Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/33

Rh stimulus; that the home and farm aid features of the bill would increase productive effort, while the cash feature would be a healthy tonic to the consuming market. In every State when the bonus question has been put to a vote the public has overwhelmingly indorsed it. Business men have been as anxious as laboring men or any other Americans to meet the fair obligation of this nation to those who suffered serious financial setbacks by reason of their war service.”

The above expression combines an economic delusion and an illusion. The delusion is a reiteration of the ancient fallacy that prosperity is promoted by waste and spending. It is simply a variation of the thought that it is good to break windows so as to make work for the glaziers. The illusion relates to the notion that the country became wealthy by the war and that the increase in wealth went into the pockets of profiteers, while the soldiers who were in service, lost not only their own chances for profits but also suffered from interruption of their careers, wherefore there should be an equalization of things in the form of this bonus.

It is pathetic that such illusions as to wages, scale of living, profits, bonuses and so forth obtain so generally among the people, for it is they who must especially suffer the consequences of their folly. With anything short of Bolshevism, destroying everything, the rich will always be able to house, feed and clothe themselves. Not so the poor. Yet in their ignorance they are pursuing the course that is inevitably leading them to cold, hunger and misery and their leaders both in the unions and in Congress are deferring to their foolishness rather than trying to lead them wisely. There seems to be nothing to.do but allow the economic