Show i tV tVR I IF TF R Adam had bad started saving t WERE is where N John 5 35 S day from the 8 L J-L RImE HERE D a beginning begin begin- Erl E Rockefeller has ning of of recorded ti time e. e he ho laugh on our the th wouldn't t be a billionaire q ancestor i i for or many thousand years yet t o r Q r j oJ S. S A 4 4 I r I II I f I II I i Mentally Grasping One Billion Dollars i CONGRESS has bas spent a billion dollars donars complained an irate taxpayer to that astute and witted sharp-witted statesman I Thomas Brackett Reed speaker of that particular offending of- of offending offending of of- fending session of the National Assembly I The United States has become a dollar billion-dollar country retorted Mr Reed with his peculiar drawl This for two years of Congress N Now ow we think nothing of a billion a I year In fact we talk glibly and idly of billions where our forbears spoke awesomely and slowly of a million This war has made everybody talk in inI I terms of billions Luckily for us we cling to the American billion An AnI English billion is a thousand times lar larger larger larger-a r-a r a million millions Our I billion is only a thousand millions I NOW Ow what is a billion r Not in men or miles or bulI bullets bullets bul bul- lets or years years all all of which also exist in I fi v c our earthly relations relations but but in dollars which is is a pretty plain language i Everybody knows the silver dollar J It weighs about an ounce and it is an aninch inch and a half in diameter If a billion of these nice new dollars were werl 4 y laid aid out in a long line each touching 5 5 the other r they would stretch just i miles which is almost around the earth A crisp dollar bill is about 7 s 73 H inches long If a billion bills were T l' P Ht tir war would have to last laid end to end they would make a line years for lor Gen f. f five IV t. t times l S as 1 longs longi ong o or ml miles 1 es Pershing to earn at Major-General's Major pay which is tS just half the distance fro from the earth to the moon Unfortunately ly we would have some difficulty in making either experiment There are not a a. billion silver dollars in existence T To be exact just In fact all the silver-money silver in the World is but Nor are there a billion greenbacks either A billion in silver dollars weighs tons That vast weight would balance obelisks of the s size ze of New Yorks York's historic monolith in Central Park In gold a billion dollars would weigh 1920 tons or about ten obelisks Suppose we count a billion We do it at the rate of 75 a minute and count twelve hours a a. day resting on Sundays At the end of 51 years we we shall hall not have quite completed ted our task In other words if we started to 1 count to-day to we would be near the finish on New Years Year's Day 1969 Treasury experts count silver dollars an hour and can keep it up at this rate all of their hour eight-hour day In just 31 working days the Treasury man will have Counted a million dollars A million a month roughly But he has a thousand a-thousand millions to count He would finish the job at the end of years I I TF IF F paid out in wages a billion dollars would give work t to persons at 2 a day for a whole year Uncle Sam pays his soldiers 30 a month A billion dollars dollar will wilt keep an army of a million men men regulars and guardsmen and arld from the selective draft two draft two years and nine months months' perhaps long enough IQ tp win the war It will pay soldiers for a whole year A A billion dollars is just lust less than all the capital of all th the national banks in the country It would be short by only of ol paying the national debt We mine about worth of gold every twelve months To mine a billion would take about eleven cleven years If we we min mined d our billion in silver at the ordinary rate of a year i it would require almost twenty nine years practically a generation If Adam the first man had started earning and saving 5 a day from Crom the beginning of recorded time he wouldn't be as rich day to-day as any of ofa a hundred of our every day millionaires He would be a billionaire i in A. A D. D They say Mr Rockefeller however is already a billion aire acre So it can be assumed that he saves more than 5 a day J There are dep depositors in all the savings banks in the Unit Unite States If they each saved a year they could save a billion in about abot eleven months As a m matter of fact these have saved 4 i 1 i 4 A A BILLION dollars divided a among ong all the people of the United State Stat would give each person about 10 If one person attempted tj 9 pay it out he could never catch up through all eternity for the interest would accumulate faster than his hands could move in parceling out ib money President Wilsons Wilson's salary is a year The people would haue halla to keep on electing him for terms or years for him hun to earn earn ii a billion dollars j The war would have to last years for Gen Pershing to earn a billion dollars at t the rate of year III Major Generals pay A billion seconds is 31 years days 1 hour and 40 seconds A billion miles is more than ten times the distance distance distance dis dis- tance from the earth to the sun A t soldiers soldier's allowance of ammunition for fora a days day's battle is is rounds It wOl would d r i b. b take an army of men to shoot off a billion bullets in a day And a billion years is almost twenty times as long as the earths earth's r r rage age which is fixed at only about I. I t a years A billion year years is A Ll Bl-Ll BULLION BILLION N silver dollars laid than the A A. probably even longer suns sun's 10 in line would stretch age In fact about the only thing older miles miles almost almost around than a billion years is eternity itself the earth j |