Evening star., 1918-06-30
More and more as the governments
financing proceeds 1t becomes evident
Wartime
Finance.

1Anance' attic policy of saving in
consumption: accompanied by the cur
tailment Of credit to the Tess essential
Industries, say officials Of the Federal
Reserve Board, who are constantly
watching the financial situation from
the standpoint Of the government.
It is understood that the board has.
by every means in its power. endeav-
| ored to impress upon federal reserve
banks, and. through them. upon MEM
ber banks Of the system. the desira-
bility Of endeavoring. by every con-
servative and legitimate means. to
bring about the reduction OF borrow
ing and Of capital investment for
businesses which. while entirely de-
sirable and perhaps even beneficial In
themselves. are not necessarily con-
nected with or conducive to the sue
cess of the war.
The board has been advised that
decided progress along this line is De-
| ing made in a number of the federal
reserve districts. In other districts
there Is a less market appreciation OF
the necessity of cooperation. The
belief that business may go on as
usual Bull us lolo hPoh
many minds. with the result that
some establishments are still endeav-
| oring, in not a few parts of the coun-
| try. to maintain the volume of their
sales and to encourage lavish buying
on the part of their customers. Manu-
| facturers in many lines are. however.
exhibiting an appreciation OF the real
necessities of the case, and are seek
| ing in numerous instances to convert
their plants-at least in part-to the
production OF articles of an unmis-
takably essential character, curtail-
ing the output Of the luxury trades.
while abandoning certain lines alto
gether. 1t would now seem, the off,
cials point out, that some Of the prin-
cfpal obstacles to progress In this i'm
portant movement are found in the
disposition Of some, who are employ
| ed at higher wages than ever before.
to maintain or even to enlarge pur-
chases of 1uxuries as well as of ne
| cessities.
It is pointed out that wide distribu
tion of the third liberty loan. attain
ed with only moderate recourse to
bank credit, shows that large pro-
portion of the population Is actually
cooperating in the task of paying the
cost Of the war out of current earn
ings and savings by reducing its con-
requirements of the government are.
however. steadily on the increase, as
shown by the fact that estimated ex-
penditures for the coming fiscal year.
1918-1919, are now about s24 100000
900. The officials say that there is no
| possible to obtain these needed funds
through loans placed with banks or
through taxation OF character that
| would result in compelling taxpayers
to rely upon banks for the means
| with which to meet their dues to the
government without producing unde-
| sirable consequences Creation Of ad-
ditional bank credits. for the purpose
| Of buying bonds or paying taxes by
obtaining bank accommodations rath-
er than by saving. results only in
technical Increase Of purchasing
power. since 1t is not based upon a
commensurate increase in the pro-
duction of goods-in other words. is
not Offset by genuine savings. The
consequence Of making such additions
creased tendency toward the bidding
up Of prices. and results in the men,
ace called imitation.
|
All commercial organizations and
employers in the United States are
being asked by officialE OF
Recruiting the United States employ
ment service for help in
Labor. its new work When
America entered the war the problem
of labor supplying, which had been
growing for several years, became one
| Of the most perplexing. Established d
industries with war business had to
be enlarged; thousands Of others had
to be turned into war manufacturing
nptA o1,y In ~fr{o
such as shipyards. nitrate plants. etc.
had to be erected. This meant the
obtaining Of more workers-hundreds
Of thousands Of them-from execu-
tives Of the highest skill to common
laborers. With this call for more In
more agricultural workers. America
had to produce food in greater guam
| titles than ever before. It must main
| tain not only its own armies and civil
population and the workers in the
shipyards and munition plants, but
those Of the allies and neutrals.
The government recognized at the
outset that there must be central
| ization Of labor recruiting and sup
plying efforts. England had to come
| to 1t; 30 would America. There would
have to be a central organization un-
stand between the nations present
and potential labor supply and the needs
| Of war Industries.
SO it was that when the Depart
ment Of Labor, last January, was
charged with the administration of a
national war-labor program by the
President and the Council of National
Defense it's first step was to reor-
ganize the United States employment
service as the nations central ma
chine for recruiting and distributing
labor Accordingly, the employment
service. which had been section of
a division OF a bureau, was made a
separate arm Of the Department Of
Labor and reformed to meet the war
emergency. 1t was organized not
only to equalize the situation Of
shortages and surpluses, but to find
new workers. Neither task could man
ifestly be performed by a private en-
ployer or private employment agency.
The employment service now has
moro than $40 regular branch offices
| in the Industrial and agricultural dis
| tricts. This is more than three times
the number It had at the first of the
year. 1t is now placing between 150.-
900 and 176.000 workers Of all kinds
month. This is nearly seven times
the number placed a month last year.
basis the United States employment
service has been increasing its
branches at the rate of about so per
cent a month and increasing place
ments at the rate of 100 per cent a
| month.
Today every shipyard In the United
States is using the employment serv-
ice exclusively or in part to get
the employment service filled up Pa.
cific coast yards after the getting Of
men was despaired of. II the rate