Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1939-12-07

their share of the national produc-
ton. If they do not there will be
an over-production and everyone will
suffer.
At present our farm population is
working seven days of fifteen hours
week in order to buy the produc-
ton of one skilled laborer in one day
of eight hours. The man employed
in industry at that gets only bare
living, because he must be idle a
great deal of the time in order to
avoid over-production, and the farm
er also makes only a scant living,
because he also must guard against
over-production which would fur
ther lower the prices he would re-
ceive; but for the farmer it becomes
quite easy to reduce production be-
cause his equipment deteriorates, and
he cannot afford to buy new tools
and machinery, nor can he afford to
keep his buildings in repair. Most
farms are now in dilapidated state
and in few years, if present condi-
tons prevail, more than half of the
farms will be ruins similar to the
ones from prehistoric days. This de-
terioration of farms should aid prices
for farm products if the workers in
the cities do not die off from starva-
ton faster than food production de-
creaSes.
| But if we can agree to unite and
work for an increase in the produc-
ton of food and goods of better
quality, double the production of
necessities, of luXuries and of food,
and agree to distribute and sell it at
less cost to the ultimate consumer,
then we may overcome the world
crisis and bring into being a state
of conditions where each and every
one will have a chance to do his
part and to live in security if he so
wills.
Unite or Else!
If we cannot agree of our own
free will to unite for the purpose to
create a just and equitable society
where each member receives his just
share of production, then there will
surely come time when a dictator
will step in and force us to agree
to unite. Whether this dictator be
called Democrat, a Republican, a
Socialist or a Communist, will not
matter; we shall be told to do so and
so or else We don't have to
go back to study the history of Greece
and Rome to form picture of what
conditions then will be. All we
have to do is look across the oceans
that surround us.
We used to speak of gold as hav-
ing an intrinsic value, but has it?
One reason that gold is valuable is
because it is scarce and that it re-
quires lot of hard work to recover
it from the soil; another reason is
that it CLEANS and that its glitter
is of everlasting quality and it is
desirable for lasting ornaments. If
it was more plentiful it would be
less valuable. The principal reason
for its value and its stable price is,
of course, its monetary use as a
measure of values, created by laws
and world agreements. The things
that are of real value are the pro-
ducts from the soil and the products
produced from the raw materials by
industry and labor. We measure the
value of the diverse products by gold.
| When the number of employed
people are decreased less goods can
be produced, but, as all have to be
fed and clothed goods advance in
price, because taxes and overheads
increase in the same proportion as
unemployment. If we put all the
people to work full time production
will be doubled, taxes and overhead
decreased and prices can be lowered
to about half of the prevailing ones.
Each individual will thereby be in a
position to buy back from society his
own production, and there will be
enough for all, and no bread lines
will be needed; nor will there be any
over-production.
| A Wrong System.
That may have been what the
New Deal had in mind, but it failed
to include all in the new scheme of
things. 1t started the NRA to help
business recover; but business made
codes, advancing profits to such a
degree, that only the few could buy
and by its greed killed the NRA. It,
the New Deal, started PWA and
WPA and established wages so high
that the farmer and the householder
couldn't compete and so unemploy-
ment continued undiminished. The
New Deal gave a dole to the farm
ers, but caused his taxes to treble,
as well as the taxes of commerce and
industry, in order to give starvation
aid to the ill-fed, ill-clothed and ILL
housed of the one-third of our pop
ulation 1t restricted production in
order to boost prices on products,
but failed as far as the farm and
village population was concerned.
The New Deal figured that it could
tax the rich for the money expended
on all these experiments, but there
again it failed, for the rich individ-
uals and the big corporations have
way to tax it back onto the con-