Judge — August 24, 1912 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Columbus and His $7,000. GAIN readers have been told that it cost only $7,000 to outfit the ex- pedition with which Christopher Colum- bus discovered the Western Hemisphere. The discovery was a great result for a small expenditure. That is one way of looking at it. However, it might be worth while to give a few moments’ time to computing whether the $7,000 was invested to the best advantage. Money on deposit at the rate of six per cent. interest annual- ly, with the interest compounded and left to accumulate with the principal, will about double itself every twelve years. Any one can undertake to figure what $7,000, invested at six per cent. compound interest in 1492, would amount to in 1912. One estimate is that the total, with its compounded increment, would now reach the gigantic sum of $240,518, 168,576,000. There are no ready means of immedi- ately determining the present value of the Western Hemisphere and the prop- erty to be found therein, but it is doubt- ful if in the aggregate its value will reach the enormous sum just stated. Certainly the fig- ures show that Columbus would have made more money if he had essayed to discover how $7,000 would grow when put out at compound inter- est. But there are other con- siderations. The value of our hemisphere to-day may not be as much as the inter- est and compound interest on $7,000 for 420 years, but if we were to take into con- sideration all that has been produced in America since that time, the balance would be largely in favor of the Na discovery. In three centuries Spain alone took hundreds of millions’ worth of precious metals from this continent. Foolish Expenditure. If the continued advance in the prices of the necessaries of life shall teach us of to-day lessons in old-fashioned thrift, it will not be an unmixed evil. There is no country in the world where the people are as wasteful as are Ameri- cans, who go in for a show of lavishness. In more than one crisis France has been saved from utter discomfiture by its thrifty peasantry. In Holland, where there is much hoarded wealth, a perfectly frank display is made of man- aging on small margins. Americans are generally too extrava- gant, and, worse than that, there are many of them who are more extravagant than they can afford to be, and they have the habit of pretending that they are even more lavish than they actually are. If high prices will sid in banishing wastefulness and ostentation, they will be of some service. Egotism causes the average critic to forget that there are some millions of persons in the world with some millions of viewpoints. Bist a THEIR STOCKIN'’ TRADE. A French Problem. With a view of helping to solve the birth-rate problem of France, model tenements are to be erected at Vin- cennes, They are to be rented at a low rate, and the birth of a baby is to exempt the happy father from the payment of a quarter's rent. The profits on the buildings are to go toa maternal canteen where mothers of nursing ba- bies are to receive free two mealsaday. Anex- pert says this experi- ment will be at least ‘‘productive of useful data.’’ That product would not help the Frenchy birth rate, which has really decreased to- an alarming extent and shows a tendency to still further reduction. However, France is not a solitary ex- ample of this decrease. It is noted with apprehension by thoughtful persons in every other country in Europe. A Frank Kansan. No more need Diogenes go about with his lantern looking for an honest man. That rare freak of nature can be found in broad daylight in Kansas. It is a citizen of that State, who announces himself a candi- date for office not because he has been solicited by his friends or because the pub- lic has made any demand for his services, but because he wants the office and needs the income for the proper support of his home. Ninety-nine per cent. of candidates feel that way, but do all they can to hide their feelings. This Kan- sas man is frank. Because he is, and if he is at all com- petent, it is hoped that his frankness will be rewarded by success at the polls. comicbooks.com