Radio Script #171
Little Talks On Common Things
January 18, 1953
vJhat is the reason that we have only SO–cent dol lars today, by which we mean that a doll ar buys on I y ha I f as much as it did a dozen years ago? Does the supp I y of money have anyth i ng to do with it? Let us see. In 1939 we had a bout 33 bill i on doll ars of what we might ca II check~book money, what in f i nanc i a I c ire les is ca I led demand bank depos i ts. \tVe a I so had about seven b I I lions in co i ns and pape r money — a tota I of 40 bill i on do I I a rs. By 1950 we had 93 instead of 33 bi I lions in demand deposits, and 27 bi II ions in currency — a total of 120 bi I lions compared with 40 bi !lions eleven years ear- I jet — an increase of 200 per cent.
Now think of dollars as claim tickets for goods. In 1950 we had just three times as many dol far claim tickets for available goods as we had in 1939. It is true that our production of goods has also increased in the past eleven years, but it hasn’t trebled, like the money supply, or even doubled. The increase has been about 70 per cent. ‘f there were no more do II ars inc i rcu I at i on today than in 1939, each do 1- lar would be a claim for about 70 per cent more goods. In other words we would have a reverse situation from that which actually confronts us. Instead of buying less goods than it bought in 1939, a dollar I’/ould buy what cost $1.70 fourteen years ago.
But, as we have just said, there are three times as many claim tickets out today, So each dollar can claim only a third as much of that bigger supply of goods. A third of $1.70 is 57 cents. Don’t you see, if it were not for the increased prOduction of goods ,– and goods are, of course, our only real wealth — we would have not a 57 cent do!lar, but a 33 cent dollar.
l’-‘1y economist friends wi II say this explanation is altogether too simpl ified. I admit that. Intlation is campi icated by many tactors, but by whatever tac-tors excessive dollars chase too few goods, it is the disproportion of monev and goods that Is inflation.
I have had the pleasure of reading some fam; Iy letters wri tten more than a hundred years ago by John Collins, postmaster at East Vassalboro. It seems that Collins’ sister had married E!bra Farris. Apparently Farris was deter~ mined to sett lei n Ohi o. and in the summer of 1838 he started out a lone for that new country, intending to explore the situation, then come back for his wi fe.
The first of Rarris 1 preserved letters to his brother.,.in-Iaw was written from Boston on August 31. He says: 111 arrived here this morning in the steamer Huntress. ‘1 (Do you reca II that the Huntress was one at those Kennebec to Boston steamers that I tal ked about a year ago?) The letter continues: if I sha II start for New York this afternoon in the two O’clock train of cars. We had a fine passage and the boat was full — I should th ink as many as twenty passengers. I obtained funds at Gardiner.l!
By September 5 Farris had reached Utica. He wrote to Collins; ill have got along finally so far, no difficulty with regard to funds. If you will see that Harriet (that was his wife and Collins’ sister) wants for nothing, you wi I f not lose by it. You must excuse me for be ing a Ii tt Ie concerned, as you know she is my wife, yet I doubt not you If{ i II do a I J for her that is necessary, Please write me at this place as soon as you get this, and write me all about Harriet, whether she is well and is contented, Let me know the worst.
The next letter was written on October 18 at Pinkerton, Ohio. It !lives interesting information about the pioneer town and reveals the same concern about Harriet that we saw in the earlier letter. It says: ;il find ~1r. Dodge here as I expected, He is anxious to go into business, and I think we shall go in togeTher in a very short time. But we must first look around a bit. This place is not large enough to sustain a druggist shop. (There we have it. Ei … – ther Farri s or Dodge was a pharmacist. Perhaps both of them had worked a bit at the trade with bne or more of Ma Ine ‘s earl y apothecaries.) The I etter conti nues: ITI th ink we she” go up to Ch ill icothe about 30 mi les north. It is a very smart p lace about as large as Ha I lowe II. It is directly on the canal and there Is a great business done fhere. There is only one sma II drugg i st shop, and I th i nk someth i ng got up in pretty good sty Ie mi ght take. we II among the Buckeyes.”
Then comes the concern about his wife.: HJohn, I wish you would get Harriet a good pair of gaiter boots, as itis cold weather and I know she needs them. I wi f’ send. you the funds. as soon as the Oh i 0 Ri ver rises enough for boats to ply between Pittsburgh and Portsmouth. The water is now so low that . there has “noT been a boat above Cinci nnati during the past thr~e months — a ci rcumstanceneverknown before, ’50 the old sett lers say.
Three weeks later, on November 9, Farri s was still apparel’ltly looking around a bit.. AnyhQw he and Dodge had not yet set up shop in Chi I’ icothe or anywhere else, for this lett~r too was mailed to John Collins fromPinke;rton .. The letter is very short and is concerned entirely with so·1 icitude for Harriet. He puts it straight up to brother-tn-law John to argue Harriet out of what seems to the husband a foolish Idea. The letter says: !lHarr,iet, in her last letter, said she thought .of going into a shop. Now, I f you wi II try to put her out of that idea, you wi II not only grant me a great favor but wi 1.1 do her a real kindness. She has once about the same as murdered herself at the busjness, and she must never think of doing it again, at any rate not while I am living. You will excuse my bad writing as my candle is all out but a mere fl icker of the wick in the stick, and the people here are all in bed.1! No letter survives of that series after November 9. We do not know just when f.arris returned to r4aine , but return he did -_. for early the next summer he was again wri~ing John Collins on the way to Ohio, and this time he had his wife Harriet with him.
