Vagabond Editorials

(Continued from Page 6) and no one has now?" is a question you hear asked every day. Well, ysu see, we really nerrer had it in CASH. WL simply had sorneone's promise to pay on demand. ft was really CREDIT we had; and that's what we've lost. There is no lack of actual MONEY. The difference is that it either stands still or travels in low gear. Some of these days the ternpo will increase. The same dollar will begin changing hands five, ten, or e\ren twenty times a day. A-nd TTIEN we'll have prosperity again.

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The trouble is we've been butting our heads against this stone'wall seeming depression so long that we,ve become addle pated and our think-tanks are congested. We spen a most of our time asking the fool question, ..how can iros_ p€rity come back when no one has any money left?,'when the fact is that there is more actual money than there ever was. Getting it rolling from hand to hand is the thing.

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And nonr, to add to our presmt.wo€s, we are threatened :-9 I mighty scary one. Senrator Walsh propories Senate Bill No. 3256, a law to tremendously increase the powers and authority of the Federal rrade commission. riwourd seem that, with the courts on every hand repudiating the acts of the Commission for the past several years, _a " general record that has convinced business generally that the F.T.C. is harmful rather than, helpful, iro inteiligent man would be likely to suggest any act that would rn-ake the Commission a greater nuisance than in the past. yet this proposed Senate Bill would give the Comrnission au- thority never before dreamed of. If there is one particular and outstanding thing that the business of this country does NOT need, it is Federal Trade Commission interfer_ ence. It's hard enough to exist without that.

Did you lrrow that the death rate in the united states has been dropping steadily and consistently since the Government first began gathering such statistics? Fact. In 1880, the first Government figures available, the death rate in this country was 19.g for each one thousand popula_ tion. In 1900 it was 17.6. In l9l0 it was tS. In tgZO it was 13. And in 1930, the last figures available, it was 11.3, the lowest year in history. The figures for 1931 .r" ,roi yet available. So human life IS lengthening. We can,t

Redwood Association Head Visits Los Angeles

C. H. Griffen, Jr., general manager of the California Red_ wood Association, San Francisco, recently spent a u,eek in Los Angeles on the business of the Associaiion, and since his return from the south made a one-day trip to Sacra_ mento.

compete with old Lamech, (717 years), or Noah, (950 years), or Methusaleh, (969), but we're improving.

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The following,. a friend of unimpeachable integrity infqrms me-is an actual happening.

In the sprlng of. l9Z9 there was a certain business man in the City of . who had reached middle age and thought he saw the folly of wo,rki4g all his life to aocumulate money. So he took advice from his friends, amdrg the bankers and brokers and invested his total for. tune which amounted to 9190,000.00 in what was considered the very best stocks available at that time. The price of the securities continued to advance and he became quitc enamo,red with the easy way of making money, so he borrowed $ZOO,OOO.OO more and bought more of the same stocks he already held.

The panic in the fall of 1929 came shortly thereafter and the price of all securities and commodities started falling- then tumbling down. somewhere arong the line his brokirs and bankers got together and sold him out, much against his wishes; paid off his loans and sent him a ctrect for $66,000.00 which was the salvage out of his original fortune.

He put the $66,00O.00 in a bank and sat down to tate a survey of his new situation. While he was making up his mind what to do, and how to do it, the bank "lo6e4 tyi"g up the remainder of his fortune. The bank -"s ptaceA ii liquidation, and after so long a time, the liquidating agent declared a 50 per cent dividend to depositors and -oui ifvestor found himself t" n:"r?Ut:n of 933,O0O.O0 in castr.

However, our friend still had confidence in the stocks he formerly owned, so he took g21,000.00 of the 033,000.00 hhad saved fro,rn the bank failure and bought an equal amount of the identical stocks he had purchased in 1926 at a cost of approximately $4Oe0@.OO.

Now he is in this position: lst. He has the same stocks he originally purchased.

2nd- He doesn't owe any money.

3rd. He has 912,000.00 in the bank.

4th. He has a chance to get something more out of the closed bank.

Returns From Southern Trip

R. W. Hunt, district manager in California for the Wey_ erhaeuser Sales Companv, returned to his San Francisco headquarters from one of his periodical trips to Los An_ geles and Southern California, IVIay 16. While in the south Mr. Hunt conferred with the company's sales representa_ tives in Los Angeles and San Diego. -