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St. Kiits, Jan, 2lst.—U. 8. 8. crmser | San Francisco, torpedoboat Tahan and tug Lark arrived 20th. Tug Mallard ar- rived 21st. , elel I “What’s the Matter = { With the World?” After Analyzing Various Phases of Exist- ing Business and Financial Conditions, a (lear Thinker and Ibnecisive Writer Offers | a Simple Answer ' (Continned from yesterday’s Avis.) g When our rich farm lands climb up to S2OO to S4OO per acre, some people | thought that Jjust so mueh wealth was | added to the country. Asa matter of | fact, nothing of the kind happened. The land at S4OO per acre in 1920 is the same land as it was at $175 in 1913, with this | one difference: that is, the mortgages which went along with the*transfer of deeds. The thing that caused the jump | was the dressed hogs-and cattle, and the ’ wheat traveling {rom America to Europe, | because the people over there, ordinarily growing and entertaining their own pork- ers. were busv fighting and killing their® own kind. Now that the fighting is over, having spent even their ecredit in fireworks, the people must deny them- selves the company of the American porker. The cause of the land value elevation having been removed. the in- evitable is happening: the seftling of | land values. But what became of the S2OO per acre or the $75 per acre, of | whieh the woefully swollen mortgages | are witnesses? Well, of course, the | vast majority of farms did not change | hands. In such instances alil the “‘land | sdvance’’ was pure sunshine, except as | 4 hasis for increas:d taxation to socthe war debts’ huris. Where® they did change hands the oniy buttons made went to the professional farm land trad- | ers in their offices, wno merely payed - on 2 sucker against another fora ‘com- mission.” For the ''buitons’’ these - | “hard-working’’ speculators gave to the | new owner a deed. which the new owner may keep until his notes come due. To the former owner the accom- modating go-between gave some money, and a morigage on his former farm. For this mortgage the holder wiil get more or less money, depaending on how long he lives, how much good luck the new own- j er has: or, in case of ili luck, on how much the land will bring at a forced | sale, some time in the future. . Much the same thing is true as to live stock. ThLe writer attended a dairy cat- tle auciion in Qctober of this year. He saw one cow. tfor which as a heifer he saw the owner pay $460 in 1917, sell for $123. If ever a cow was worth $460 that one was. Apother bought the same year for $2,500 sold for $365. She probabily 5% L RBUL X AYA brouznt all sha was ever worth. A | third erw. “one.of the greatest of the broad.”’ for which the owner paid $4,200 sold for $6lO In less than six months she had milked 13,000 pounds of milk. under farm conditions. She was still milking nearly 70 pounds per day TChere had been some buttons routy. thai circle. They had been divided up, much as in the case of Mr. Elephant Pig and his | wife. when they ‘attended’’ the auction. M Sirooth Fieldman, Mr. Shrewd Trad- er, Mr. Saliing Colonel, and Mr. Sales | . Manager eacn got as much as he_could pet. The land and ive stock sharks divid: ‘honors’’ only with the stock ~ gamblers and promoters The amount ' of new stocks printed ~at the or- " der of ‘“‘boards of directors’’ and given . away with '‘boads,’” or sold at from b . cenis to SIOO plug per share is amazing. - . Itamounis in the aggregate f)r the Uni- ' t=d States alone in six years to more | than the national debt. It is a safe guess that the real money value of tne whole huge pile of paper _stocks is- not | much abave 5 percent on the ‘‘face” . value. 1 {he Ponzi flurry in Boston was not toe - only one. There was a “Silvers’’ flurry ' also; one day ‘‘shares’’ soid for 29 cents; | three days later for $8.50. [ have seen | them. quoted since at 3 cents. There | | was a ‘‘silver fox’’ farm eorporation, ' with foxes valued at $5.000 each. Ac- | taally, ‘‘educated’’ men bought “‘silver fox’’ stock. Oklanoma, according to a well-autheoticated repori, nad a ‘‘rat ' and ecat farm .corporation.” It was a . perpetual motion idea. [he rats live in | the ground; cats ate the rats; after the | cats wero skinned the rats ate the cats. ' Real-for-sure Americans bought'" stock,”’ . Who got Ihe buttons in all these gza' es? ' Ask the promotars and stock brokers | . and gamblers. Nho furnished the cash? . 1 hate to admit it, but some ten years | azo [ mysell furnished SBOO of it. for a L “OCalifarnia’’ silver.” I am happy to . say that, so far as1 know. even th2 pro- ~moters of that game today hold no more | of the ‘‘button’’ than I do. . | What our old world-has got to learn 1s this: the world, ineluding Awerica, is DO " rieher in November, 1920, than it was | in November, 1913. On the contrary, it | is fuily $150,000,000,000 poorer. People by the tens of thousands thought that they were immensely richer. So con- vioced were they that they bought | " things on the strengtbh of the hope of | future earnings. Automobiles, for ex- | ample, of which only 25 percent were ~ cash sales. Corporations issued ‘‘stock dividends’’: millions thought that two pieces of paper representing one and the same thing made the one thing twice as | valuable. As a matter of fact, it did | nothing of the kind. If it did anytbing it merely cheapened the original thing. Suech i. the real meaning of the siump in stocks today. Some few who took cash for their sales.and then stayed out of the ! game, still hold the "‘buttor.’”” The great majority never had anything but paper; they may have that yet. But they will learn within two years, if they do not already suspect the truth, that paper 18 not money. Buttons? "‘There ain’t any.” A practical farmer \ ho has handled Jersey cows making and selling butter has a good barn, butter machinery, and three or four good cows. This fall he bad an amazing ‘ot of feed, and a hired man with not much work in sight tor the winter. Another farmer about to move to California was advertising a choice, small herd of registered cows and heifers. The first man ldoked them over, iwo weeks before the sale. His Jjudgement was: '‘Here are not fewer than ten cows good for 400 pounds of butter, all due to calve within six weeks. I can offer my man a 50 percent in- crease in wages and a heifer two years old for each year, in addition, if he will do the work for five to seven years. Os course, it is close, hard work, but in those seven years he can do me ¢ood, and lay the foundation for a home of his own.”’ He made the offer. Answer: ‘Iwill not tie myzeit cown su, for any wage or opportunity.”’ I suspect that “‘buttons’ are scarce. I mean real money. Pape¢r imitations are plentiful. Furthermore, I suspect that all who want the real thing, for their own future comfort, and the se ~curity of their families, must ‘‘tie them- selves down’’ to a real job for at least five years to come, and as much longer ~as the desire is grea: fer a bigger but- ton. Sitting in moving picture houses sev- eral afterncons per week or dviving gas - wagons along courtry roads; may be en- - trancirg. Neither will geta button of any considerable size, even if any at all. . Heye 2nd there one man may steal some thing from his fellows. Even so, he is not to be envied. The man who will ~ tie himself down to a real job bhas lit- ' tle to tfear for the future, The man - ~ who will not has little to hope for. AR- THUR PARBER. Essex Co., Mass. ~ NORTEERN g o : Assurance Lempary Limited OF LONDON GEQC. . MARE.OL Agent fU"!" Frederiicsted {listriel ERiK K. SSTAKEMARMNN Ageni for Christvansted’s District Policies are nol subicei (5 svirage