The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-03-30

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| haves been throwing the incredible
figures at your head. Neither you MOI
anybody else has the faintest concep.
ton Of what billion dollars really
Is. We speak Familiarity of billions al
q commonplace, but most Of Ss live
our lives In terms Of hundreds.
l have shown you that every ont
Of US, man, woman and child. In this
country, paid last year $53.77 each
toward the support of the government
OF course, every person does not pay
exactly $53.T. A great many pay
more and some pay less; but those
who pay the most try to take it out
Of those who pay the least by increas
ing the prices of what they have to
sell, or of services rendered Or work
performed, so that 1t averages out at
S53.T. Some pay more than their
share, others pay less. This is called
an incident of taxation. The whole
point is that we all pay; that we pay
now more thar We ever paid before =;
and there is no present prospect Of our
paying less for some years. .
In this way we have all paid our
share in the World war. The net cost
of that enterprise to date has been
S24, 1OO,OOO ,O0O, or, including our loans
to foreign governments, which have
not been repaid, $333, 455, 0OO, 900. These
are official treasury figures. Do not
let your eyes run owe them lightly.
T~hirty-three billion four hundred and
hfty-ive million dollars is an almost
incomprehensible sum. The cost of
running the national government is
now around $4,000, 0OO 1000 a year, The
experts say that for the next two or
three years the cost of the government
will not descend below about 50. OOO.-
100000 a year.
l want you clearly to understand the
immensely, the magnitude, the over
whelming size of such sums. We
chatter about billions nowadays with
out In the least knowing what Is a
billion. Let me try to bring it home
to you. It is now, roughly speaking.
1920 years since the birth of Christ.
We do not know precisely and accu-
rately at what hour and on what day
Christ was born. But under the Gre
gorian calendar, according to which
we now reckon time, we have a
record Of the days since January first
Of the year one, Ammo Domini. From
the beginning Of the year one to Jam
nary l. 1871, there elapsed about 701,-
267 days, or, to reduce 1t further,
16,83O,4O8 hours, which being reduced
again. means 1908, 1924, 4SO minutes.
!. I will ask you to remember that the
whole history Of the modern world
from the first second Of the year one
to the last second of the year 1920
has been compressed into 1,0O9, 824,48
minutes. ~. ~
Now Let us suppose that with the
permission OF the Roman authorities
the United States had established q
disbursing officer at Jerusalem on the
drst day OF the year one with instruc-
lions to pay out SIS q minute day and
night, Sundays and holidays included.
right down through the centuries to
New Years day, 1921.
Suppose he had been given 1866
OO0.7O6 to start him on his long spell
Of spending. That Is one estimate OF
the sum that 1t cost to d this 9oy-
ernEent. In 1920. On the morning OF
January ], 1921, this mythical disburs-
ing officer. giving money away at the
rate Of NJ q minute, would have spent
only s ,O49,1 22, 400, and would still
be one OF the richest mel in the
world, for he would have left Oh
hand $636,ss3 3O6 OF the original sum.
Paying out at the rate Of SIS d minute
Tor more than 1900 years, he would
not have kept pace with the cost af
npkeep OF this government for the ore
Jingle year 1920.
Suppose this imaginary government
spender had been authorized TO d
out at the rate OF 323 d minute through
the centuries. He would NOT have
finished, "a January 1921, paying
tor y share of Tie cost OF the Wurld