The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1918-09-05
HERE Is MEANING
OF LIBERTY BOND
Buying 1t Is Merely Lending
Money to Yourself for a
Great Necessity.
U.S.. GOVERNMENT MEANS US
Stupendous Amounts Are Needed to
Pay for Work and Materials. SO
Our Old-Time Extravagances
Must Be Dropped.
BY JOHN PALMER eAvIT.

BY JOHN PALMER GAVIT.
One Of the good results that win ac-
crue 10 the American people from their
participation in the war is a better
understanding of the purpose and
function of money. Also. they will
more fully appreciate their relation to
the government and the fact that it is
their government-as much theirs as
their homes and farms and factories.
For purposes of poetry and sentiment
It is well enough to talk about "Uncle
SAM your devotion to him, your will
ingness To lend TO him by the purchase
Of bonds. War Savings Certificates and
Thrift Stamps, and to give your own
life and the lives of your sons on the
actual fighting front but you must not
lose sight of the fact that after all, the
United States, Uncle SAM u. >"
"Our Country and so on--whatever
poetic phrase we use TO represent the
nation in its united action and aspi-
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
drcn's children
Too much have we thought Of the
government, the nation, Uncle sam,
and 50 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-
tion or the war to preserve the Union
and free the slaves. And one of the
ways in which we can participate di-
rectly and actively in this enterprise is
10 turn our money-all of ii 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-iust pa
per ana 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 yen is the other fellows need
Of the materials or the labor which Vt
win in turn command for him. Spend
ing money is the way we have Of get.
ting from other people the things they
have 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
10 exchange money and the time and
circumstances III W illNii We tAtll ina
choice.
Now we have been a very wasteful
and eXtravagant people; we have not
thought much about the effect upon
ourselves and other people and upon
! the nation as Il whole of the ways in
which we spent our money, or the time
| and circumstances in which we spent
! IT, But the war is compelling US to
| think about that, Not even the great
est nation, or the most powerful gov
| eminent, or the shrewdest financiers
| can make something out of nothing.
| And when war. the most rayenous kind
! of waste and extravaganza that man
! kind has devised, comes along to take
! farms. and to turn them from produc-
! ton "a high-power consumption and
! destruction--nO matter if the ultimate
purpose Of the war be quite worth It's
cost In life and property there simply
are not material md labor enough in
the country 10 permit both the contin
uunce of the old kinds Of expenditure
and the taking on OF the new.
Why We Must Do Without
For the purposes Of the war tho
government of the United States must
hnyc stupcudous amounts Of materials
and work. and there IS not enough of
these to give the government what Il
must have nnd at the same time allow
the people generally 10 have as much
material aud work for their private
uses as they have in ordinary times.
Therefore we must TO the greatest
possible extent keep out Of the market
for materials and labor 50 as Cd C
GATHERED FACTS