Omaha daily bee., 1919-02-27
Pay and Be Cheerful
New York Times.

I New Iork Times.
When the war tax bill was pending it was
duty to point out its badness with a view to
its betterment That hope being gone, it is an
equal duty to encourage prompt and cheerful
compliance with its terms. That course will be
no harder for the taxpayers, but will be a great
help to those whose nearly equally difficult
duty it is to spend the billions others pay. The
treasury has done so much to temper the harsh
ness of Mr.. Kitchin's ideas that all men speak
we'll of it. The contrast is such that Mr..
Kitchin and his accomplices perhaps take pride
in their security from the Biblical warning,
Beware when all men speak we'll of thee" 1t
may seem to- them that in the generality OF
their condemnation there is proof of their sue
cess in furnishing profit and disturbing tax bur-
dens in the manner dscouraging to enterprise
and discriminating between sections OF the
country and classes of the citizenship.
But all that lies behind, and it is patriotic
duty to look to the future. There is no idea
in any quarter that our conditions are as bad
as those of the rest of the world. Our debts
are comparatively trivial Our assets are al
most untouched. Our vigor is lessened not at
all. Nothing is lacking to us except the psychol-
ogy of prosperity. The facts of the situation
are as solid as the ground beneath our feet. We
retain the momentum of the war expenditures
which has given the country spending power
never known before, and as yet undimnshed.
Bank cearngs for the first week of the current
month were 10 per cent above the previous
week, and a quarter over last year. which was a
maximum. We must remain the up grade
until there is all arrest of what the purist and
theorists call initiation. Without quarrelng
over the word, admitting what there is in it of
reproach, practical men find i'll the condition of
the bank loans and reserves proof both of the
moderation with which the situation has been
treated and of the resources remaining in hand,
Within week the statement has been published
showing that for the first time the resources of
- ,
included only 5 per cent of the war loans. A
few days earlier was published the annual state
ment of the Federal Reserve bank showing that
the SYSTEMS gold reserve had shrunk only
$17,400000 during the war, and that the excess
of the systems free gold was S528 100000. There
are billions of credit awaiting use; 40 per cent
is the required reserve, larger than customary
under most conservative foreign practice, and
yet our reserve at no time has fallen below 90
per cent
Bankers do not need this information, and
others are likely to regard it as something apart
from their daily lives. There is plenty of more
popular, although less important, testimony that
prosperity is still with us and not something to
be hoped for Thus the New York Industrial
commission has just reported that the latest
analysis of the totals of wage payments shows
the latest envelope ever paid to workers. Last
months report shows a decline of employment
by only per cent The slightness of the eff
is shown both by the activity ofthe retail stores
and by the increase of the savings bank de-
posts. Since armistice day more than $780,
100000 have been paid into the savings
banks of this state alone. The president of the
largest retail dry goods firm of the middle west
said last week;
"The retail dry goods business has always
been an excellent barometer of the purchas-
ing power of the people Reports that we
have received from all sections of the country
prove that the months of December, 1918, and
January, 1919, have shown the largest volume
OF retail distribution in history"
II unemployment impends wages cannot
prudently be spent. IF industries are slowing
down, only the rash will speed up. There is a
time for caution, but it is not now. There is
time for courage and this is the time The
Steel Corporation, for example, is making goods
tor stock, not to prevent industrial decline, but
because it foresees demand ahead which it will
be in position to supply when any who now
are slowing up will be looking about for help
more difficult to get then than now. An indus
try that can make profits now will confer a
benefit on the country by its activities. ANY
worker who declines work because war wages
are not offered is in class with the profiteers
when their practices are nefarious. No banker
should withhold credit from those who have
confidence in their undertakings based on rea-
son. Good as the advice is to increase consump-
ton, advice to increase production is better vet
Nothing stimulates consumption more than pro-
duction, for it sustains both the material mar
kets and the wages fund and tends TO reduce
the cost of living not by contraction, but by the
sort of initiation which all praise, the distribu-
ton of goods