Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1918-04-26
Best Security in the World.

the safest investment in the
world. Banks and savings funds
and trust companies have long
known this, but there is a multi
tude Of small investors who are
lust finding out the fact.
There are in the United States
today two classes of purchasers
who are buying Liberty Bonds.
There are, first, those who are
responding to the call of the Gov
ernment for funds to prosecute
the war because it is a patriotic
duty and because they know that
the generous oversubscription of
the loan is going to be the most
telling answer the United States
can give to the insolent challenge
of the Hun to the conscience of
the civilized world, an answer
even more effective in the last
analysis than the thunder of our
guns in Flanders, Picardy and
Lorraine. Then there are the
people who look upon the matter
as a cold business proposition and
buy bonds because they know
their supreme value as an invest
ment.
No appeal to the patriotism of
the American people has ever
been made in vain. And in the
present drive for the new loan
perhaps more emphasis than is
needed is being placed on that
side of the issue. Every man,
woman and child in the country
alive to the duty Of the hour is
going to bup bondS,' but there are
plenty more who, although fully
as patriotic as any of their fell
lows, will invest their savings in
Government bonds chiefly because
they realize that no security in
the world today is so safe. There
are other investments paying a
higher rate of interest, but none
that can compare with the bonds
of the United States in certainty
of redemption, come what may.
Loan workers have been amazed
at the misapprehensions current
in many minds about the Liberty
Loan. There are still people who
imagine that money paid for
bonds is a gift to the Govern
ment, that their subscriptions are
a form Of war tax and that in
stead of receiving interest from
the United States Treasury they
will be called upon to pay again
and yet again in proportion to
their investment. Of course,
such utter misunderstanding of
the nature of the loan is excep-
tional, but that it exists at all re-
veals a need that the Liberty
Loans, past and present, are now
fulfilling. That need is a greater
cultivation on the part of
the people of the habit Of in
vesting their savings in Govern,
ment bonds.
| There is no shadow of a doubt
about it that the organized CAPT.
, tai of the country could, if il
cared, or if it was desirable that
=, it should, absorb the entire loar
l without any serious d"islocation OF
A the finances of the nation. Blu
that is not the purpose of the
Government nor its desire. Ev
cry owner of a bond. large o.
small, becomes an active and in
: terested partner with his fellow:
in the Government under which
he lives. French patriotism. tn,
intensity of which has electrified
and inspired the world during
the last three years. owes mucl
-, of its devotion and force to tn
:. ingrained habit of the Frencl
u people to do directly what il
America the savings funds an
II banks do for them indirectly
! namely, put their savings in tn
national securities of their coun
% 3 try. In this habit is found an eX
y PLANTATION of the oft-quoted eS
u preston, "a national debt is
national blessing" We are max
. ing a good beginning here, a
= shown by the mere fact that 8
% per cent of the subscriptions fo
u the two Liberty Loans alread
f1oated were for amounts rangin
! from $50 to $50, 900. 1t is tn
i multitude of small subscription
drawn from the savings of tn
people, not the millions will
=, drawn by great corporations c
Is Is capitalists from one form of il
- vestment to be put in another
, that will make these loans tn
IL great national force they are il
tended to be. That is why tn