Let’s take another look tonight at that ugly ogre called inflation. One\u00a0reason why, today or any other day, inflation is hard to stop is that, for a\u00a0time in the short run, so many people benefit by it. Many people prosper under\u00a0inflation for a while, as they never prospered before. Except for people with\u00a0fixed incomes — the widows, the pensioners, the frozen salaried folk — a lot\u00a0of people reap quick returns and fool themselves Into thinking they are better\u00a0off in the long run, as well as for the short dash.<\/p>\n
Jobs are easy to get. Work is not lost through lay-offs and forced vacations.\u00a0Overtime at time-and-a-half, or even double time, is common. Manufacturers\u00a0can sell all they can produce. The income of farmers goes up. Business\u00a0debts get paid off in cheapened do liars. And most of all, the thousands of\u00a0beneficiaries of government spending get a boost.<\/p>\n
It is easy to blame the government for inflation, but back of the government\u00a0are many persons and groups either demanding policies that make inflation\u00a0or smugly condoning such policies.<\/p>\n
But like all illusions, this dream that inflation prosperity is real prosperity\u00a0is always in for a rude awakening. Of course inflation creates feverish\u00a0economic activity. Everyone is at work and apparently making money. But in\u00a0time the unwelcome children of Old Ogre Inflation — labor hoarding, labor pirating,\u00a0inefficiency, and enormous labor turnover — result in reduced productivity per man hour. In the German inflation of the 1920’s, when it took a\u00a0wheelbarrow load of paper money to buy a loaf of bread, the total production\u00a0started to decline aren <\/em>before the inflation peak was reached.” Vet at that !\u00a0very moment, only a few months before the wild break came and the currency was\u00a0worth less, every German worker fe It glorious Iy prosperous.<\/p>\n So here is a warning worth heeding. Between June, 1950 and January, 1951\u00a0the index of physical production in the United States rose ten per cent, but\u00a0for more than a year since 1951 it has not risen even a fraction of one percent. Remember what happened in Germany in 1922.<\/p>\n am sure you will be interested in two letters which I recently had a\u00a0chance to examine. They were written fifteen years apart to Mrs. Nancy Clark\u00a0of Benton. The first was written 105 years ago, when Benton was called Sebasticook, and H. Clark, a student at Kents Hill, addressed his mother Nancy\u00a0Clark at Sebasticook, Maine, as follows:<\/p>\n “Kents Hill, August 30, 1847<\/p>\n Being now established in my new abiding place, and thinking you would\u00a0like to know how I am situated, will write a few lines. I am boarding at\u00a0the mansion where I did before, and am going into my old room this week, which\u00a0is the best one in the house. A gentleman came here Saturday from Mass, who\u00a0rooms with me — a pretty fair sort of fel low, and has seen some of the world.\u00a0There are between 20 and 30 students who board here, besides several ladies,\u00a0and some gents who board themse I ves in the lower part of the house. There are\u00a0over a hundred scholars here al ready, and roore come in every day. I have purchased\u00a0some books, a Cicero, a Greek testament, and a Latin Tutor, which will\u00a0amount in all to nearly four dollars, but I could not get a long well without\u00a0them, and I think I shall still have cash enough to pay my bills and get home.\u00a0Board is $1.50 per week, including washing; wood and lights are extra am\u00a0not at all homesick, but I should like to hear the news pretty often, for\u00a0want to know my own business and everybody else’s too. So you may write as\u00a0often as anything new takes place, and oftener if you have time. Especially\u00a0give me particulars of all the horse-playing, electioneering, etc. If I should\u00a0be likely to want more cash I will let you know it soon, but as there will be\u00a0but 12 weeks more of this term, I may not want it.<\/p>\n Yours respectfully, This letter is, of course, without envelope, but it is more intricately\u00a0folded than any other such letters I have ever seen. After it was folded, it\u00a0was sealed with red wax. The postage, paid by the receiving mother, was five\u00a0cents.