age pen
sions.
It sounded workable to many per-
sons. It was a thing for the future
-. and there was not
TFocttcot too much worry
Problem about the problem
of where those
who were to pay the tax would get
the money. The time has arrived,
however, where the beautiful theory
is perfectly enormous practical
problem.
The first years 'take" by the
government amounts to something
over a billion dollars. Some of it,
almost half, comes out of the pay
envelopes of the workers; the re-
mainder comes out of the pockets
of the employers. It is turned over
to washington" and when money
gets into government hands it be-
comes unproductive. The result
has been that in the last year there
has been taken away from it's own
ers more than a billion dollars that
would have added at least billion
dollars to the buying power of the
country if it had been left with the
proper owners. That is one of the
big reasons for the Roosevelt de-
preston, as distinguished from the
Hoover depression obtaining when
the present administration took over
the reins of government. 1t was a
dose of so drops when the country
was able to stand only few drops.
To get back to relief: I have ar
gued in these columns many times
that relief should be handled by the
states and, equally, I think the old
age pension and unemployment ben
efits, if they are to be used, should
be handled by the states. My point
is that Professional Reliever Hop
kins, here in Washington, can not
know through any organization he
may build what the facts are sur
rounding any of the thousands re-
ceiving help.
Something that can be done
is to eliminate about one third of
this general money spending that is
going on here in Washington or out
in the various states under direction
from Washington. wish Mr.. Roose-
welt had stuck to his campaign
promise of 1882 to cut federal ex-
penses by Is per cent. The tragedy
of this spending is that it saddles
debt on the younger folks and those
yet unborn for several generations.
It has to end somewhere.
e Western Newspaper Union.