Show POLITICAL spendthrifts one great greaf trouble with nien men in public life is that thear of essentials grows entirely too fast they must have thiv th for the public for which the public cannot afford to pay are therefore forcing the nation to live in a public pu c beyond its means they are political spendthrifts f ts says s mining congress Jour journal journae naf t one grave mistake now being made is in in contra anio expenditures in these times of relative peace with those thoe ill of admitted war such a method of thinking and aati senti ally characteristic of the spendthrift in priva te li 1 e dow men assume that if they have spent several tollman toll san be affe I 1 to save the life of the mother of the children they blust ms to spend half that much for an automobile by s avith all Jv ith reasoning they cons a dire and grievous necessity essit act of mere waste or extravagance 11 the solid nien men in our banka banking i ng community are bea j d i find that america in a public sense is spending 0 0 ii means leans of course we can raise the money anoney which t e yat Is ments local bl ut it 1 I state and national are spending speeding that we are paying far too high a price for the tel igodt 1 thus filters away our conservative bankers are bee beco ill in 10 vf spoken on the subject in plain and severe phrae gaste us of the consequences of this course if it shall be p ayd they point out with particularity that by our present policy fa are forcing our best men to work for the goberni than for the enrichment of themselves and the nation instead of pt putting tillo b the wealth they create into a surplus they are paying and then see the raised by taxation it Y out as ta taxes aes money squandered deregoli dere doli on all sorts of foolish enterprises this exhibition causes men luen of ingenuity and enterprise inter prise to try to conceal their earnings from the publicans public ans As they do so they invest them in tax free securities this however only causene the political extravagance to express itself in new form that is the ready sale of the latter teaches the states and municipalities that such money is easily obtained thus they borrow the money with which to indulge their extravagances they spend the states capital rather than its income As this sort of thing pyramids the bankers say that the tax burden becomes so heavy that already it is absorbing 40 per cent of the wealth which annually the whole nation creates and it is in the latter direction that the greatest danger lies Conse conservative native bankers like air blair of detroit declare that already it is becoming 6 difficult to raise the new nev capital which every business needs to keep it growing normally mr blair in a report as chairman of the committee on taxation of the michigan gan bankers association declares that at the rate we are dissipating the newly created wealth we will soon have deprived the country of the power to increase its wealth his report stops on the brink of prophecy but it is obvious after we have baug caught his thought that we are rushing toward national stagnation due to the extravagances of the present political generation As one reads through mr blairs beairs report the method by which ah the money filters out of the hands of the government becomes obvious it seems ill mostly to go to pay the salaries of men employed by government to do things which could as easily be dispensed with that is a well known trait of the spendthrift such 6 gentlemen do things t and buy things which are not needed and which only satish satisfy y a passing b whim whiff if we stand confronted by the f fact act that our b governmental expenditures are stunting the nations growth in wealth and if i it t is is proved that these expenditures are due to the employ employment employee me nt by government of men to do unnecessary thin things 6 S the sober common sense of the people will quickly conert that fault it is is appropriate that this sentiment should have come f rom om the bankers of michigan they know by extended experience Perie peri ence tice what it means to translate natural resources into national national wealth forests have done much to enrich the e nation its iron and copper deposits are still pouring z wealth into the national cof coffer fer the michi michigan 6 an bankers with wit h these ese object eject lessons it to daily before them know what means create to aate wealth also they know the amount of capital necessary keep these enterprises healthy and growing if these trained ej michigan Iichi gan n bankers see that at our political extravagances are the endangering noa ngenng such enterprises enterprise it is time for the remainder of country to awaken to the danger lt it is ls not a pleasant task for a citizen to take his govern the api it to task for this reason mr beairs blairs action has risen to i level of f a great public service |