New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-09-06
PROBLEM
IN EASY TERMS
Government Must Have Twenty.
four Billions in a Year.
WILL BE RAISED BY SAVING
Sixteen Cents From Each Dollar Each
One Earns, and the Rest by Sell.
Ing Liberty Bonds to Patriotic
Citizens.
BY LARERT ST. A

- cbiNA Va boNCA Nv
Is just as complicated as we choose
to make it. Approached from differ.
ent angles, 1t be made as battling
as a Chinese puzzle or as simple as
the operation Of an old-fashioned
dasher churn.
II n attempts to delve into the
qualifications of the expansion Of cur
rency, and all that sort Of thing. he
Is very likely to develop stiff neck
from craning up and down columns
of figures and wind up by declaring
that figures lie horribly.
On the other hand, If he faces the
situation in n broad. concrete way
and compares 1t with the problem Of
financing his home, or some similar
everyday expenditure, he can grasp
of the family pump.
Here Is the governments immediate
financial problem In a nutshell In
the next twelve months S24, 900 .OOO,-
600 probably will be required by the
United States government to meet war
expenses. The total income Of every
person in this country is only about
$4,000, 100000 a year. Therefore, If
the cost of the war for the neXt year
were to be assessed pro rata, every
persons share would be forty-eight
cents on every dollar that he or she
earns.
Needed to Beat OF Murderers.
Now let us bring Inc proposition a
little nearer home. Suppose that a
band Of murderers. in blOod-smeared
uniforms of gray. having slaughtered
their way through the helpless waves
Of wOmen and children in nearby
cities just as the Hun has done in
France and Belgium, established
themselves in the woods at the edge
of our town with the fixed purpose Of
waging slaughter In our midst. Then,
If 1t were announced by the authori-
ties that 1t would cost forty-eight
cents Of every dollar that every earn
er In our town made in the next
twelve months to conduct a defense
against the murderer, that would be
clear, wouldn't it? And if the authOri-
ties were to go further and say that
they would assess sixteen cents Of
this fOrty-eight on persons who could
afford to pay it and accept the other
thirty-two from persons who, out of
their zeal to aid in the defense Of
their homes and their loved ones,
would take the promise of the local
government to repay 1t, that would be
plain. too.
There isn't a bit Of difference be-
tween the local case l have described
and the present case of United States
government. The Hun Is in the Offing,
the government needs an average Of
4S-One h%undredths of e%veryOne's earn
ing in the next year to conduct its de-
Tense, and it plans to raise this money
a one-third tax and twO-thirds bond
Or stamp sale plan. Within the next
year approximately $S,OOO,OOO,OOO will
be raised by taxes and $4,000, 100000
by the sale Of government securities.
Must Be Raised by Economy.
There Is the situation, and the ques-
ton now arises: How In the land of
Goshen are We aver going to raise
such a sum as $24 OO,0OO,OOO? The
is: Save as we never have
1t will not be pleasant to skimp our
for we have not been used to
but we simply shall have to
do 1t. That old $24, 900, 100000 re-
is going to stick to US like
a burr to a pair Of mittens, and we
must raise 1t.
We must practice the same economy
to raise the money with the Hun g.
900 miles away that WI would If he
were In the grove out at the edge of
town. He may be 5000 miles away in
person, but at every beat his lustful
heart spans that gap between your
daughter and mine and his fingers
have a virulent 5000 mile itch for
your money and your farms.
The question of what each Of us
must ecOnOmize on can be settled only
n our individual minds and ut our
own firesides. If the Hun were In the
grove literally, would any of us ask
our neighbors what W. should sacri.
Ace in order to help raise our respec-
live shares Of the forty-eight cents
On the dollar? think not.
My notion is that the question every
patriotic American should ask himself
What must I have? The query:
What can I get along without? is not
searching enough.
Heber Grim's Story Apropos.
Every time the idea of saving &C.
,urs to me I think Of old Heber Grim,
/ character out i'm my western Indiana
own who had a perennial habit Of
churrl i. Just as regularly as
revival meeting time rolled around. |
Heber would get himself all het up
,ver his sins and. along in the last
lays Of the meeting, he would come
and snorting down the aisle
Ind Join up.
Somehow, though. Heber never got
around to making any sacrifices In
,ehalf Of his new found religion. He
kept right on chewing tobacco.
wearing like a mule driver, drinking
ike a fish, and, worst of all, squander-