On June 24 a short letter was wr i tten to Co II ins from Syracuse ft New York. Short as it is, the letter is in two parts the first written by [Ibra Farris~ the second by Harriet. The husband’s part of the I ette r says: ?’You wi II perceive by this that we are so far on our way for the Oh j o. We left New York I ast Thursday evening in the steamer DeWitt Clinton. We had a very fine time up the Hudson River. We went to the theater two nights whi Ie in New York. Harriet seemed to enjoy it. (Wel” rv1aine wives going to Manhattan a hundred years later sti II enjoy the New York theaters.) To th.is brief paragraph Harriet appended th is brief comment: 1’1 am now on the canal (the Erie) and the boat goes about half a mi Ie an hour.” (Gracious# the prairie schooner thattookSolyman Heath to the gold fields in 1849 trave led faster than that!) She comments that there were peap Ie on board t he canal boat from l’li1assachusetts, New Hampshi re, III inois and Virginia.
On July 12 the Farrises had reached Hanover, f;,Jew York, from which place Elbra dispatched the following letter to his brother-in-law in East Vassalboro:
Ilvle have been trave I ing part of the time on the canal and part in a steamboat. Harriet was most beat out before we got to Buffalo; but is better now. She will stop here while I am.gone to the city, and will have time to recruit (he evidently means “recuperate”, or as the old folks used to say frecoop’l) before we start again for Ohio.”
Evidently Harriet’s misery was in some measure caused by homesickness. At any rate her husband wrote: 1!Harriet dreams roost every night of being at home , which shows she thinks a great deal of Vassalboro 1 and I am afraid it wi I I be a long time before she gets wholly clear from homes ickness.!’ \”ihy was [Ibra going to the city, which, of course, means back to New York? Had he been peddl ing wares of some sort on the way and needed a new supp Iy? We cannot be sure l but can only draw whatever inference we will from his own words, which are: “I shall probably buy more !loods in New York this time. and I hope you wi II write me there. Harriet says ask ~1ary how she I ikes the dipi I·· itory pONder. She thinks if Mary would use it any length of time l she would have a first rate head of hair. By the way~ tell Mary they have a singing school here and sing many of her tunes.”
(Mary was apparently John Collins’ wife and Harriet’s sister-in-law.) Six months later we learn that the farrises are bogged down in Forestville, New York for financial reasons. They are no nearer Ohio than they were in July. Rather dolefully Elbra wrote to his brother-in-law: PI have been disappointed about money matters or we would have been in Ohio this winter,ll Then comes a pecul iar caustic comment about the fami Iy: “\<Ie learn that Mother has been quite unwelL” He means his wife’s mother, his own mother-in-law. which perhaps explains what he writes next: 11 ••• and that Lysander is con.,. fined to his bed, It must be a very tedious time for him to be with his mother and sick too. It is ha rd enough to be with her when a pe rson is wei I .’j Elbra apparently had an old grudge against a certain Charles Roberts. He wrote: H I learn that Charles Roberts is very sick and not like Iy to recove r. hope he will thinkot some things, but forgive him a/I.”
Then on October 8 Harriet, left a lone in Forestvi lIe, New York, wrote her brother a heart-rending letter. What had happened? \~e cannot be sure, but evidently there was no estrangement between husband and wife. Our 9uess is he had gone back to ~1aine to get funds. Anyhow~ here she was alone and far from her relatives, including her husband. She says she has paid for her board since fall and has no debts. Her only reference to the fami Iy difficulties is this: “I received a letter from Elbra tonight. He said he should see you soon. He wi II probably tell you more than’ have time to write now.!’ Harriet intended to make her own way back to Maine at the earliest oppor~ tunity. She wrote her brother: PAs soon as get a letter from you, I wi II let you know when I start. It is hard to be reconciled to such a fate, but try to think it wi II be better by and by. am so overJoyed at the receipt of your letter that I hardly know where I am. I remain your affectionate sister unti I death. II
There ends the story, revealed from a few old letters, of how flbra Far·~ ris tried unsuccessfully to qo with his wife to Ohio to make his fortune. A lot of fortunes were made by Maine emigrants to Ohio and farther west. But we suspect there are a lot of stories like that of the Farrises, stories of determined pioneers who tried hard but didn’t quite make the grade. To those who fa I led, as we II as to those who succeeded, we ONe the great story of the sett/ ement of our Ameri can West.
Another letter to John Coil ins, but not in the family series, had somehow got tied up in the same b und Ie and has been preserved through the years. It too was written before the days of postage stamps, is one of those neatly folded papers with the outer folded space left for the address. That address is John Coil ins, Esq., Postmaster, East Vassalboro. fl.1aine. The cancel Jed stamp reads l!Calais,Maine, Dec. 3, Free!!. It was free of postage because it was addressed to a postmaster.
This letter reveals a situation said to be all too common a century and a quarter ago. When a number of bank drafts and bi lIs of exchange reached a fll1ai ne coasta I town a II at once, the banker was frequent I y embarrassed. Thi s had apparently happened to John Coli ins’ correspondent, for this is what he 1’1 rote :
“Dear Sir:
Your letter inc los i ng $85 arri ved safe I y. have presented it to the cash fer for exchange. The bank is hard pushed today, because many ara, going from “this place to Boston by the packet Challenger, which sal Is tomorrow. I shall probably get a part or alf of it In the course of this week. All well.
Your obed ient servant,
John Washburn. H
Year: 1953