New-York tribune., 1918-04-07


interference with what we have been
accustomed to regard as our private
affairs. Accordingly, the government
is depending here chiefly upon the
voluntary plan, using conscription
on as small a scale as possible. Here,
again, it is putting the responsibility
up to us, the people.
Spending Most
Of Our Income
This business-as-usual movement
is blocking both phases of the gov
ernment's plan to secure the neces-
sary cooperation Of the people in the
prosecution of this war. First of all,
it is discouraging the necessary saw
ing. The government is asking US
voluntarily to turn over to the
Treasury Department this year fif-
teen of the forty billions of our an
nual income. We have been accus-
toned to spend on our personal con-
sumption thirty-fve of this forty
billions and to save fue. How are we
going to save ten additional billions,
three times as much as we have been
accustomed to save, and at the same
time spend as much as we have been
accustomed to spend? Let US not de-
ceive ourselves by saying that we
shall increase our annual incomes by
the necessary ten billions. We shall
do nothing of the kind. Our annual
income and our net current produc-
tion are one and the same thing, anil
I have already shown that we shall
do we'll if we keep the latter up to
the forty-billion level. We are much
more likely to fall below it than to
rise above it.
Neither let us deceive ourselves by
the belief that the rise in prices
caused by imitation or some other in
f1uence will accomplish this fact. The
expenses of the war will increase
pari passu with such a rise in prices,
and the amounts we shall be obliged
to transfer to the government will
increase in equal, and probably in
greater, proportion. If we are to
supply our government with the nee
essary funds we must save and save
till it hurts, and that means that
most of us must cut our expenditures
to a point far below anything we
have yet contemplated, let alone
practised
Holding Back
War Work
This business-as-usual propaganda
is also seriously retarding the neces-
sary diversion of productive energy
from peace to war industries. The
people who are consuming as usual
and those who are increasing their
consumption are competing with the
government at every point and with
all the advantage on their side 1t
is much easier and safer for a busi
ness concern to cater to it's regular
old customers and to continue it's old
lines than it is to readjust its plant
to meet new wants, especially when
these new wants are quite certain to
be temporary in character So long
as the old demand continues it will
require large inducements in the
form of high prices and bonuses of
various kinds to effect the change,
and the movement in the new direc-
tion will be slow at the best. Indeed,
with the continuance of the old de-
mand, it may not be possible to in
duce the necessary diversion of pro-
ductive energy at any price. 1t is
not improbable that many concerns
will not change until they are con-
fronted by the alternative of a loss
of business, an alternative which can
be created only by the cutting down
of the normal demand for their prod
ucts of services.
Some Loss
Is Inevitable
OF course, we must not close our
eyes to the fact that some concerns
cant change. Their plants are so
highly specialized that they cannot
be adaDted to an, var use. ITr ro.'u.
nately, such pants will have to run
on part time, and with greatly re-
duced forces, and in some cases en-
tircly shut down during the period
of the war. The labor power thus
freed need not, however. vegetate
In idleness except in few and rare
cases. The war has created an
enormously increased demand for
almost every kind Of ,,bx,r;o,1 ~ =,