davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06
Townsend Plan
Continued from Page u

ers with money in their pockets, with
which to buy things.
If we do not abolish charity in
all its hideous forms and put all
our adult citizens on payrolls, wheth-
er they can labor and produce wealth
directly or not, we shall be depriving
ourselves of a great market demand
for goods that we shall badly need
when this war ends.
Build Our Market.
We shall have no other market
than our own to depend on when the
war ends. All Eother nations will
find themselves impoverished and in
debt to us. Will it not be wiser OF
us to put our old folks on the pay
rolls and say to them: 'Take this
money and spend it for goods so as
to keep our factories running and
our people at work." than it will be
to lend our billions abroad to create
a market, knowing that the money
will never be repaid?
Let us have our government en-
ploy all of our people whom pro-
ductive industry cannot employ. Let
us pay them literally so they may
buy literally The creation and
maintenance of a market for goods
is just as important as the. creation
of the goods. You can't sell goods
to a world that is broke. Let us
make marketers of all of our people
Our own people are the only mar
keters we are going to have for a
long time who can help us regenerate
this old world.
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06
ECONOMICS AND WAR
Editor Askov American:

Editor Askov American:
Often we hear that certain things
and principles are dead and obsolete,
but the people who say this are i'm
mature or opportunists. Nothing
worth while or worth while effort is
ever lost. This brings me to the
real Farmer-Labor principles and
achievement. That which was right
survives, that which was wrong is
discarded and falls by the wayside
on account of lack of merit. No place
in the world has political and social
enlightenment reached a higher
plane than in the northwest, largely
influenced by the workers of the past,
who did not fight for the unattain-
able but fought with their feet close
to the ground for just plain ordinary
honesty and decency.
The present catastrophe is largely
due to the mistakes of the past-the
idea that anything can be lifted by
its own boot straps, so to speak. The
most foolish things have been tried
the past 20 years than at any other
time during civilized history. People
thought that they could have security
by manipulation of the stock mar
ket in this country and in Europe
they resorted to ornaments with the
idea of conquest. Very few people
realized that only through produc-
ton and proper marketing was any
stable system possible. If the things
that the Farmer-Labor party and
like parties advanced during this de-
huge were eliminated this would in
deed be a barren age. All the hum
bug advanced by smart alexis" fin
ally eliminated in chaos and dis
aster. II
In the advancement of mankind,
the real things are inconstant con-
flict with humbug. When the real
things have won, the humbug often
gets the credit for it. The reason
we have high state of life in the
northwest is because some people
had enough sense to look to the
material welfare of its people. With
out a sound economic base no de-
sirable civilization is possible. That
once and for all is the basic philoso-
ply of the Farmer-Labor movement.
S. J. SIMONSEN.
Pease, MINI.
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06
Act AS Safety Valve
Continued from Page u

tSOntlnueO rom rage ~
If taxes and war bonds are to be
effective against initiation, they must
come from the masses of the people
and not merely from the richer
classes. The great bulk of the in
creased income from war activities
goes to people of the lower and mid
die income groups, and this is the
income which must be tapped to
check initiation. The object is to
drain off that spending power which
would otherwise be used for the
purchase of ordinary civilian goods
Heavy taxes on the high-income
classes are important for meeting the
costs of war, but taxing this class
will not 60 far toward checking
initiation, because there are so few
people in this class that their pur-
chases are a small factor in the con-
sumner market.
Another very important thing is
that taxes or bonds intended to check
initiation must come out of current
income so as to exert an immediate
effect in reducing consumer buying
pressure. Taxes levied in 1943 or
bonds that are purchased then will
likely have little effect in checking
1912 spending.
If taxes and bonds are to 60 far in
checking initiation, they must alb
sorb large share, if not all, of the
excess spending means. This ex-
cess of spending power over con-
sumner goods is estimated to total
about II billion dollars in 1912, which
represents about Is per cent of the
expected national income. Taking
as large a share of this as possible
in the form of heavier federal taxes
will have the advantage of paying as
much of the war cost as possible
while the war is on, which appears
sensible, because money incomes are
high now and other uses for the
money are limited.
While program of this type means
sacrifice, we may as well face the
fact that there is no way of escap-
ing these sacrifices if the war is tc
be won. Regardless of money in
come, standards of living cannot be
maintained on customary levels dur
ing the war, because the supply Of
goods and services available to civil
ians has been cut. On the other
hand, if initiation gets out of hand
the rise in prices will draw off the
individuals purchasing means with
out providing an adequate return
The sacrifices involved in holding
initiation in check, even by heavy
taxation, are likely to be less fol
the average individual than the sac
rifices which initiation will bring
later.
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06

