The Glenwood post., 1920-12-25
Uncle Ted'S Bed Time Stories
Current Events For the Children
and Grown-ups, Too
COLLECT THE NATIONS BILLS

The children were gathered around
the fire for the storytelling hour be-
fore bed time. Uncle Ted settled him
self in his easy chair, lighted his
cigar and invited Jack to suggest a
topic for the evenings talk.
''This morning at school, said Jack,
one of the boys told the teacher he had
been reading what some Congressman
and government officials at Washing
ton had been saying about the need of
taxes being kept just as high as they
are now, and that if they are reduced
at all the treasury will not have enough
money to pay it's bills. He wanted to
know why, now that the war is over,
it is necessary to have such big gov
ernment expenses. The teacher said
that one of the reasons for the high
taxes was the need of paying interest
every year on Liberty bonds. I wish
you would tell us, Uncle Ted, why 1T
is that so much of our tax money has
to go for interest, and if there is not
some way of stopping those payments
and cutting down taxes that much.'
"That is a pretty big question for
children of your age to understand -
replied Uncle Ted, surprised that Jack
should want to know how the govern
ment raises and spends its money. "But
the matter of taxation is one that af-
fects all of us very closely, and the
children in the schools should have
some idea at least of the reasons for
it. 1t is too big subject for me to
tell you everything about it tonight,
so | will just talk to you about the
Liberty bonds and why it is we have
to pay so much interest upon them
Perhasp some other night | will tell
you about other features of our tax
problem
.'Of course, you remember that dur
ing the war there We're five Liberty
bond drives. Everybody was urged to
buy bonds until it hurts.' Millions
of men, women and children took their
money out of the savings banks and
bought Liberty bonds with it. Some
of the bonds have been bought back by
the treasury. but today almost twenty
billion dollars worth of them are still
in the hands of the people who bought
them or of other people who purchased
them from the original owners. Each
year the treasury is going to buy some
of these bonds back with money ap-
propriated by Congress, and as The
amount held by the people grows small
er, of course the interest paid by the
government will grow less, but at the
present time it is about $90O,OOo,o 900 a
year. That is a tremendous sum and
requires almost a quarter of all the
government tax money to pay, but
there is way it can be reduced more
than half, and that is what l want to
tell you about so that you can explain
it to the other boys when you go to
school tomorrow.
"When Cngress passed the laws di-
reeting the secretary of the treasury
to raise money by the sale of Liberty
bonds, paragraph was included say
ing that he could lend some of the
money to the allies to aid them in carry
ing on the war with Germany. The sec
rotary was told that these loans must
not exceed $looOO,0OOoOO, inst about
half of all the money the people paid
into the treasury for the bonds. Be-
ginning with April %, 1917, the treas
ury turned over millions of dollars al
most every day to the representatives.
of the allied governments stationed IN
Washington. Even as recently as Sep
tember 2S of this year a payment Of
slo,OoO,O9O was made to France, and
tho secretary says that other payments
are to be made in the future. Alto
gether the money the United States has
loaned to foreign governments amounts
to about $4,000, OO,6OO,oOO.
"Now when that money was received
by the allies they gave receipt for
it. called promissory note, stating
that interest on the loan, at the rate
of per cent every year, would be paid
until the loan was returned to the
United States treasury. Of course, if