Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-28

An Indussrial Revelusisn Unlikely With
y 22,o0o,ooo Bcndhslders Interested
in Stability


~ and America are prophesying an in
dustrial revolution. They are telling us
that it is sure to come in the process Of
readjustment after the war:' Politicians
with their ear to the ground are prepar-
ing to trim their sails to meet the shift
ing breeze in the hope that they may be
able to keep their hold on Office.
Politicians and Socialists are forget
ting that a great financial revolution
has already taken place, revolution
which is likely to put back the cause of
socialism for many generations. The
evidence of it is found in the wide dis
tribution of the Liberty Bonds.
It is estimated that twenty-five mill
lion persons subscribed to the fourth
Liberty Loan. This is at the rate of one
subscriber for every family in the whole
nation. Some families are too poor to
take any bonds, but in other families
subscriptions have been made in the
name Of every member. There were sew
enteen million subscribers to the third
Liberty Loan and of these only about
twenty-five thousand took $4,000 or
more. The same proportion doubtless
prevails in the fourth loan. The mere
statement of this fact carries its own
lesson to the thoughtful mind.
Every one of the bondholders is
vitally interested in the solvency of the
Government and in the conservation of
the wealth of the nation in order that
he may receive his interest every six
months and the principal when it falls
due. He may have been willing to ex-
pertinent with Government ownership of
industry and Of great public utilities in
the past when the financial failure of
such an experiment would not involve
the diversion to the payment of deficits
of the money which should be used to
pay him his semiannual interest. He
has become conservative through the
mere fact of acquiring a stake in the
Government. He will insist that we let
well enough alone or, if we are to seek
improvements in industrial organization,
that they be made slowly and with
great caution. He will prefer that the
railroads and the telephone lines be
taxed for the benefit of the public to
having them owned by the Government,
which will have to tax other property to
raise money to pay the difference be-
tween the receipts and the cost of opera .
tion and maintenance. He knows
already that Mr.. McAdoo has piled up a
deficit of several hundred millions in
railroad accounts since he has been in
charge. And he knows that if the Gov
ernment had consented to such increases
in freight and passenger rates as it had
to make itself as soon as it took over
the roads the private managers would be
piling up wealth which would pay it's
fair share of Government expenses
The politicians and the economists
would better begin to study the mean
ing of this wide distribution of Govern
ment securities among all classes of So
ciety. They will find it profitable and
encouraging.
While it is morally certain that there
will be no industrial revolution after the
war for the reasons set FORTH it is also
likely that there will be- demand for a
widespread reform in governmental
methods. The voters, who hold the
bonds, will have a new interest in the
kind of men they send to Washington.
The mere political hack will no longer
satisfy them if they are as alert to the
protection of their investment in Gov
ernment bonds as they are to the pro-
lection of their other investments. They
have new incentive to political activity.
and the political managers who foresee
the possibilities of this new issue of eff
cheney and economy and conservation
will be those who will lead the parties
for the next generation. And unless we
mistake the meaning of the whisperinps
about extravaganza and waste that are
coming out of Washington, the disclos-
ure of the undoubted misuse of some of
the funds which the people have SUBJ
scribed for the conduct of the war will
give the first impetus to demand for
a new order of things in the conduct of
public business.
1t should be added that the wide dis
tribution of war bonds among the neonle
of Great Britain and France is likely to
have similar stabilizing effect in those
countries. An industrial revolution
which will revolve the people out of their
savings has little prospect of succeed
ing anywhere.