Evening journal., 1918-09-25
Seven Billions More of War
Bills Which Might Have Been
Foreseen and Can be Taken Care of
IFrom tho New York SUM

Our government leaders seem 20 have
fallen into something Of a panic over
their discovery that the war now
threatens TO cost us some six or seven
billions OF dollars year more than
their estimate OF last-wlnter. They are
appalled, by the prospect OF trying to
raise by taxation and bond loans this
great. sum ON Top OF the stupendous
twenty-three or twenty-four billions
for which they already have been pro-
viding They are concerned ovel
whether the productive capacity OF the
nation, already strained at twenty bill.
lions for the war, can stand the pres
sure Of thirty billions.
II they will stop TO reflect, there is
no cause for panic. II they will think
straight, II they will decide with wis
dom and act with courage. there will
be no need TO feel appalled,. The pro-
ductive capacity Of the nation can be
perfectly safe under this strain as II
could be under the strain a year ago.
The financing, II conducted on sound
principles by clear brains, will be
achieved.
IL is all very simple. The voice OF
this newspaper was the first to be
raised, with no exception as TO the halls
OF Congress, the offices of members OF
the Cabinet or any other part Of this
great government, in warning that the
United States could not expect TO put
into the war more than liberal pro
pOrtiOn-i0 per cent, perhaps 80 per
eent-of the nations production. The
rest would be required 10 support the
- In. ha NJ
normal measurement that production Of
the nation was some forty billions a
year. Mind you normal measure
Now, let the sun be the first to calm
these perturbed gentlemen i'm Washing
ton, some Of them strong in their emo
tiOns but weak in their economies, with
the assurance, that the thirty billions
Of tomorrow may be no more. in ecu
nomic fact, than the twenty billions Of
yesterday.
A man at the sawbusk cuts no more
wood measuring it with a six inch rule
than with foot rule. A wheat crop
OF a million bushels may have a mar
ket price Of 81 bushel, or il may have
a market price of $3.50 a bushel, but
at the high price or the low price you
cannot get a single loaf more OF bread
out OF It.. It's the tonnage Of steel, not
the price. upon which depends our
war; the barrels Of oil, not the market
quotation. Measured with whatever
yardstick, It is the production. Our
troops don't shoot dollar marks into the
Germans, but steel shells. They don't
eat price lists, but chow.
We who buy potatoes this year pay
more for them than when we bought
them last year. So with beef. So with
every commodity The government
likewise buys labor at twice its normal
value: buys its material at much more
than its normal svelue; pays more for
war today than il paid a year ago.
This is imitation, with the unescap-
able consequences as to price. II is the
imitation which itself has been unes-
capable since the government leaped
into the purchasing market as the great
est buyer ever dreamed Of in the his
tory Of the world IL is the imitation
about which astounding views have
been aired up and down this country.
A juvenile journalism has repeatedly
screeched up at the top key OF its vocal
organs that the way TO glue imitation
in its racks was to tax everybody and
everything to exhaustion, so that no
body could be a competitive bidder
against the United States government
in the American market. For 10 is to
be remembered that some editors, like
so many other human beings, With a
high horsepower Of noise, don't know
any more about economics than they
know about flddling. But every dollar
Of taxes coming out Of the pocket Of
a private buyer and going into the war
chest or the government, like every dol
lar borrowed out Of the private pocket
for the war chest. becomes an inexpress-
IDLY greater factor for imitation than
it ever could be left in the private
pocket. The sWiftest, most prodigal
spender is always the government. Add
TO that fact the concentrated purchas-
ing power of all the dollars gathered
from all the private pockets and shot
in the governments pile driving mass
against The market, and you can picture
the magnitude Of imitation capacity
right there, as compared with the pea
shooing capacity OF scattered private
individuals.