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Show i ; : iu wrnioL'T. Sfcivfrry of the Treasury Mellon iu.s ;.. :i iii-'.l a sermon on the "Gos-p. "Gos-p. l oi' Doing -Without," which we woui-! O ,. kj sec' applfcil by every ));!!:.;,:( in.Hvi.lual ill the 'United :u iii-y. ii" )U!8 pointed the way and llio .inly way, to bring about a re-liu.'t'ou re-liu.'t'ou in tliu tax burden under whi.-h ,hU 1 ountry is staggering, p in! t;.ij v. i; il.j doiug-without va:--. !t i itiiixt- . il,it; lo Imlii posse.sa our cake and cat it. it we refuse to cut ...I Hi..U lo lit olr pocket book we can i),ive i'o legitimate groan i the clotli gives out. I '''iii'ii' i; a lot nl' selfishness in Mils world of oiirs: federal, State, Yen ;.i u n i I y and individual. Self- i'siK'ess which crops out whenever I ; ; 'dot is trodden upon, our j- e: ''I i":ck s iili-il or our ox falls iiilii a pit. Tl impels a certain type i ..i'- in .-( r:i i, tide roughly through ! " i :i'. i hi i.-c., e:i lo a street car Y'.-'t: it i:i,,:rcs main' to adopt the ! ''i.'i oi' ,"tOug u hile Ihe getting ! ; ''' iiimn is willing enough Mo i.i !'.' volnen fi;i;ht for such J ; 1 . . 'I ..!;. 1; 1 1 c fier ilu is cum-; cum-; ' :l;:!.-;- lociied; the Congressman I "ic 1 1 ri;i "I au'ree:; tiial economy j in g.c- ! is a line Ihiug after ' i- p... ' . ''.' lei ill a ml his ' ..r: dred-Pd. V. n ;; .ri v. i - individual or a ' " ' . e- ; ' : '-'s bi'gius to live be end I'M ". I .-. Idishcd income (lie in-!'vi-!n:il ir (ho corporal ion, if wis-'''i wis-'''i re.!, s. (i-lius iiiuu filiate stejjs to reduce expenditures to a point within the safety zone. If this is not done, there comes the inevitable crash, and if a halt is not called in our national extravagance we must go on and on working for the govern mont; paying tribute which makes the German War liabilities look like an amusement nuisance tax. As a nation we are on the brink of a chasm of debt the bottom of whose black abyss no human eye can see. We are living far beyond our income; we have lost our perspective per-spective of relative values; we must pull up or we will go over the edge. Fortunately, the remedy is at hand. Secretary Mellon holds i't out to tfs, and expects that the people of this country will take themselves in hand and apply It. The prescription pre-scription is written in plain American Ameri-can language, and !t comes in five easily understood words. SUBSTANTIAL SUBSTAN-TIAL CUTS IN CURRENT EXPENDITURES. EXPEN-DITURES. Fewer demands on Congress; Con-gress; a withdrawal of schemes and r rejects ; a slowing down of nr.tlon-il nr.tlon-il spending even for worthy purposes. pur-poses. - Only a few years ago we were awed by the warning that the United Uni-ted States was fast becoming a billion bil-lion dollar country, and when that rest figure was reached shortly before be-fore 191-4, most folks thought that the limit of extravagance had been reached. Yet government disbursements disburse-ments this year will total $5,602,-nno $5,602,-nno 000 an increase of more than 5 times. Of course the war is responsible for a large part of this increase, but so far as our governmental spending is concerned, we don't seem to know that the war is over. We are going right along in the profligate, primrose prim-rose path laid out when the whole country willingly laid its riches at the feet, of Mars and our escutcheon should bear no stain. So we come again to the text of Secretary's Mellon's remarks. "The fiospel of Oolng Without." Not the gospel of the other fellow's doing without, but of deferring consummation consum-mation of our own wishes. Let every community contribute lo getting rid of the rod balance. Let certain projects pro-jects for large public expenditures' bide a wee. They will be none the less desirable when we are again on a cash basis. There are two horns to the nations na-tions dilemma. One is to go ahead as we have been doing. Piling up more debt; printing more paper money with a shrinking background of genuine reserve; levying more taxes; maintaining extravagant governmental gov-ernmental systems; increasing . appropriations; ap-propriations; ladening our largess to the right and to the left as .though Pandora's box literally had no bottom; bot-tom; or by SUBSTANTIAL CUTS in CURRENT EXPENDITURES OF GOVERNMENT. Listen for a moment to this man Mellon, who has so accurately and well placed his finger upon the sore spot of our body politic: "Enlarged expenditures can be financed only by increased taxes or new loans." he says. We do not believe that the people of the United States want enlarged expenditures at any such cost. Our government war bill was around $30 000,000,000 and yet at our present rate we would roll up another ?3 0,-000,000,000 0,-000,000,000 in six years of peace. No real privation is asked. No 1 wheatless days, no meatless days, no lightless nights are necessary. Our sacrifices would be almost painless, but they must not be vicarious. During Dur-ing the war, we made the old car panswer for another year; we wore the old suit a few months longer. Now let us apply the same unselfish method to our national, state and city problems. Let us make SUBSTANTIAL SUB-STANTIAL EUTS IN CURRENT EX PENDITURES. Let us wait for some of the big things. We commend the Mellon sermon to the thoughtful consideration of every patriotic citizen who is seeking seek-ing tax relief, but does not want to give up the new public building or the prospective job on the new commission. We bespeak a litefal and immediate appreciation of the gospel of doing without. L. A. Times a |