to put an end to the blundering confiscation that-now goes on, and by this act throw off all restrictions on effort, on genius and on organization.
We cannot remedy the past; and are forced to admit sadly that a large part of the old dollar of 1900 and of the diminished dollar of 1910 have already been confiscated by taxation and inflation. What we are guarding against now is the paltry dollar of 1930 and the termination in abject poverty of a life of effort and thrift. Those who saved in the past have now drifted beyond our help; but we may be able to step in at the present juncture and protect some of the more simple citizens who are insuring their lives, saving money, and buying bonds for long term investment, which are at the best only title to a diminishing dollar.[1] They may appear to be titles to gold dollars, but this is the myth under whose shadow we stumble. If there were gold enough to pay off all our certificates of value, then gold itself would diminish tragically in economic value when the date arrived for redemption. As it is, the trusting citizen holds the vast promises: quite others hold the meagre gold with its portentous value of domination. Those who have the gold may keep it: those who have the certificates of value should have them tied to something real. All that is proposed is to put an end to the confiscation that arises from bad-tempered taxation and the use of internationally-owned gold as a focal point of national value, since both these are as neat and reprehensible devices for ensuring confiscation as could well be imagined.
- ↑ “Why should anyone practice self-denial in order to lay away money of create a bank-account, or buy securities payable in money, when the value of money is constantly falling? Why should anyone buy a life insurance policy?”—Bulletin National City Bank, New York. Sept., 1922, page 12.
That they are discussing marks and not dollars makes little difference. Neither of these units has any better basis than political discretion. The conservative Republican is committed to inflation through the medium of tariffs and ship-subsidies. The so-called progressive Republican is committed to inflation through futile extensions of credit to the farmer which do nothing more than give the poor wretch a longer rope for his hanging, and to further inflation through protective tariffs on the products of his own district, while the Democrat is committed to inflation through protective tariffs on sugar and other strictly democratic goods, to say nothing of government participation in industry, and the soldiers’ bonus.
