Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1919-03-29
LOAN SIX BILLION
Figures For the Victory Loan More Likely
to be Six Billion Rather
Than Five.

Than Five.
Washington, Mar. With the an
nouncement today that collections from
the first % per centinstallment payment
of income and profit taxes last Saturday
amounted to 81 ,OOOOOO,0OO and might go
higher with later reports, the last fnan-
cial milestone preceding the victory
liberty loan had been passed, and it
seems probable that the loan will be
for approximately $6,0O000o,0OO
Governors of federal reserve banks
attending a conference closing tonight
were told that although official state
ments to the amount Of loan heretofore
have referred to five or six billions, y
the higher figure was nearer correct,
Treasury officials emphasized, however,
that the amount had not actually been
determined
THE LOAN OF THANKFULNEss.
Just suppose you are driving along
peaceably in your automobile, not tspeed-
ing nor driving carelessly, yet making
progress for all that; suppose that,
rounding turn in the road, you sud
denly see a chasm ahead, made by a
washed-out bridge.
In this crisis you accept the one chance
of escaping annihilation. You atomati-
cally shut off the power and jam on the
brakes while the machine skids up to
the edge Of the abyss and stops. After
an intense moment of waiting, you all
step out unhurt, You find however,
that the effort of stopping has ruined
two expensive tires, burned out your
brake Innings and damaged some minor
braces.
If this really happened to you, what
would you do? Would you bemoan the
damages to your car and regret the pros
pective repair bill? Or would you thank
God that you had been able to save
precious lives, no matter at what ex-
pense? Ifyou are a regular man, you
would be devoutly thankful and when
the time came would pay the expense
bill thankfully.
So each and all of US ought to feel to.
ward the coming Victory Liberty Loan,
A year ago now, just previous to the
great enemy offensive-the effort which
Germany promised would quickly end
the war in favor of autocraCy-a certain
Prussian nobteman gave an outline OF
his country's peace terms. They includ.
ed, in addition to the annexation Of Bel.
gium and northern France, the payment
into the Kaiser's treasury Of an indem.
nifty of which minimum shall be Forty.
| five Billion Dollars, to be paid by Amer.
lea if France and Great Britain are
| unable" These brazen terms also in,
cluded conditions that would have left
the menace of autocracy frowning at US
across the Atlantic and awaiting favor.
able opportunity to strike and subdue
| America also.
| How different it is today
| Exactly like the folks in that automo
bile, we Americans, we people of the
Ninth Federal Reserve District, have al
miraculously escaped a disaster, dread
ful in its potentialtes for evil As &
nation, we have not only escaped almost
unhurt but we have emerged with added
riches, renown and prestige. Never
again will any autocrat dare tlaunt Amer
ica Succeeding generations will be safc
from that peril. 1t has cost Uncle San
a tidy sum of money and it will cos
some billions more to Finish the iob"-
to repair the damage caused by the etfor
of suddenly stopping the war. Blu
what is mere money compared to tht
saving of lives and the maintenance o
the great principles upon which this Re
public is built?
We ought to be glad and thankful w
do not have to pay some Of that mini
mum Of FoTty-fv Billion Dollars" w
ought to be glad and thankful we ESCAPED
disaster last spring and summer. w
ought to be supremely thankful that vic
tory was achieved for us at so low a cos
"a cost we can pay by loaning Uncl
Sam our money at fair rate of interest
Let us thank God, from whom al
blessings flow" Let US put our thank
fulness into deeds by buying more Vic
tory Liberty Loan Bonds next montl
No IN hflu