The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-30
LIBERTY BOND LESSONS
 By HOWARD STEER Of Hincks Bros. & Co.
 LESSON NO. B Our National Inventory

Many of us keep track of our do- mestic expenditures in that simple but dme-honored method which requires no bookkeeping, and which is amaz- lngly clear in it's results. We mean the plan whereby we start out the week with a certain amount of money in our pocket. At the end of the week we subtract what remains from what we had in the beginning, and the an- swer shows what we have spent. If there is nothing left over at the end of the week we have spent it all, and perhaps have even gone into debt.
 It's wonderfully easy system and it has wrecked many home and many a business!
 Most real business men, though, have learned that business success de- bends quite as much upon an accurate system of accounting as upon adver- Using and saleSmanship. And one of the essentials to such system is an inventory of everything in the estab- lishment at least once year. A busi- ness man wants to know how much stock he has on his shelves, what it is worth, and how it compared in value with his debts. Otherwise he is oper- ating blindly.
 Every one of us is in business for himself to some extent. When we bought Liberty Bonds we went in 8 little deeper. And if you read last Wednesdays lesson you must realize tbat, as partners in and owners of the great business house of the United States of America, wa have each of us a very large business responsibil- ity to discharge-both to ourselves and to those with whom our house is trading.
 Let us therefore take inventory and see whether we are in sound condi- tion, whether we owe more than we own, and whether our annual profit is enough to pay the interest on our debts and still leave enough to run the business.
 Fortunately, we shan't have to do all the figuring ourselves. Some of the country's ablest accountants have made practice of taking this nation- al inventory each year, and the 1917 figures are all ready for us.
 They include such items as real es- tate, live stock, machinery, coin money, steam and street railways, telegraph and telephone systems, ships, water, gas, and electric light plants, products of farms, mines and factories, cltohing, jewelry and furni- ture.
 How much do you think we are worth altogether? Well, if you think you can stand proseprity, we don't mind telling you that the total is just about two hundred and fifty billion dollars! Put it in figures and it looks like this: $250, ,O00,OO0! You never dealt in twelve figures before, did you?
 We'll, that's very satisfactory exhi bit on the asset side, you say. But every balance sheet has two sides to it. What about the liabilities? How , much do we owe?
 Counting everything-both Liberty Loans all the war certificates of in debtedness, and the debt that existed before the Liberty Loans-the grand total of our debt today is little over - $7,000, 0,000,00O. We owe, therefore just about one thirty-sixth of our to- tai wealth.
 Would you feel safe in lending a f man $100 if he gave you as security a piece of property worth $3,600? That is how safe your Liberty Bonds are.
 Now take the next step in this in. {! ventory process. Our annual income
 from all sources is figured at from
 forty to fifty billion dollars. Much O: I O11r doht iY7fc haT r
 4 per cent, but if it all bore 4 pel
 cent, the annual interest on the entire l, S7,000, 100000 would be S2S0,000,0 1000
 And $28O,O0O, 900 is little over ont
 half of one per cent. of our annua = fifty billion dollar income! Or, to lool Q at it from another angle, we could ' pay off the entire debt out of mex Iyear's income alone and still hay,
 S43, ,000,O00,00e of income left to d. 2 business on, without having touchet | a cent of the principal!
 f But perhaps those figures are S
 big as to be meaningless. The week.
 pay envelope for most of us is still i, two figures. Any more makes us dig '' zy Suppose then we translate int = terms that we can all appreciate. a Those national inventory figure Ll6du IIl6u SIup1y IIllS. IL 0dCH OIl
 of us should be held responsible fo , the principal and interest of the deh I in proportion to our yearly income l and if your income is $1,0 a year
 your share of the yearly interes
 would be a little over five dollars 8 If we had to pay off the whole det
 this year you would have to chip i
 $40. After that there would be n q more debt; taxes would be much less
 prices would be cheaper, and yo
 would soon make up that $40 agaiI = All things considered, then, W seem to be in a pretty healthy condi
 ton, and ready to do business at tn
 same old stand during 1918 just as J have done it each year since the At
 of July, 1776.
 Il Don't forget those inventory fig
 ures, and when somebody talks to yo
 about the chances you are taking wit h Liberty Bonds, just show him the la
 test balance sheet of U. s. & Go.