Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-17
THE LOAN MUST SUCCEED
This Is Certain Because the Nation Will Not
Let Its Soldiers Lack for What
They Need


hundred thousand men on the other side
of the ocean.
This is an achievement which has
never been approached since the flaming
sword waved over the gate Of Paradise,
bringing war and death into the world.
Of one thing we can be sure, and that
is that the nation which has sent its
soldiers across the seas is not going to
fail to back up those fighting men with
all they need to accomplish the task on
which they have set out. Nor VIII IL
stop sending men across the ocean SO
long as they are needed there.
We talk about the tagging of the bond
sale campaign, just as we talked about
the slowness Of our armies in getting into
action. But the armies have been raised
and they are giving a splendid account
of themselves in every section OF the
western front where they are engaged.
In like manner we have oversubscribed
every loan that has been offered, and we
are going to oversubscribe this one, even
though the Government is asking for
mere money than ever before.
This is not a mere guess. 1t is based
on the known and expressed purposes Of
the people of America to do their utmost
to win the war. They are intelligent and
they know that the war cannot be won
without money. They turned their saw
ings over to the Government when it
asked to borrow them in the previous
loan campaigns, just as the plain people
of France went down into their stock
incs and subscribed for the bonds which
the French Government issued to pay
the German indemnity in 1870. The
Frenchmen redeemed their land from the
danger of German occupation by provid-
ing the money. The American people
are going to make it certain that no
German troops shall ever occupy an
inch of American soil by drawing still
further on their savings.
No peace drive will be permitted to
stay our hand so long as the German
armies are in the field.
It is not the rich who are doing all
this, but the people Of moderate means.
Among the millions of subscriptions to
the last loan there were less than $4,000
for an amount in excess Of $4,000. If
evidence were needed to prove that this
is your war and my war, and not war
of the capitalists, nothing further would
be required.
Another reason for the certainty Of
the success of the loan lies in the fact
that the people realize that whatever is
not provided by the issue of bonds, to
be redeemed in the distant future, must
be provided at once by direct taxation
Secretary McAdoo wants S24,000,OOOOOO
this year. He has asked that SS,000,0O0,-
900 be raised by taxes and that the re-
| mainder be borrowed. OF course, the
money to redeem the bonds must be
raised by taxation ultimately. but the
taxes will be spread over forty or fifty
years and they will be levied so that
they will not be burdensome. And in
the meantime those who buy the bonds
will be receiving interest on their in
vestment and the nation, growing richer
every year, will be in a better condition
to raise the money to redeem the bonds
than it was to pay off the Civil War
debt.
We all know this when we stop to
think of it. If Secretary McAdoo should
ask that we raise less by taxation and
more by loan we would all understand
the reason fo~ it, for we would know
that it was done in order to decrease the
burden to be borne each year by the
! present generation and to lay on the
shoulders of those who are to come after
part of the cost of protecting the liber-
ties Of the world for their enjoyment.
As We have confidence in the future
as every one, to use the Wall street
phrase. is a bull on America, we all
know that there is no better or safer in.
vestment possible than these Liberty
Bonds. Many a man who has never
saved anything before is saving now tC
buy bonds. He finds it is easy with the
impetus of a fine purpose. And those
who have been laying aside a certain
proportion of their income are using il
to buy bonds, so that we are simply in
vesting our surplus wealth. We have
the surplus and it is big enough for al
the needs of the crisis.
There is consequently no occasion fo'
encouragement. We know that th
money must be raised and we ar
determined to raise it. We shall back u
our nineteen hundred thousand men il
France with the necessary dollars, an
when the nineteen hundred thousand ha
grown to forty hundred thousand W
shall continue to keep them supple
with what they need.