OCR Text |
Show THE OBLIGATION OF THE NEW VEAR Our National Debt on June 30 Will Be Twenty-Six Billions, Say Treasury Officials. A year ago we knew only victory. Flushed with it .we loked forward to 1!19 ignorant of whnt was in store, yet confidant. We stand now upon the threshold of 1920, still confident, yet in the light of the year that has gone, viewing clearly some of the colossal economic and nationnl problems which we must meet and conquer. On June 20, 1M0, we shall have, as accurately as the Treasury Depart , ment can figure, a national debt of i twenty six billions of dollars, the greatest total which has ever stood against us on the debit side of the world's ledger. We shall have to pay that debt. A national debt of twenty six bil- ; lions or dollars is one of the same elements el-ements and cnlls for the same solution as the debt of one dollar that John Jones owes his neighbor. It is capital spent before it is earned, and must be I paid by working and saving. A nation America is the sum to- I tal of its citizenship. The only way we can pay our debt of twenty six billions of dollars is the way John I Jones pays his debt of one dollar. Every individual must save money i from that which he earns. If he doesn't do it willingly, he will have I to do it under compulsion. In other words, he will pay taxes. The Government does not want to j incrense taxes. As a matter of fact, I it wants to reduce them. The more j money the people will save and lend ' to the Government that much less taxes will they pay. Saving now is as important, if not ' more mi port ant tlutn during Um wui . 'Tremendous production of necessities and curtailed output of nonessentials is as important now ns it was during the war if we are to regain our economic econ-omic balance. Make it an inviolable New Year's resolution to save something every I day, every week, and every month during 1920, thuB helping yourself and your country. The Government is contonuing the sale of War Savings I Stamps and Treasury Certificates to I help you do it. Buy them regularly from any bank or postoffice. a . |