<\/p>\n The other letter, written in 1862, is in an envelope carrying a three cent\u00a0stamp. On the left side of the envelope’s face Is an oval, bust portrait of\u00a0Abraham Lincoln, showing the pre-election Lincoln without his beard. The letter\u00a0inside this envelope, addressed to Mrs. Nancy Clark, Benton, Maine, is\u00a0signed by Samuel Titcomb, who apparently was Mrs. Clark’s brother and a prominent\u00a0Augusta attorney. The letter reads:<\/p>\n “Augusta, July 16, 1862<\/p>\n Dear Sister: Yours truly, Lawyer Titcomb was wrong in predicting that there would be no draft. One\u00a0came before Thanksgiving In that year of 1862~ and others followed so frequently\u00a0and cut so deeply into the population of all the Maine towns that the price\u00a0of substitutes steadily rose and the old $50 law, to which Mr. Titcomb refers,\u00a0did no reluctant draftee any good. Time came when those buyers of substitutes\u00a0were ashamed to admit a practice they had bragged about when they used it.<\/p>\n Who was the man about whom Mrs. Clark had written her brother Samuel? Who\u00a0was it she was trying to save from the Civil War draft? Probably it is Just\u00a0as well we don’t know.S i nee the son who signed himself H. C lark, when he wrote\u00a0the letter from Kents Hill In 1847 was 35 years old in 1862 and quite able to\u00a0take care of himself, it may well have been some other relative for whom Nancy\u00a0Clark was solicitous enough to seek Sam Titcomb’s advice.<\/p>\n Much older than those letters to Mrs. Nancy Clark of Benton, but Just as interesting, was a letter written almost 80 years before brother Samuel advised\u00a0sister Nancy concerning the Civil War draft. In 1781 Daniel Tiffany wrote a\u00a0letter to his brother Samuel Tiffany, and addressed it ”To Samuel Tiffany in\u00a0Yassa I borough with care and speed”. Since It bears no notation of any postage\u00a0to be paid by receiver, as do many of those old letters before the days of\u00a0postage stamps or envelopes, it was probably sent by the hand of some traveler.<\/p>\n It was written from Attleborough, Mass., March 19, 1781, while\u00a0the Revolutionary\u00a0War was still being fought. It reads:<\/p>\n “Ever loving brother and sister:<\/p>\n After our love and respects to you. Hoping you are all well, as through\u00a0the goodness of God we are at present, and informing you that all our friends\u00a0are also in good health as they were when you went away. have nothing remarkable to write to you, but I shall take this opportunity to inform you of\u00a0the heavy news of the death of our father, who departed this life the 9th day of\u00a0January. Mehitabel Makepiece is dead. It is a very healthy time in general,\u00a0saving bad colds. I have nothing more remarkable to write about. Our friend\u00a0Richardson is married and is gone up country. I myself have been up to Jonathan\u00a0and Thomas Richardson’s, and they are all well except Jonathan’s wife. She is\u00a0in’a poor way, inclining to melancholy disorders. So I subscribe myself your loving brother, As a student of language development I am always interested in letters\u00a0written by persons who lacked the advantage of adequate schooling, for the spell\u00a0ing of those persons is a constant attempt to make an unphonetic language\u00a0phonetic. Not knowing how to spell a given word, the unschooled writer spells\u00a0it the way it sounds to him. So please understand I am not making fun of Daniel\u00a0Tiffany when I call attention to his unusual spelling. He spells health\u00a0“helth”. Why shouldn’t he? Don’t you think it ought to be spelled that way?<\/p>\n Friends is spelled “frlnds”, and he probably pronounced it “frinds”. Only he\u00a0spells “ondley”, stating that he pronounced it with a “d”, “ondly”. Inform is\u00a0“enforme”. Heavy is “hevy”. News is “nuse”. Death Is “dethtl and dead Is\u00a0“ded”. Remarkable is “remarkabell”, when he says he has nothing remarkable to “wright abott”. He spells married “mared”. Why doesn’t that make a perfectly\u00a0phonetic married? Melancholy is quite naturally “melancolly”. Difficulties\u00a0undergoes a wierd twist. He spells it “difekeltes”. When he says times bid\u00a0fair to be worse, he has it “fare to be wos”. The cedar swamp that he thought\u00a0was wrongly taxed to him was “seeder”. Money, he says, is “skers”, revealing\u00a0clearly a pronunciation I have heard many times from people of my father’s generation\u00a0— “skerce”. Enough is spelled “a nuff”. Isn’t that what it often\u00a0sounds like?<\/p>\n Well, about Oanlel Tiffany’s letter of 170 years ago, perhaps this is “a\u00a0nuff”.<\/p>\n Another of those old printed letterheads from Fairfield, with the printed\u00a0ads on the fourth page, has been shown me by Steve Wing of the Waterville Savings\u00a0Bank. Although the ads are much the same as In the older letters I referred to a few weeks ago, the main heading on the first page Is different. It\u00a0shows thaT J. H. Gilbreth was no longer In the hardware an,d farm Implement business.<\/p>\n For the heading reads “Solon B. Bunker and Co., successors to J. H.