New-York tribune., 1918-09-23
Must Pay as
We Fight

IL we or to-day live until the bonds
we are no" issuing mature we will paw
ourselves. AS we or most of US cannot
live that long, we will hand down to
posterity not only the obligation to
Pay the bonds. but also the bonds
themselves. SO. when posterity pays
ene ponds 1t will be paying itself. 1t
wili not u, De paying us. We will not be
mere. The war will be over and fully
paao Tor by US. The money we now
are handing to the government in ex
change for tax receipts and Lihertv
bonds pays for the war. We of now
provide 1T all. II we could live lonr
enough to get it back We also would
i've long enough ourselves to pay it.
The battle of TO-DAY cannot y.
1ought by men born twenty wears from
now. The men who fight TO-DAY cannot
be fed with food produced twentv
years from now or armed with guns
made twenty years from now: and
neltner IN nation situated as we are
can the war cost Of to-day be paid
now. Il ''ii
Posterity. it is true, must paw 2 ,it-
tie something indirectly. for It " viii riI1
lnherit depleted stocks Of goods, war
country. But it cannot be made to nav
single penny Of the Immediate and
direct cost. anu
Probably the reason why 50 manv
people take it for granted that issuinS
ponds passes along the burden to nos,
tcrity Is that ordinarily issuing bonds
ooes erect Just that result. When .
municipality, for instance, issues bonds
W aod public Improvement, such as.
say, schoolhouse, people reason that
lnasmuch as the schoolhouse ;s to '''n' ho
used by posterity, posterity should helm
pay 1or 1t, and that by issuing bonds
t;ney % can make posterity help pay for
IL. rms IS sound reasoning. for ordi-
narly the bonds are sold TO neonlo
outside of the municipality. and ks
means that money actuallv has bnn, b..'o
borrowed by the municipality. and
~hen money actually is borrowed The
,line OF payment is deferred and Tho
burden passed along. '"'
90. navlng long associated the issu-
ance OF bonds with the act of actual
borrowing, and knowing that actual
borrowing does defer time of navnent r''
many people assume. without stonn;ng
TO think. that the bonds our rovern.
mlemt ,'n, IS issuing now bring about these
usual results. AS a matter Of fac+
they do nothing of the kind.
Nelther IS there any way to draw
80 laiiy upon the accumulations Of
the past. The accumulated wealth ~
the country is almost all in the forn,
OF property that cannot be converted
mt INTO ivy, war maaterial-land, buildings,
rociadways, bridges, furniture, automo,
piles, and the like. These things have
no value as war material. Some Of
them are producing instrumentalities
and can be used in producing and
transporting war material, but thev
are not themselves war materials and
cannot be converted into war mata-
rials. ''"'e-
We sometimes hear it suggested that
the cost of war should be met bv "cons
scrlpting wealth." Unhappily even
confiscation by the government would
not transform these things into 49,
materials. No matter how much wa
may wish that it were possible to draw
upon them to supply the fighter we
are obliged to recognize the fact that
we cannot.
Neither is there any way to make
the very rich bear the whole burden.
IT the government were to take eyerv
dollar of the income of every rich
person in the United States it hardly
would have begun to raise the money
it needs. That as large a part of the
burden as can be will be laid upon the
shoulders of the rich goes without
saying, but even when this has been