their employees to the millions al
ready economically disfranchised.
The governments prosecution of
the greatest war of all times must
not be handicapped by lack of funds,
yet that is exactly what will happen
if an ever-increasing proportion of
the taxable population is without
funds.
If many of our smaller merchants
and manufacturers are forced to the
wall they will carry with them some
of our larger ones and the disaster
will grow like a rolling SNOWFALL.
The cash needed by the government
should not be tapped directly at its
source and diverted from the usual
channels of commerce. It should be
taken after it has served it's legi-
innate purpose of keeping the coun-
try's business in motion.
Prime the Pumps.
By distributing a portion of the
gross income tax back among the
people through a program of pen
sions to the aged, who would be
required to spend every cent within
80 days, there would be a continuous
pump-priming process that would
guard against business slumps.
There is an old saying, "you can't
squeeze blood out of a turnip.''
Neither can you secure tax money
from dead economy. A live and
going nation, with plenty of bust
ness, can easily support the wal
effort. Provide our senior citizens
with purchasing power through an
adequate old-age pension system and
business will be stimulated to the
point where unemployment will be
absorbed
Calls it Stimulant.
The Townsend program is a wal
measure to keep money in circula-
ton and build business. The cash
given to the aged, to be spent at once
should not be charged off as a loss.
1t should be regarded as a needed
stimulant. Before this pension money
has completed its services it will
have generated volume of COM
merce equal to five times its own
amount. Such payments are self
expanding. In the long run they
finance themselves, and create a mar
ket that can sustain the taxes needed
to prosecute the war.
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS REVIEW
Continued from Page -
of any kind to back it up-as yet.
Other Fronts.

OF any KIND 10 Dack 1T up-aS yet.
Other Fronts.
While the Japanese are combining
most of their efforts to the desperate
attempt of conquering all of China,
they are not inactive on other fronts.
They are still, it appears, bent on
paving the way for an invasion of
Australia by military operations on
the nearby island of New Guinea,
but here they are being disturbed
constantly by Australian and Amer
lean aviators who bomb them wher-
ever and whenever possible.
In Washington it has been
hinted-nOt officially stated
that there may be ten thousand
Japanese soldiers on three of the
Aleutian islands, their presence
constituting menace to Alaska.
Rumors that Japanese have been
seen on the Pribilov islands in the
Boring sea are neither confirmed
nor denied.
Front of Expectation.
When and where that long ex-
pected so-called Second Front will
open is one of those mysteries that
have to remain unclarified until the
hour of action strikes. But the ma
tons, most terribly beset by the suf-
ferings imposed upon them by the
axis powers, are almost every day
sending new appeals to London and
to Washington, praying that the gen.
eral offensive of the United Nations
begin very soon.
As prospects are today, Rus
STA and China will not be able
to defend themselves success
fully unless adequate help comes.
That help is presumed to come
in the form of the Second Front.
There can be no doubt that it is
in the state of active preparation,
and that it surely will open when
those who know the inner machinery
of the war consider the moment
favorable. But preparations have to
be absolutely perfect, and every
even the remotest-possibility of fail
ure must of necessity be precluded.
The Second Front, coming at
some time and somewhere, will
mean the salvation of that world
which believes in the ideals de-
MED by Hitler, Mussolini and
TOTO.
That's the reason why it has to
be studied very thoroughly before
cial silence.
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06
FOR ALL-INCLUSIVE OLD AGE
PENSION
Editor ASkov American:

Editor Askov American:
1t has always been the contention
of DR.. Francis E. Townsend and the
membership of the Townsend Ma
tional Recovery Plan organization
that any adequate or satisfactory pen
sion program must be adopted by the
federal government.
Though we advocate such pro-
gram and shall continue to work for
it until it becomes law of the land
the average Townsend member is
convinced that until such legislation
is enacted into law every effort
should be put forth to obtain the
best possible legislation through a
state program.
We are firm in our belief that
every citizen who has reached the
age of sixty should be entitled to
retire on pension as matter OF
right and that no aged person should
be Inundated by such anti-social
and cruel legislation as the lien clause
or bounded by investigators to see il
by any remote chance the pensioner
squandered portion of the few
measly dollars he or she receives
each month.
We believe that pensions should
be paid to all aged citizens who
apply, on a uniform basis eliminat-
ing completely the so-called needs
test"
We are convinced that such pro-
gram will not only contribute to the
welfare of our aged people but also
provide the best assurance of sound
national security.
Therefore, it is to the interest Of
every Townsend club member ano
for that matter all citizens to elect
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06