\u00a0Gilbreth”. The letter itself was written at Kendal Is Mills, Maine on October\u00a02:8, 1872 TO Mr. Percival, Cashier of the Watervi lie Savings Bank. It says: Another letter in Mr. Wing’s possession has a famous Maine signature, that\u00a0of Stephen Coburn, who 80 years ago was Somerset County’s most prominent attorney. The printed letterhead reads: An anonymous listener wants information about the Shakers. I’ll try to\u00a0give a little time to that interesting sect some Sunday evening soon. Meanwhile\u00a0I’ll give my own and perhaps inaccurate answer to this listener’s question:<\/p>\n “Where is Shaker Village?”<\/p>\n To my knowledge there were two Shaker villages in Maine, the one still in\u00a0operation at Sabbath Day Lake near Poland Springs, and the other in Alfred taken over some ten or fifteen years ago as a Catholic school for needy boys.\u00a0I never knew the Alfred colony well. It had passed out of Shaker hands just before\u00a0I became a frequent traveler over that road from Alfred to Sanford, which\u00a0was the route we took driving from Waterville to visit relatives In Sanford.\u00a0But did know rather well the older and more famous Shaker colony at Sabbath\u00a0Day Lake.<\/p>\n The older Shaker village with its deserted stone buildings, still stands\u00a0about a mile south of the newer buildings of white painted wood or whitewashed\u00a0stone nearer the Poland Spring House. The old village was started more than a\u00a0hundred and forty years ago; the newer village to which the colony moved 1 not\u00a0more than 60 years ago. Only a few years ago some of the most exquisite needlework\u00a0to be found anywhere in New England came from the hands of those aged Shaker\u00a0women and could be purchased at their little store at Sabbath Day Lake.\u00a0Once a powerful and populous sect, the Shakers are now almost extinct.<\/p>\n Some day I’ll tell you more about them.<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #141, broadcast on March 23, 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[787,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\nH. Clark”<\/p>\n
\nYours of today is at hand. In answer I have to say that no draft has yet\u00a0been ordered and probably never will be. An effort will probably be made to\u00a0obtain the requisite number by offering sufficient inducements to volunteers.\u00a0If that fails, perhaps the same method adopted in Mass. will be resorted to,\u00a0by requiring each town in the state to furnish its proportion.\u00a0But in case of a draft, I think the payment of $50 under the old statute\u00a0(which does not seem to have been repealed by the present law) within the 24\u00a0hours will clear any person from any liability to serve if drafted.\u00a0Possibly the officers who may be elected in the different companies now\u00a0forming may, when commissioned, be obliged to serve and may not be able to\u00a0clear themselves by the payment of $50 or any other sum, as they will be in a\u00a0different position from privates in case they are called upon.\u00a0If any person should be drafted who does not wish to go~ I should advise\u00a0him to pay the $50~ or procure his substitute within the 24 hours. If his $50\u00a0is refused and he shall be forced Into active service after having made his\u00a0tender of the $50~ I think he would obtain his discharge upon a writ of habeas\u00a0corpus.<\/p>\n
\nSamuel Titcomb”<\/p>\n
\n
\nI shall acquaint you of the difficulties of the times. We have heavy taxes\u00a0to pay, money scarce and three years men to raise. (That last refers to Revolutionary\u00a0enlistments over the past three years.) It is indeed difficult times\u00a0and bids fair to be worse. There is your cedar swamp now rated to me when I already\u00a0have enough of my own. (Rated here means taxed.) They have rated me 200\u00a0pounds, 9 shillings. We have not paid it yet. It lies as all the rest of the\u00a0taxes. We grow more bolder and bolder.<\/p>\n
\nDaniel Tiffany”<\/p>\n
\n
\n“I\u00a0enclose check for $500. I wish you to endorse on the mortgage of the GilbreTh\u00a0store $372.14, and the balance of Interest paid, which wi II be in a few days. Yours truly, Benjamin Bunker”.<\/p>\n
\n“Stephen Coburn, attorney and counselor\u00a0at law, No.3 Water Street, Skowhegan, Maine”. On February 5, 1872 Mr. Coburn\u00a0wrote to the Waterville bank: “Mr. G. S. Hi II sold a mortgage of $1,500 on\u00a0property recently sold for $3,000, on wh ich he wants to raise the money. He will\u00a0add to the security if need be. Please inform whether you will check and advise. Yours truly, Stephen Coburn”.<\/p>\n
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