People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1895 — Spending Roney Abroad [ARTICLE]

Spending Roney Abroad

It is nonsense for the newspapers to attempt to make it appear that we are just mounting the crest of the wave of prosperity. This country is not enjoying the fiftieth part of the prosperity that it has the right to enjoy. That times are somewhat better is a fact. They cannot help improving some, for stocks have been exhausted and mil lions of people who have been getting along with old clothing and old machinery find it necessary to replenish. Hence there is a somewhat increased activity in manufacturing and in trade. One newspaper cities the fact, or the alleged fact, that Americans this season will spend $100,000,000 in Europe, as an evidence that things are booming with us. The fact, if it is a fact, is no evidence at all of prosperity. The people who spend money in Europe. as<a rule, are the rich who do not feel the hard times. When it is not the rich it is the reckless class, as a general thing, who would rather do Europe than pay their debts or buy bread. There is not a farmer in the country who has made enough profit in the last three years to pay a three months’ tour in Europe. There is not a country merchant who has; nor a single mechanic. When these classes are prosperous we can talk of returning prosperity. There are thousands upon thousands of dollars spent every year in Europe by Americans who can not afford the luxury of European travel. If every indulgence of an expensive fad is to be regarded as signs of prosperity, we should always be prosperous, for times were never too hard for spendthrifts to make the money fly on fads. Going to Europe is a fad with thousands.-Farmer’s Voice.

A new writer. F. W. Cotton, has a very suggestive article in the September Arena outlining the plane of * A Labor Exchange,” to take the place of the existing industrial system of competiton among the laborers for mere existence. Buy your fall suit right at Fendig’s Fair.