New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-29
The Second Loan

will run we'll over the maximum limit OF
$4,000, 100000. That is a demonstration
Of practical patriotism in which all Ameri-
cans can take pride. But we ought not to
allow it to disturb our balance or to give
us false feeling Of self-satisfaction.
In the present temper of the world the
effort and sacrifice which this loan has
cost us are really inconsiderable. Coun-
tries far poorer than the United States is
have taxed themselves for war purposes
far more crushingly than we have as yet
thought of taxing ourselves. Germany
already plunging into bankruptcy, has
fioated one huge loan after another. Her
people. in order to meet the drain of war,
Lave submitted to personal privations
which our people have as yet not even
dreamed of submitting to. We have. up TO
now, only tckled the surface Of our vast
latent resources. If we had baked at
lending our government ,000,0O0,000 we
should have written ourselves down as
nation of slackers and pikers.
II is not in order, therefore, to exult too
loudly over the success of the second loan,
emphatic and gratifying as that success
has BEEN When VIC float our fourth or
fifth $4,000 100000 loan we shall have be-
gun to show our real quality as fighting
nation-to establish our primacy in the
great world struggle, which is now becom-
ing more and more test Of economic eff
cheney and endurance.
There are two ways of judging the sue
cess Of war loan or series of war loans.
What impresses the average observer
most in such fotations is the mass Of sub
scriptions Yet the distribution of the loan
is, after all, the real index of its success.
The governments securities must be d.
gested if the borrowing process is not to
degenerate into mere pyramiding. Ger
many has resorted TO many financial de-
vices in pyramiding her loans. We could
DO the same thing if we were compelled
70 do it. But conditions do not compel us.
We can make our loans a success in the
CompleteSt sense, because we are able to
enlist the support of the great masses of
the people, who will pay for the bonds they
take out of money which they are boarding
or carrying, or out of current savings.
1t is too carly yet to say whether or not
the second Liberty Loan was taken to any
large extent outside the cities and towns.
The first loan failed largely to reach the
rural investor. II was absorbed chiefly
in the great cities-by the corporations, by
wealthy investors and by the city and town
wage earners. II is an encouraging sign
that in this Federal Reserve district the
number Of individual subscribers to the
second loan is reported to be nearly double
the number of individual subscribers for
the first loan. That argues an accelera-
ton of distribution. And when the farm
ing class is effectuslly reached (and the
farming class is the one large class which
has benefited most generally from the
war;, Liberty bonds will be placed more
widely than ever before in the hands of
those who are personally able by their
savings to create the new capital needed
10 absorb them.
The cost OF war-or the waste Of war,
which is practically the same thing-ought
10 be Offset by eliminating the waste of
peace. II the governments loans are to
be properly digested they should be held
by those Of us who are willing to sacrifice
temporarily the superfluitieS and luxuries
Of peace. This effort with many will be
voluntary. But it is the governments
business also to see that it is facilitated by
administrative action.
1t is perfectly logical thing that Con-
seryation Week, which begins to-day,
should follow the closing week Of the Lib
erty Loan campaign. Peace consumption
must be lessened as war expenditure in
creases. The industries which contribute
directly TO fighting efficiency must be
strengthened, while the industries produc-
ing non-essentials are allowed to lag. The
productive power of the country must be
concentrated on the activities which supply
our armies and our allies. And if those
who do not fight dispense with Injuries
and cut down on things which the fighters
need they will be the better able TO save
on their daily expenditure in order to in
vest in the loans which keep going our
armies and the armies Of our allies.
The government, through the exercise of
economic pressure, should help the individ-
usl in order that the individual, through