The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-30
SAVING MONEY FOR The
GOVERNMENT
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY Frederic }. Haskin, Director.
Washington, ID. G.

Washington, Aug eff the war
experience of Great Britain is the
lamp by which our feet are to be
guided, then our business as usual
propaganda is all mistake. Instead.
we should cut out all unnecessary
Injuries in the way of motor cars and
clothes, as well as food, and save
every cent we possibly can TO lend 10
the government. Self-sacrifice should
be the national slogan, but it does not
seem to have taken hold as yet.
The tide of prosperity is running
high Wages, salaries and dividends
have increased as a result OF the war,
keeping fair pace with the advances
in prices of commodities, II spending
is any gauge. People are spending
money as they never have before.
Stores which were on the point of
bankruptcy at the beginning OF the
war have taken a new lease on ll1e
and added two or three new depart
ments; farmers, who could barely af-
| ford horses, are now riding around in
touring cars and taking health voy-
ages to Hawaii, while the theaters,
greenhouses and Photographic studios
nightly.
Now in the midst of this remarkable
| era of prosperity-thise era not of bust
ness as usual, but of business as never
before-is sounded a note of warning
| from economists abroad. So far, the
/
| between US and the war, but within
the next year it seems quite likely that
| even the Atlantic cannot keep US from
experiencing the full jar of the con-
| flict With the war actually upon us,
with our men dying on the field, will
it still be possible for US to go joyrid-
ing to spend our money laviShly on
clothes and amusement and to leave
| the future entirely unprovided for?
| Here is what happened in Great
| Rv-ifo in xuho nl1aStfnn m q
up. At the end of the first year of
| the war Great Britain was practically
in the same position that we are today.
To the average Britisher, thrift was
only another name for stinginesss and
was loudly condemned by everybody,
especially the nations business men.
In tIee war the business men saw a
great opportunity both at home and
abroad. 1t created chance for them
| to substitute British for German
goods in South America and the
| Orient, and to sell tremendous guam
tity of goods at home where the in
comes of their customers had suddenly
| leaped upward.
Labor and the Breadwinners.
Labor was worth more than it ever
had been before, and it spent more.
Families which before the war had
had only one breadwinner now had
three or four. for women and chill
dren were mustered into the war ma
/ y
and alcoholic beverages flourished
rapidly. 1t was at once apparent that
| the great opportunity of the war-the
peoples opportunity-was being lost
altogether. They were not saving a
At this time the government was
badly in need of money. Its ,expendi-
ture of twenty-five million dollars a
day was making frightful drains on
| the national treasury, and war loans
were becoming increasingly difficult
| to negotiate. Then a few economists
got together and solved the situation.
| why can't we get the people to save
their money by lending it to the gov
ernment?'' they asked, and imme-
diately formed a War Savings Com
mittee.
The war savings committee sent
representatives into all parts of the
British Isles for the purpose of
preaching economy. Branches were
formed in every county, meetings of
citizens were called, and the wisdom
of thrift was lectured necessarily.
| When the field of the press agent had
! been thoroly covered, the government MT
offered its first baby bonds or saw
ing certificates. They were an in
slant success.
So well had the war savings COM
mittee done its work that the people
rushed to buy certificates, and they
have been steadily buying them ever
since. The peoples orgy of extrav-
agance is over in Great Britain. There
is no longer any accelerated dema nd
for cheap jewelry and alcohol. Pleas
ure cars and fine clothes have LONG
since made their exit. Not one class
but the whole Of England is bearing
the cross of war.
War Savings Certificates
The war savings committee sold its
certificates thru associations of small
depositors all over the country. Ev-
erywhere groups of laboring men
business men and men of wealth, to
say nothing of women, invested in
these government certificates The
work was slow at first, but gained
momentum as it went along. At the
end of June, 1916, there were lee,
end of May. 1917, there were over
thirty-five thousand embracing over
three million members.
The British war certificate is sold
for five pounds or approximately
twenty-five dollars Obviously. thai
sum is large for the small deposito,
who is able to save but farthing OF
two at time, but when he belongs
to an association, all the members OF
which are working for the same pur-
pose, the incentive to own a war GER
tiffcate is the greatest thing in his
life. According to the records of the
war savings committee. the small de-
positor loaned the government during
1919 and 1916, 1872, 43S,000 pounds
and during the first four months OF
1917, an additional amount of 10000.
900 pounds
The British Are War Investors
As a result, almost everybody IL
Great Britain is a war investor. HI
has an interest in the war He i:
lending his money to help prosecute
it, and its progress is a matter of per
sonal moment for him, aside from tn.
relatives he has lost. That is an i'm.
portant factor from the government,
point of view, but not quite SO i'm.
portant as the fact that ten miIlior
persons in Great Britain are savint
money who never saved before If
when the war is over, there occur,
! that industrial chaos which has 81
often been prophesied by economists