The Ely miner., 1943-08-19
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AMERICA
A GOOD LAND
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Released by Western Newspaper Union.

AMERICA
A GOOD LAND
OUR GRANDMOTHERS, our
Observation-Disclosures and, in the case
of we oldsters, our mothers, bought
such food products as they needed
for their families out of barrel, a
burlap sack or a pine box. They
had but little choice. They could
not call for some particular brand
of coffee. There was one kind and
it came in a burlap sack. It was
green and had to be roasted In the
oven before it could be used.
The men folks of those days, II
they had a good job, would receive
as wages as much as $40 a week, for
which they worked 72 or more hours.
There was no such thing as over
time at any price. They worked as
long as there was work to be done.
The wives and mothers of today
demand the privilege of picking and
choosing what they buy. They like
the peas, tomatoes or peaches
canned by one concern better than
those canned by another. They want
the breakfast food the family likes
best. They have choice in the way
of a dentifrice. Each member OF
the family has a choice in the make
of shoes he wears, and when Dad
buys car, he selects it by name
and not by number.
The cost for variety, for the privi-
1ege of picking and choosing, is but
little, if any more than grandmoth-
er paid, but Dad today makes nearer
$40 day, or more, instead of the $40
a week his father and grandfather
were paid. Dad works 40 hours,
not 72, and is paid time and half
for any additional hours.
It is a good land, this America
in which we live. It has advanced
from the horse and buggy conditions
of yesteryear to the airplane period
of today. We, the American people,
like it and what we, the people, like,
we, the people, will have-we think.
We realize that the variety we like
has made for more jobs and for
more wages. It had created de-
mand for more commodities. It has
increased our living standards. It
has made possible greater number
of stores to offer the ever-increasing
variety we demand from which to
select. No one could, or would, stop
such progressive think.
There is, however, a group Of
theoretical bureaucrats who think
differently. They believe the condi-
tions of the horse and buggy days
are better for us, and they propose
that we largely return to those con-
ditions. They would disperse with all
the variety. They would put produc-
ton and distribution In the hands
of the government. They would pro-
vide A, B and c grades of each
commodity, whether it be canned
fruits or vegetables, coffee, bacon,
shoes, automobiles, or what have
you. There would be only one store
in the average community and in it
you would buy of the very limited
variety it offered. There would be
fewer jobs and lower wages.
But" we say, "such a thing cam
not happen to us. We do not want it
that way and we will not have such
a system"
We forget that group of theoretical
bureaucrats has the authority to is
sue DEGREES which have the force Of
law. Of their own volition they can
create system in which they be-
ieve, unless congress-the senate
and house of representatives-says
"no." 1t is not unlikely that con-
gress may fail to say that mo"
As it stands right now, that group
of theoretical bureaucrats has
authority by which it can change
the whole American way of life.
It is considered a war emergency
measure, but once applied, it would
take more years than those now iv-
ing have left in order to change back
again.
To prevent such a change, we
must do more than think it cannot
happen.
PRESIDENT AS
COMMANDER-IN-CH
JUST WHAT does the position Of