The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1941-09-26
OUR DEBT MORTGAGES
US UP TO ONE-THIRD


OUR DEBT MORTGAGES
US UP TO ONE-THIRD
WHEN FIGURES run into the bill
lions they become meaningless. To
any of us they. are incomprehensi-
BILE. They are no more than the
ciphers 1t takes to write such num-
Der. Our public debt, that of our
municipal, county, state and federal
governments, cannot be stated in
comprehensive terms unless some
comparison can be given.
We, as people, owe today APP
proximately 1875 billions of dollars.
That includes the bonded indebted
ness of our municipal, county, state
and federal governments. 1t in
cludes also the indebtedness Of the
numerous administrations, corpora
tions and bureaus established by
congress and for which we have
guaranteed the accounts, amounting
to several billion dollars. 1t in
cludes the billions of appropriations
made by congress which will be
spent during the next IL to IL
months, in excess of any revenue
with which to pay.
The total value of everything we,
as a people, own is placed at 375
billion dollars. That is the value OF
all our land, our homes, farms, live
stock, crops, railroads, mines, for
ests, factories, machines, merchan-
disc, everything, including our bank
deposits, insurance policies and cur
rency.
We, as a people, have morteaged
everything we own to the extent of
one-third of it's total value.
And the end is not in sight.
In 1870 the Germans defeated
France and captured Paris. The
French people, at that time, ram
somed their country for what was
then considered the tremendous sum
of one billion dollars. Today it
would take 1875 times that sum to
ransom America, to buy off our
creditors.
The end will be for us as a people
just what the end always is for an
individual when the indebtedness be-
comes greater than he can pay,
greater than his assets will pro-
duce, when sold under the hammer
bankruptcy. And that means
chaos for all Of us.
FOR DEFENSE America needs
mechanical equipment. It needs
especially new and big guns to de-
fend our coast line; planes, and lots
of them, for the same purpose.
Grant the defeat of England, which
will not happen, and the surrender
to Hitler of the British navy, it
would still be impossible for Ger
man army to invade our shores. Big
guns and an abundance of planes
will protect our coast line from
naval or air attacks.
We consider the city of Honolulu
and the island of Oahu impregnable,
not because of the large force of
soldiers stationed there, but because
of the big guns and the airplanes.
To defend America against any at
tack that might be made upon us
for many years, we need big guns
and airplanes along our coast line.
We need ordnance far more than
quantities of manpower and such
manpower as is needed must be
technically trained to be effective.
SEEING IN MANY COUNTRY
NEWSPAPERS departments by
county agents recalls a Sunday
spent with Howard Gross in the
early years of the century.
Gross arrived at my home early
in the morning before had break
tasted. He had spent Saturday aft
ernoon and evening with James j.
Hill, and was enthused over an idea
Mr.. Hill had expressed for carrying
agricultural education to the farmer
as means of producing more and
better farm crops. Through the day
and evening we worked into rough
draft what later became the Smith
Lever bill, the final passage of which
created the county agent system
throughout the United States.
The following week an organiza-
ton was perfected to back the pro-
posed legislation. Twice each
mOntn IOr period OF nearly nVe
years that organization met at the
Union League club in Chicago be-
fore it succeeded in getting the bill
through both houses of congress. It
seemed strange to me at the time
that the strongest opposition came
from the agricultural department
and it was finally passed despite that
opposition. It was insisted there
was danger of the county agent be-
coming part of a political machine
used to control the farm vote. Those
of us who were attempting to secure
enactment of the bill made every
effort to prevent such a possibility.
James j. Hill, Howard Gross and
the small group of men forming the
National Soil Fertility league were
responsible for the county agent
system of carrying agricultural edu-
cation to the farmer. The idea was
Mr.. Hills.