Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-12-16
Where Your
Taxes Go
How Uncle Sam Spends
Your Money in Conduct
ing You. Business
BY EDWARD G. LOWRY
Author Washington Close-Ups j." Banks and
Financial Systems" etc. Contributor Political
and Economic Articles to Leading Periodicals
and Writer of Recognized Authority I'm the
National Governments BUSINESS Methods
BY EDWARD G. LOWRY
Copyright. Western Newspaper Union
VII.
WHAT PERSHING THINKS


The appropriations OF the five great
powers for military and naval pur-
poses in the year 1920 alone reached
total of SIG, 442251, 101, sum only
about $2,OO00O0,OOO more than the
total for the whole fourteen years be-
fore the war.
II all comes down to this so far as
you are concerned:
Every morning when you go to
| work, or when you stay at home sick
on working day, or even if you
are out of job, it has been arranged
for YOU to pay your fair share out
Of what you earn or should earn, of
over S50O0,O00 day for the support
of the army and navy That is the
estimate for the fiscal year 1922
over S5,O00,000 a day. have General
Pershing's word for it, You will have
to pay it. Five million dollars every
working day is pile of money to
| spend for insurance against attack
And of course that is not all the
cost What is The big idea? What do
YOU think about it? You will have to
| pay the bill. DO you think about 1t
at all? General 'ershing does. This
is what he thinks:
"As we consider the causes of the
| World war and comprehend its hor-
rors, every thinking man and woman
| must feel that measures should be
| taken to prevent another such cal
amity. One step i'm that direction
would be to reduce expenditures for
/ armament. Our own estimates FOR
naval and military purposes contem.
plate an appropriation for the fiscal
year 1922 of over S5,O00,OO0 for every
working day in he year. 1t Is a
gloomy prospect that the nations plan
expenditures greater than ever before
in peacetimes.
ut would appear that recent ex-
perienceS should he enough to con-
vince everybody OF the danger of a
renewal of this competition. But one
nation cannot reduce ornaments un-
less all do. 1t is time that enlightened
people everywhere should undertake
to rea eh some rational agreement
which would not only relieve the
world of its heavy financial burden
but which in itself would go far TO-
ward the prevention Of war. We are
not warlike people We do not
wish TO expand at the expense Of any
other nation, and we have no designs
on anybody. If other people feel the
same toward us and toward each
other it seems unreasonable that they
should be unwilling to consent In
principle to some limitation of arma-
ments 10 he carried out when other
nations succeed in establishing stable
governments and are willing to recog-
nlZ" the wisdom of such a course
otherwise, may we not seriously ask
| ourselves whether civilization is
failure. and whether we are to regard
war as an unavoidable scourge that
mankind must suffer?
There are other considerations
which should prompt us to make every
effort tn bring shout a curtailment of
these expenditures throughout the
world, particularly in the war-worn
countries of Europe. The people of
Europe have always been our best
customers and are largely dependent
unOn us for certain necessities. We
must look to them TO buy the products
OF our farms, mines and factories.
The prosperity of our people depends
III no small measure upon the unin-
| terrupted flow of commodities abroad.
We have stocks Of COTTON. wheat and
other products greatly in excess of
our own requirements, which the
people of Europe sorely need but
which we cannot sell and they can
not buy because their fiscal systems
have broken down. their currencies
have deprecated, and their purchasing
| power is exhausted.
''Tle first step to take in the re-
habiliation of the finances of all these
countries is to reduce the cost of
government S0 that expenses will not
| exceed the incomes. Expenditures
must be lowered everywhere If
| financial stability is TO be restored and
| If the nations are ever tn pay their
debts, Until stability is restored none
can hive prosperity that comes from a
free and uninterrupted flow of products
from one country TO another But this
cannot be done If huge sums continue
to he appropriated for the mainte-
nance Of large armies and large navies.
1.-THE safety of humanity In the
future indeed the peace the happiness
and the prosperity OF the racial
appeal alike for an early consideration
OF the question Of limited armaments."
Broadly speaking. II Is the man who
profits, and not the simple average
man who endures, who is behind all
| this movement for ever increasing
| armament. If you doubt this lust go
out in your own neighborllOOd and ask
men who were actually n the war.
who saw service In The line, whether
they want any more Of 1t.
1