The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-05-23
BUY LIBERTY LOAN BOND.


billion-dollar appropriation was the biggest fl
!, nancial operation ever attempted in any ma
, ton at any time.
> The magnitude of this vast sum is almost I'M
,graspable. The authorization Of $7,000O0O,-
1000 credit is something of shock to the coun-
! try. Not many people have thought in bill
lilions of dollars. All the stocks listed on the
J New York stock exchange are less than twice
that amount; all the stock of all the railroad
companies in the country aggregate only 49,
I7O0000000; all the bonds of all the railroads in
1.-THE country are little more than that figure. 1t
| is huge total ''And.'' says Mr.. Vanderlip,
50 this amount must be raised this year. We
are going to raise more. There will be other
loans following this about, as soon as this is
out of the way, but while it is almost incompre-
hensively large, so is the country, so are our
resources. There fifteen and three-quarter
millions of depositors in national banks alone
| in the United States. I should think it safe to
say that there should be ten million subscrib-
ers to this loan if the people wake up to the
need for the loan and the opportunity it offers.
You are facing an opportunity. The last loan
| of Germany with her 65, 100000 inhabitants had
nearly 100000 subscribers. Surely we ought
Ito have 100000 subscribers in America if
we would only wake up to it. The national
bank deposits have increased in ten months
$50, 100000 enough to take this part of the
issue that is now being offered. The resources
iof the banks in America total $780, 00,O00,000.
So you see, huge as this loan is-almost IN
conceivably large-it still is not so large when
you measure it by some of the totals of the
country. Our wealth is about $22O,0O0, 100000. |
If the people subscribed to five per cent of
their wealth, they would oversubscribe this is
about six times. Back in the civil war
days with bank resources one -twentieth of what /
they are now, we raised $3,0O0,000OO0. So /
you see we are not facing an impossible propo-
sition.''
Mr.. Vanderlip warns that this is no paper
war 1t is the greatest crisis of all time and
with single exception the greatest crisis our
nation has ever faced He feels that the peo- 7
pie are not altogether awake to the seriousness
of the situation; not altogether compromising
that might even come to their own shores, .
in which case they might have to subscribe to
an indemnity loan instead of a liberty loan We I
must give unlimited credit to our allies who are
lighting our battle for US, and we must pre-
pare for military action on a tremendous scale. |.
But what will follow the contamination Of /
the loan means time of great prosperity. More :
money than ever before will be in circulation. /
Bank deposits will reach unrepcedented figures. |.
The money raised by our government will be +
paid out to workers all over the country who /
will in their turn redeposit it in the banks; /
and two Jobs will be waiting for every man or
woman, young or old, who is able to work.
Residents of Pacific coast cities are eating
whale steaks at nine cents pound Here is a
suggestion in pisciculture that may appeal to
the government for the benefit OF middle west
streams populations and the Mississippi is suf-
l.
for the cetaceous mammal.
Take notice that the weather bureau form of t
of the arrival of retarded !
spring is ''the summer type of pressure dis t
Doubtless this will prove salts