to public office those candidates who
have pledged themselves to rid the
state entirely of all such unjust and
inhuman portions of the state pen
sion program as tend to further en-
barrass and impoverish this states
noblest and most honored citizens,
the aged.
CHARLES F. MARTIN.
1875 So. 18th ST., Minneapolis.
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06
Continuing the discussion, the
Townsend organization follows
up the arguments of their leader
with the following:

with the following:
Those who have always opposed
adequate age security are now shout
ing, "We are in a war. This is no
time to talk pensions" Yet congress-
in an ill-starred moment, found
time to set up pension system for
its members and the measure would
have gone through had not the voters
set up howl of indignation.
$14,250 A Year.
Heads of great corporations, men
who earn $4,000 to 100000 year,
have been voting themselves pen
sions during the last few months
The 100000 per year heads of the
Aviation Corp. are the latest to sug
gest voting the stockholders money
to assure themselves a comfortable
old age at $14,25O a year. BY such
actions, the captains of industry ad-
NIT it is impossible even for them
to save for a secure future. How
then, are we ordinary mortals to
save for our old age?
This country must face the fact
that not even our huge war pro-
gram will provide opportunity for
men past IS or so. Corrington Gill
government authority on unemploy-
ment, cites National Industrial Con-
ference Board figures revealing that
unemployment is increasing in 1912
and has already affected 4,150,000
workers. He adds that 100000 young
workers enter the labor market each
year and ever fewer opportunities
are opening for older men.
Employ A Fraction.
Meantime, Gill goes on, defense
industries employ only a fraction OF
the total workers of the nation while
the vast majority work in civilian
industries. It is obvious that if the
unemployed are ever to 60 back to
work, either defense industries must
increase their capacity or civilian
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06

industries must be allowed to func-
ton as usual, Gill says.
Estimates of the number of per-
sons laid off in January, 1912, be-
cause of plant conversion or cur
tailment growing out of war pro-
duction needs, range from 100000
to 100000" according to the National
Industrial Conference Board.
Warn of Initiation.
Despite these figures, we are
warned of incipient initiation which
can only exist when there is more
purchasing power than available
goods. 1t is apparent that we need
more consumer goods rather than
less purchasing power.
Pension money, spent chiefly for
food and the necessities of life, will
supply the incentive for this sort of
consumer goods production. AS we
have most of the materials for such
production in abundance its stimu-
lation would not interfere with pri-
critics or war production, and would
permit our nearly five million I'M
employed to find work.
It is the contention of the Town
send Plan that the production and
sale of civilian goods must be en-
couraged if the American system is
to be maintained. Where there are
real shortages there should, obviously,
be rationing, but all of the people
must have some purchasing power
if all of the people are to share in the
business of living.
Helps Win War.
The pension program advocated by
DR.. Francis E. Townsend is properly
part of our war effort. Not only
will it tend to maintain employment
and taxable market at home, but
it will prepare our economy to alb
sorb the inevitable shock when, after
victory, we return to peacetime pur-
suits with untold millions of men
seeking jobs.
Are we to have a repetition of the
bonus marches, farm foreclosures,
business and bank failures that fol-
lowed the last war, or are we willing
now intelligently to plan our econ
omy? We know that America is
capable of production beyond the
widest dreams of any other nation.
We know that it must be made finan-
cially possible to distribute this pro-
duction.
Keeps Even Keel.
DR.. Townsend proposes a revenue
producing tax program which would
not only pay large part of the
war expenditures but could keep our
country's economy on an even keel
afterward.
This program is similar to the
gross income levy which has proved
successful during several years of
operation in the Territory of Hawaii
and in the state of Indiana. Exempt
ing the first $3.50 a month of in
come, it would be levied against the
gross receipts of corporations, as well
as individuals, and would provide
many billions of revenue at once
Two per cent of such a tax should
be earmarked to pay pensions to all
citizens past the age of 60, who agree
to refrain from productive endeavor
and spend the amount received with
in 80 days.
Save Little Business.
DR.. Townsend proposes that we
should avoid draining purchasing
power from the lowest income groups,
inasmuch as such a drain would adj
versely affect little business in which
such purchasing power would nor
mally be spent. With such purchas-
ing power cut by taxes, many shops
and stores must close down, adding
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06
Opinions OF Others

(Short timely letters on topics Of
public interest are welcome whether
or not the writer's opinions con-
form with those of the American.
All letters must be signed with the
writer's name for our information.
Signed articles always are more ct.
wish to have his name used. 1t will
be withheld).
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06
Fact And Opinion
China.
BY e. C. Stengelsen.

