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Show The Farmer and War Bonds by Mr. A. S. Goss Master of the National Grange WS FREQUENTLY hear farmers farm-ers raise the question as to whether or not they should buy War Bonds as long as they are in debt. The answer to this question should depend in large measure upon the nature of the debt and whether or not it is current. If part of it is past due, and the borrower expects to experience difficulty in meeting past due payments, he probably should bring his debt into current position before investing in Bonds. If, however, his payments pay-ments are current, there seems to be no reason why farmers should not buy as many Bonds as they are able. Most individual investors invest-ors in government Bonds are carrying car-rying debt in one form or another, an-other, at rates higher than the Bonds will yield. This is as it should be if the purchaser is in an earning position wfiich permits the accymulation of stftrte surplus, for we owe it to our government to do our utmost in the financing of the war, even though the transaction trans-action may result in our paying some extra interest on outstanding outstand-ing debts. When a farmer owes money, he is always concerned as to whether his crops will sell at prices which will enable him to repay his debt. When prices are high it is good business and conservative finance to reduce the debt as rapidly as possible because when prices are low, it takes more crops and more efforts to make the payments. We should not forget, however, how-ever, that a government Bond will pay off an equal amount of dolhirs of debt, no matter whether prices arc high or whellvr prices are low. It is, therefore, a sound cud conservative con-servative practice to buy government gov-ernment liMitls and lay them 4 ; i aside to make payments on existing debts when they fall due. In fact, quite aside from the patriotic appeal, it is good business to buy Bonds rather than make pre-payments- on debt, because the time may come when the ready cash is needed and the money tied up in pre-payments cannot be returned. re-turned. If this money is invested in-vested in Bonds, it can be converted con-verted into cash to meet any needs which may arise. If everyone followed the policy of buying no War Bonds until their debts were paid, few Bonds would be sold to the public. We have an obligation to help finance this war which is vastly more important than the income we may receive on the investment of money in War Bonds. Farmers are finding it impossible impossi-ble to maintain their machinery and buildings in a satisfactory state of repair. They are finding that they cannot replace worn-out equipment except at excessively high cost. It would seem to be sound and conservative business practice to lay aside money to make the repairs and replace re-place worn-out equipment when material and machines are again available. No safer place can be found to lay aside money for such purposes than in government Bonds. Every time we buy a Bond we are not only assisting in financing the war, but we are also doing our bit to prevent that most dreaded economic disaster called inflation. If each one of us would invest as much as we could in government Bonds, the danger of inl'.ation would be greatly reduced. U. S. Trccs-jry Dcfarlniciti |
