The sun., 1918-09-20

private individuals.
A SNUG banking opinion has urged
everybody to quit paying rent, to quit
eating food, to 60 naked, so as to re-
lieve the strain on the war market.
Some bankers, who work along CON-
fortably under office regulations and
thumb rule, comprehend the veritable
science Of finance, as against petty
local business, no more clearly than
that admirable but disappearing
philosopher the village blacksmith.
Not content with throwing half our
production into the war, we should
throw the other half into the sen
We should so devitalize all the human
beings not at the front that in the
end they would lack the physical
strength, the nervous energy, the
moral force to back UP, with arms,
ammunition and provisions, their val.
orous soldiers op the battlefield
A bilious craftsmanship in the Ways
and Means Committee, delirious with
the illusion that this was q rich mans
war, has fancied that all capital was
the rich mans capital. and that 1t
should be snatched all at once to be
destroyed in the war as If burned I'D
in a bonfire.
There never was any chance Of
evadlng imitation when there was an
unprecedentedly abnormal demand,
whether impelled with money drawn
out Of taxes or out of loans, or out
of rich man, or out Of poor man, for
inadequate supplies for war purposes
and all purposes Of the human race.
From the very beginning the prob
lem of this war has never been money
the mere measuring stick. 1t will
not be to the end. The problem has
been production-the labor and capt.
tai to produce and the permission Of
legislative lunatics for labor and CAPT.
tai to produce.
If we dip out that production in a
pint measure or quart measure or a
gallon measure, 1t Is all the same, 60
far as concerns the capacity of the ma
ton to supply the army and the abil-
ity Of the Government to pay the
bills. If imitation perforce writes
twenty billions of production up to
the figures Of thirty billions-bigger
| dollar marks but the same production
| volume-the Government can restore
the balance out Of the inflated wages,
earnings and profits, II it taxes with
equity and justice those who have
caused the initiation, those who have
been getting the inflated proceeds
1t Is true that because of this unes-
capable imitation the American people
later must find themselves, so to
speak, settling at high prices for dead
| horses. What we mean Is that II
these abnormal prices Of to-day make
the Government pay for labor twice
what it is normally worth, and for
material twice what it Is normally
worth, then in the years to follow, to
|
measured on normal basis, with
earnings down to one hundred cents
on the dollar as compared with the
wars two hundred cents on the dol
lar, there must be paid out in interest
and the redemption of bonds billions
| and billions of true wealth which
there never would have been any need
| to pay out If prices could have been
kept down. But under these abnor.
NAL conditions of war there has been
! there could be, no way on earth to
keep prices down. This Is one of the
many penalties which must be paiC
! for the monstrous thing which Ger
many has done to mankind. 1t has
been idle to talk about 1t.
The problem on which every clear
thinking mind should have been fixed
the problem on which every able bod
led being should have worked, Is t.
increase, if possible, in any event &c
maintain, production, high price oil
low price. 1t is to make up. so far n:
human effort can, some Of this colos
sal waste of war. 1t is to drive q
straight course on the true economic
road to the productive triumph which
is essential to the military triumph.
The Juvenile Journalism chatterlnt
on all sides of this problem has FAILED
to see the simple, radiant truth. Th'
sleek financial authority, prlmed will
pompous platitudes has grayely dis
cussed every feature of it but its es
sence. The Sawney craftsmanship
from Scotland Neck, North Carolina
has never heard of 1t and so has neve
mentioned 1t, devoting itself to throw
ing fits on the floor of the House O.
Representatives every time it hear
the rumor that there was dollar bill
left north Of Mason and Dlxon's line
But that truth Is, ever has been ant
ever will be enforced by the law
OF Con.
The Capture OF the Herr Professor