Among the major members of the
United Nations, there is only one
beside America which can subscribe
to the lofty aims of the Atlantic
Charter without having it's sincerity
doubted by reason of its past record.
That one nation is China.
China's record is even cleaner
than Americas. She has no parallel
of our Mexican war for which to
apologize, nor Of our invasion of
Nicaragua or occupation of Haiti or
of the political trickery and inter-
ference to which we stopped in
Panama to gain our ends.
One must 60 back to the days OF
the Mongol emperors justly to charge
her with such faults, and then only
to be forced to admit that the Khans
were no worse than the European
warlords of the time.
Quite the reverse of practicing ag-
erosion, China has, herself, during
the last 100 years, suffered almost
continuous oppression at the hands
of Japan and the predatory nations
of Europe.
It had its beginning in 1912. China
had a law which forbade the i'm
portation of opium. British mer-
chants sought to import the drug,
through Canton, in violation of this
law. When the Chinese commissioner
at Canton demanded the surrender
of the opium, the merchants refused
The Chinese thereupon blockaded the
factories and expelled the British
community from Canton.
Britain acted promptly Her sub
jects had suffered insult and loss!
The so-called Opium war followed.
The result was the Treaty of Nam
king, forced upon the defeated Chi
nese One of its provisions was the
cession, to the British, of the Port of
Hongkong, fortified and occupied by
them until taken by the japanese in
the present war.
The next aggression was in 1856,
when joint British-French forces oc-
cupied Canton. In the Treaty of
Tientsin which followed, sweeping
concessions were wrested from China,
all of which had for their objective
her economic exploitation. She was
forced, among other things, to agree
to permit the importation of opium.
Other European nations, quick to
sense the advantages Britain was OBJ
tanning, came fastening to obtain
their share of the loot. Each staked
out Sphere of influence" and be-
gan grabbing off territory.
France followed closely on Brit
aims heels and emulated the example
the English had set by Selling AMMAN.
It gave the French military and eco
nomic control of southern China. In
1897, Is years later, they grabbed
off Kuangchouwan.
The British thereupon expanded
their holdings by Selling Burma, Six
kim and Wei-hai-wei. It gave them
control of the Yangtze valley, the
richest and most populous part of
China. BY the Treaty of Tientsin,
the river had already been opened
to British ships.
Russia took Port Arthur and the
Liaotung peninsula.
The aggressor nations subjected
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06

The aggressor nations subjected
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06

China to merciless exploitation. Con-
siderations of fairness or decency
played no part. It was not merely
matter of buying Chinese products
at low price and selling them Euro
pean goods at unconscionably high
figure. This might have had some
measure of justification, factors of
distance and the like considered. The
greatest injustice inflicted upon the
Chinese came about in the building
of the railways.
The nations had forced upon China
the granting of concessions for the
construction of railroads. The for
| eign money interests, which loaned
China the capital, made huge pro-
fits. By compelling her to give them
control of the collection of import
duties at her ports as additional Sc
curity for the loans, they deprived
her of major part of her govern
mental income. 1t was not only an
effective means of disarming her,
but it halted, completely, such small
national progress and development
as there had been.
The Boxer Rebellion was a final,
desperate effort by the Chinese to rid
themselves of foreign domination.
The government disclaimed respon-
sibility for the uprising, but the pow
ers knew well enough that it was
sympathetic to the rebels, as were
majority of the people.
The aggressor nations, America
joining them, sent a coalition fleet and
army to China and the rebellion was
put down. They forced her to pay
them an indemnity of a third of a
billion dollars.
Then Japan entered the picture
Through victory in the Russo-Jap-
anese War, she succeeded to Russia's
interests in Manchuria; annexation
of Korea extended her holdings. Now
she is attempting the subjugation of
all China.
And the activities of the European
powers have faded from notice. It
is not that they have become less
assertive in their control-they con-
tinue in possession and are steadily
strengthening their military and eco
nomic hold-it is that Japan has
crowded them out of the spotlight.
But when the Axis powers are
finally defeated, all the powers will
restore to China what they have here
tofore taken. They must if the At
lantic Charter has any meaning. If
they do not, the Atlantic Charter will
be proved to have been merely an
other fraud.
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06
A Little Spice

Faith throws the rainbow of hope
across the dreary chasm of despair.
Religious faith is the rudder that
keeps the soul from Laundering in
life's storms
To believe that anything is i'm
possible is to make it double hard Of
doing.
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06

The leather in a pair of mems OK
fords would make an officers pistol
holster.
Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-08-06

Lost and found columns Of
Toxic newspapers are crowd
ed these days. Every time an
American buys a War Bond,
the Japs lose face. Buy your
1919 every pay day.
Henderson daily dispatch., 1942-11-12

.. tiHlGN N-.-. ,...r '-..
.'.u wI'r.s3' .t.... .'. rr
Henderson daily dispatch., 1942-11-12
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER II, 1912

mattress. and TIN, MATS not .mmci.al,
+. learned