Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-04-25
M'CORD REPLIES
TO COMPLAINTS
OF OPPONENTS
OF VICTORY LOAN
Poured Out Money Instead of Blood
of Our Boys, He Says-..EIIis
Finishing Plans

AHopiid dIloH IpF the coming TASK OF
sending Sumter county over the top
in the Victory loan, the campaign for
which will be launched very soon by
Chairman Ellis, was furnished a num-
Der of Sumter county citizens today
by Joseph A McCord, of Atlanta,
chairman of the board of directors of
the Federal Reserve bank, at lunch
con in his honor at the Windsor ho-
tel. Mr. McCord told the thirty men
gathered together, in a heart-to- heart
business talk, why the loan had to be
raised. and how it was to be raised
Following the talk, Chairman Ellis
reported that the plans for the cam
paign in Sumter were well under way
and would be announced shortly. They
include the use of the card system,
by which every citizen will be assess
ed the amount of bonds he is expected
to subscribe for. Chairman Ellis also
stated that he was completing his
committees, which will also be an
nounced shortly.
Mr.. McCord answered the COM
plant of many people that the gov
ernment has wasted money iii its war
spending.
grant you that money has been
spent freely and lavishly-even reck-
lessly, we might say. But 1 want to
ask you, when it comes to ques-
ton of pouring out the life blood of
our boys in Flanders or in pouring
out our money, if itsis not thousand
times better to have poured out our
money!"
At another place in his talk, he
touched upon the condition of the
South in relation to the cotton mar
ket.
"The government for the last eight
years." said he, through the Federal
Reserve bank system, has provided the
means for financing the crops of the
South, and we see an example of it to-
day when our farmers have been able
eral months, selling it when they
chose, or holding it, as many of them
are yet doing, until they get the price
they want. l want to say that the
Federal Reserve bank has made it
possible, working through your local
banks, for the farmer to borrow on his
cotton as he needs or wants, and this
being the case, he can buy bonds, of
course. Or, on the other hand, if he
has already borrowed on his cotton
and spent the money, he has no right
to complain
Mr. McCord pointed out the public
policy involved in securing a wide
circulation for government bonds.
Before the war began" he said.
there were only $4,000 government
bond owners in America. At the close
of the fourth Liberty loan there were
22,000,000 bond owners This has i'm
proved our citizenship, for money saw
ing makes good citizenship, and pro-
vides the surest and greatest weapon
againt the spirit of unrest-of Boil
shevism--which this country will have
to face sooner or later, just as the rest
of the world has faced it or is facing
it."
Showing how the country had not
been drained by the previous enor-
nous loans, he declared that this was
because the only man going in debt
was Uncle Sam.
"And Uncle Sam, after raising the
money, took it and paid it out for
supplies of all kinds, and it came roll
ing back in the channels of trade
said hs. when the war began we
had volume of currency averaging
about $37 per capita for the nation.
Today we have an average of $55.43.
And here is something to show you
that Uncle Sam can afford this ex-
pense, enormous as it seems. The tan
gible property in the United State is
valued at 300 billions of dollars. The
increment on this is estimated
at 10 per cent or 80 billions of an
nual increased wealth, while the total
cost of the war to this country, in
cluding loans to our Allies, was only
26 billions"
Mr.. McCord denounced the man who
refuses to do his duty in this loan as
unfit to enjoy the protection and
privileges OF this government. when
those boys who went to France. many
of whom gave thousand times more
of whom COVE thousand times more