Imperial Valley press., 1919-01-27
VICTORY AND THE PRICE.

Positive announcement from the treasury
department that the next Liberty loan Whlch Is
10 he denominated the victory loan VIII not eA
coed Sc 600 600 900 and may possibly he held
down to SIS, ,O00, 100000 is notice to the people Vi
America that we still have tremendous task
ahead in meeting conditions grorWlng out ol
the war. ~. f
When we have urged the desirabillty OF
prompt and energetic action IN the war DepalI
ment with respect to the task OF demoolllzaIloi
and of equally prompt acton IN regfao
the cancellation of war contracts for manu1ac-
tured goods, insofar as it could be equltaply
done we have had in mind the gigantic costs
which were being piled up TO the people 10 pay.
There is no escape. Every dollar of these
COSTS those impossible of escape, ana those
which might be obviated or partially ooVlatea
bv pron1pter action must be met with hardearn
ed cash There is nothing mythical or mysterl-
Gus about it. There is no act OF legerdemalh
that can change the mathematics of the situation
bv the smallest fraction. Every dollar OF cost
has got to be paid for by one hundred cents.
And while we are going to float bonds now 10
meet the emergency, the bonds ultimately have
got to be paid We must not lose sight OF the
fact that the really big task IS not merely 1loat
ing the loan, simply selling the bonds.
The hard grinding task is going to oe the
payment of the bonds.
They will mature some day, and Whll1 we
may refund many issues, we shall undoubtedly
be compelled to do ultimately we have got to
nav our debts. Money borrowed from the bank
by individuals has to be paid back. And money
borrowed by the nation from its citizens must
likewise be paid back dollar for dollar and inter-
est thereon.
This whole financing has been on so prodlg
ious a scale that the ordinary mind, unschooled
to large financial problems, has really very lit
tie intelligent grasp of its true significance
1t is well at moment when our representa-
tves are in session at the council table IN France
charged with the responsibility Of making peace
with our enemies for US to take stock Of this
great debt.
We are agreed that this nation should have
entered the war. 1t was debt we owed not
mererly. to our own selfrespect but which we
owned to the peoples of the earth. But we were
dragged into the thing by a graspng band OF
murderers and robbers who imagined they
could conquer the earth. 1t is because of them
and because of their ambitions and the hope
of their citizens behind them that we have been
compelled to spend these billions and that we
INST spend still other billions. We cannot hope
to collect our war debt from Germany. Her
entire wealth is less than one-third the cost of
the whole war But with the billions of added
costs still facing u.s. it is no moment to grow
sentimental so far as the German government is
concerned.
Millions of brave soldiers are dead upon the
battle fields. Billions of accumulated wealth
have been burned up, taken from the worlds
store Of capital.
Germany should be sadded with all the load
she can carry, and even then it will be only
tthe of the cost she has inflicted upon the bal
ance of the world
1t will take hundreds Of years to pay for this
war. This is staggering thought in itself.
And it makes the mere floating Of the bonds
seem like small task in comparison. And we
all know that is no trivial task.