Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-07
SHALL PHILADELPHIA FAIL
ITO FINISH THE JOB?
This City Has Protited by War Work,
but It Is Tagging Far Behind
in the Loan

- Victory Loan poster who puts his
hand in his pocket and says, Sure!
Wen finish the job" is overcoufdent?
The progress which this city has made
toward raising its quota has been so slow
that the job will not be finished unless
the aggards begin to hand in their sub
SCriptOns.
Only four days remain in which to
raise two-thirds of the amount assigned
to Philadelphia. This reserve district
stands ninth in the order of its proper
tion of the loan subscribed with 1913
per cent. st. Louis has subscribed more
than two-thirds and leads the country.
And st. Louis is in the heart of
district with foreign-sympathzin
population, whose patriotism was at one
time suspected. Minneapolis. Chicago
Boston. Kansas City, Richmond, Atlanta
and Cleveland are ahead of US and only
New York, San Francisco and Dallas are
behind this city.
Yet there is probably no district in the
whole country which has prOfited more
from the money spent in the war than
Philadelphia. Billions, have been paid
out here for war material of various
pockets Of the manufacturers in the shape
of enormous profits and into the pockets
of workngmen in the shape of wages
twice as bigs as they ever earned before.
A i the government asks is that these
people, manufacturers and workngmen,
should lend to it some of the money they
have received. The rate of interest of
fered is generous. 1t is far more than
the savings banks can afford to pay. 1t
is more than any safe industrial bond will
yield above the income tax.
And it is morally certain that the Vic
tory notes will be selling for more than
their face value before they fall due in
five years. Although they are to run
| only five years, it is more than kelly
| that most of the issue will be refunded
into long-term bonds, for the govern
ment will be compelled to raise so much
| to pay the interest on the war debt and
! to meet current expenses that it will be
practically impossible, even if it were
! thought eXpedent, to increase the tax
! burdens to such an extent as to enable
it to pay off any of the principal of the
! debt in the near future.
II is not safe for any one to assume
that the banks and the owners of large
fortunes will come to the rescue of the
loan. The banks cannot invest their
| funds in it without using money that is
needed for ordinary business expansion.
And the money the banks have comes,
anyway, from the deposits of the bust
ness men of the city. The business men
are putting their surplus into the Vic
tory notes without depositing it in the
banks save to be checked out immedi-
ately to pay for the notes.
And the great capitalists have had
their incomes taxed so heavily, some of
them up to 60 per cent, that they have
not the funds at hand to buy government
securities to the extent that they bought
them two years ago.
The little people must come to the res.
cue of the loan in greater numbers. An
average subscription of SIS person will
fill the quota before Saturday night The
subscriptions of men who can take
$4,000 worth will make up for the fail
ure OF the very poor, who cannot take
anything. But if some of the well-to dc
should learn how large a part of then
income working girls are mortgaging ir
order to do their share they would be
ashamed of their own lack of public
spirit.
The loan must not be allowed to fail
We shouldered the responsibility for i
when we entered the war. Our sons ant
our brothers went to France or to tn,
training camps. They gave up thei
positions in business and their comfort
; able manner of life and faced the risk o
death while the rest of us remained a
home Some of us stepped into the posi-
, tions vacated by the soldiers and re
ceived the pay they had surrendered, an
we profited by the chances for promOtio
which they forwent.
The duty which remained for US wa
to provide the money to pay for tn
training of the army and the enlarge
navy and to provide them with food an
! clothing and guns and ammunition, S
! that they might do their work effectivel
: and to send along with them doctors an
, nurses, so that those who were injure
! might receive the proper treatment.
4 It is inconceivable that we shall refus
i To nav the bills. 1t would be like refusin
10 nav the doctor who had saved our lif
No reputable man does this even if
n has to deny himself all luxuries in ordt
r to get the money. But, as already il
Il dicated, the government is not asking l
+ to give it the money. 1t is only askin
: that it be lent.
|, From another point Of view the loa