The Pulaskian. (Pulaski Heights [Little Rock], Ark.) 1915-1929, 1918-09-06
Buying 1t Is Merely Lending
Money to Yourself for a
Great Necessity.
us. GOVERNMENT MEANS Us
e.unendous Amounts Are Needed to
paw for Work and Materials, So
our oId-Time Extravagances
Must Be Dropped.
gv JOHN PALMER CAN'T.

one of the good results that will ac-
orue TO the American people from their
nortcpation in the war is a better
Understanding of the purpose and
function of money. Also, they will
more fully appreciate their relation to
4be government and the fact that it is
+heir government-as much theirs as
their homes and farms and factories.
FIR purposes of poetry and sentiment
n is well enough to talk about ''Uncle
sam" your devotion to him, your will
inapess to lend to him by the purchase
If bonds, War Savings Certificates and
Thrift Stamps, and to give your own
life and the lives of your sons on the
acnal fighting front but you must not
lose sight of the fact that after all. the
United States, "Uncle SAM" q. 49,"
aOur Country" and so on-whatever
poetic phrase we use to represent the
nation In its united action and aspf-
ration-is just Us, ourselves in our
own proper persons, working and saw
ing and applying our joint strength, for
ourselves, our children and our chill
dren's children.
Too much have we thought of the
government, the nation, Uncle Sam,
and SO on, as something separate from
ourselves; something to which we give
and lend, eagerly or willingly or
grudgingly or under compulsion, as the
case may be. We have had too little
Of the practice of team work for a
great common purpose-our own pur-
pose.
The Liberty Bond campaigns fur
nIsh occasion for reminding ourselves
that 1t is our country, ourselves In our
organized capacity, that is engaged in
the war to abolish autocracy; that
Uncle Sam" is us. In common de-
termination to do and give all of our
selves to an enterprise as thoroughly
worth while as the American Revolu-
ton or the war to preserve the Union
and free the slaves. And one of the
ways in which we can participate d.
reetly and actively In this enterprise Ia
to turn our money-all Of 1t that IS not
absolutely and honestly necessary to
the essential purposes Of living and
keeping well and efficient for the other
things we have to do TO help along the
enterprise-over to ourselves In our
organized capacity; that Is, to the
government, for the work Of the war
which it Is conducting for US.
Money Useful Only for Exchange.
Money is nothing in itself-just pa
per and metal. 1t Is useless unless
somebody else will accept it in ex-
change for something he has or some
thing he can do. The measure of its
value to you is the other fellows need
OF the materials or the labor which 1t
will In turn command for him. Spend.
ing money is the way we have of get
ting from other people the things they
nave or the work they can do-"Goods
and Services" Our responsibility
therefore, lies In the question of the
kind Of things for which we choose
TO exchange money, and the time and
circumstances in which we exert that
choice.
Now, we have been a very wasteful
and extravagant people; we have not
hsught much about the effect upon
ourselves and other people and upon
me nation as whole. OF the ways in
which we spent our money, or the time
and cirpru Gro nonc IN which VIC opaof
u But the war Is compelling us to
mlnk about that. Not even the great
COT nation, or the most powerful gov
eminent, or the shrewdest financiers
can make something out of nothing.
ana when war, the most ravenous kind
waste and extravaganza that man
una mas devised, comes along to take
workers out OF industry and Off the
'afms, and to turn them from produc-
aoh to high-power consumption and
uestruction-no matter If the ultimate
purpose OF the war be quite worth It's
cOS' IN life and propcrty-there simply
are not material and labor enough In
ne country to permit both the contin-
uases OF the old kinds Of expenditure
anu the taking on of the new.
Why We Must Do Without.
for the purposes of the war the
sOvernment Of the United States must
nssc stupendous amounts Of materials
saa work, and there Is not enough Of
snese TO give the government what 1t
Mua nave and at the same time allow
80 people generally to have as much
ua'eral and work for their private
''ss as they have In ordinary times.
therefore we must to the greatest
ssssAoie extent keep out of the market
:" materials and labor, so az ~ to