Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1918-09-11
FINANCE 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
ina Liberty Bonds to Patriotic
Citizens
BY LAgERT ST. CLAIR.

The problem OF government finances
is just as complicated as we choose
TO make it. approached from differ
ent angles it can be made as battling
ms a Chinese puzzle or as simple as
the aperation of an oId-fashioned
dasher cnurn.
If one attempts to delve into the
ramiications 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 broad concrete way
and compares it with the problem of
financing his home. or some similar
everyday expenditure, he can grasp
and master 1t as he would the handle
Of the family pump.
Here is the governments immediate
financial problem in nutshell In
the next twelve months $4,000 600
GOO probably via be required by the
United States government to meet war
expenses. The total income of every
person in this country is only about
Sj0000.000000 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 the proposition
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
wagng slaughter In our midst. Then,
If il were announced by the authori-
ties that il 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 1t? And If the authorl-
ties We're to 20 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
tieir 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 bit ~ difference he
tween the local case | have described
and the present case Of United States
government. The Hun is in the otiing
fhe government needs an average Of
aS-one hundredths Of everyone's earn
Ing in the next year 10 conduct it's de-
Tense, and il plans to raise this mercy
on one-third tax and two-thlrds bond
or stamp sale plan. Within the next
year approximately IS O0O,000.O00 will
be raised by taxes and S1G,000.00OO00
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 ever going to raise
such sum MS S24,OO0.O00O00? The
answer is: Save as we never have
before
II will not he pleasant to skimp our
selves, for we have not been used to
skimping, but we simply shall have to
do IT. That old $2lO00000.000 re-
quirement Is going TO stick to US like
burr to pair Of mittens, and we
simply must raise it,
We must practice the same economy
tn raise the money with the Hun g.
600 miles away that we would if he
were in the grove out Mt the edge Of
town. He may be 1900 miles away in
person but at every beat his Iustful
heart spans that gap between YOUR
daughter and mine and his fingers
have virulent 5000 mile itch for
your money and your farms.
The question Of what each of us
must economic on can be settled only
in our individual minds and Mt our
own tiresideS II the Hun were in the
grove literally, would any Of us ask
our neighbors what we should sacri.
fee in order to help raise our respec-
tive shares e the forty-eight cents
on the dollar? think not.
My notion is that the question every
patriotic American should ask himself
is What must | have? The querv :.
What can l get along without? is not
searching enough.
Heber Grim's Story Apropos.
Every time the idea of saving oc-
ours to me think of old Iicber Grim,
a character out In my western Indiana
town who had a perennial habit Of
Joining church. Just as regularly as
revival meeting time rolled around
Heber would get himself all bet up
over his sins and. along in the last
days Of the meeting, he would come
rearing and snorting down the aisle
and join up.
Somehow. though. Heber never got
around To making any sacrifices in
behalf of his new found religion He
always kept right on chewing tobacco
swearing like a mule driver. drinking
like a fish. and. worst of all. sauander-
~ ~>~~~~--"~-N~~O~~~-~~~-~