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Show - Burden of Carrying on the War Cannot I Be Shifted to the Future ; Bj ROY C BLAKEY, Ph. o! UniterAy bl Wmnewtt - -T : , When we stop to think, we Know that it k not twenty-one billions of dollars which onr government wants ultimately, but twenty , billion dollars' worth of commodities and service. Our national income does not consist of forty-five or fifty billions' of dollars 'O? gold, silver and paper, but of that many dollars' -worth of -wheat, lumber, minerals, clothing, automobiles tc There are less than five billions of actual gold, silver and paper dollars in existence in :f he United 'States. TWe dollars are the counters in terms of which' the real things are measured and by means of vhich they are exchanged more easily. For our present purposes to ( have gold or silver or paper ia not to 'have anything of-value in itself, r but merely to have a claim upon real things for which it can be exchanged. It is obvious that our government needs money in order that it may exchange it for men and commodities, for it iis with these that it .must fight the German military forces.' It is oJjvious, also, that it must have ' these men and commodities now- Munition of 1930 and men ndt yet born cannot be hurled against the enemy's lines. The burden of furnishing furnish-ing all of these things must be asriuncd now.; it cannot be put oil till lf the future. ' . If we could borrow from oftrar nations, we might fight the wst with ' ' ' -what they loanad ferna and , we -ourselves goaheadconBuming what we produce, as we have been doing 'before the war. In that 'case, we ould thiftftke paying of tiiem that , the burden of the war, to the future. But there are no other nations who can lendto us at this time; we ourselves our-selves must raise an army, equip at and keep it supplied. Not only must all of this be done at home, but in addition we must help to feed and equip J our allies. None of this can be left to the future. v Of course the next generatinn will be injured because of this war. Billions of dollars' worth of labor and food and steel and other materials tnat are now absolutely destroyed in war are diverted from the construc-' construc-' , tion of railroads, irrigation systems, manufacturing plants, improved roads, houses, all of which might have aided our descendants and made their lives fuller and happier. If x man's property is destroyed, his children chil-dren receive an impaired heritage ; both he and they suffer. Our descendants descend-ants must suffer in this fashion because much of their patrimony is being destroyed. But their sacrifice in the future cannot relieve our present sacrifice by one jot or one tittle. We cannot, & a nation, postpone our burden if we would, nor can the future help ua. Then why delude ourselves our-selves with thinking that it can ? |
