Show kathleen norris says buying victory Y bonds Is self protection bell syndicate features za L 4 you do a sensible eten a selfish thing you buy victory bonds you do a smart thing in a businesslike way it is sell self protection nothing nobler than that by KATHLEEN NORRIS HE probability is that you T THE and your husband have invested a certain amount of dollars in victory bonds and victory stamps and you probably feel a little thrill of pride and patriotism with every dollar so invested but the real truth is that there is no reason here for complacency you do a sensible even a selfish thing when you buy victory bonds you do a smart thing in a businesslike way for if there is to be an america tomorrow your bonds and stamps will be the most valuable things in it and if there an impossible hypothesis which I 1 put in merely for illustration nothing that you have hoarded or saved money property stocks will be worth what is classically known as a tinkers dam more than that if we of america rise to this situation not with a sense of being generous and reckless and wholehearted but because we appreciate the facts of the case this country will be spared inflation our financial authorities could create that inflation now very sim simply they have the power to float billions of new bills amongst us we full realize seeing these new bills that every one of them meant that what you and I 1 have in the bank was worth that much less it Is self protection so buying bonds is self protection nothing nobler than that if we dont we lose what we have if we do we keep what we have and add to it valuable investments that in in ten years will be redeemed at interest get the general idea fast enough if someone went to your bank and drew out one third of your money A thief who did it would be punished to the full extent of the law but this be a thief this would be a person n with perfect rights who might remind you as he went away with your good money that in another three months he meant to come and get another third if your comment on this is outrageous the real answer is simpler still war ar we are in a desperate battle now against forces that may gain power over all the world or that may be curbed and controlled for years curbed and controlled until the horrors of militarism and invasion die away into the sunrise of a saner day we cant stop now we cant go back to the comfortable day when one hundred dollars in the bank was one hundred dollars and nobody could take it away ten per cent Is too little the only thing we can do to save what we have is to invest in america they are talking now of 10 per cent investing that seems to me too little my own suggestion would be that every family give one third of its income to the government for safekeeping until the day of peace wages are high now salaries have ballooned upward and every man who wants a job and quite a few who dont is at work hearts are opened to deeds of courage an and d to the facing of changes many of us who have never seen any good in war itself are nevertheless determined to find good in the enlarged opportunities of chaim shading and brotherliness that wartime emotions bring with them I 1 e tire are all knitting cooking writes letters to camps gathering up AFTER THE WAR you have heard it said many times that anything worth doing is north morth doing well why then should we not give our best to the atar effort for surely there are no higher aims than ours should be today unless we demonstrate on strate our faith in those aims by doing our best to realize them we must not be surprised if others doubt their value after the war is over will we tee be able to say with pride this is the democracy I 1 helped preserve or will we tee have to listen while a conquering enemy tells us that democracy could not have been worth while if those who enjoyed its benefits did not think enough of it to fight for it 9 we cannot all fight with guns but we can fight with dollars and fight now tinfoil and rubber rubbed active in many ways we think necessary or possible a few years ago what we women have to get through our heads is that no service to the family compares to the service that is investment in victory bonds it is small use to get into uniform keep office hours collect packs of cards and packs of cigarettes for the boys and at the same time to say dreamily 1 I did buy two dollars worth of stamps from marion and I 1 meant to buy more but I 1 forgot would prevent inflation victory bonds ought to come next to rent and grocery bills if the government could count on one third of the national income in the next two years we have to have inflation we would be the only country that ever came through a war without it but while women are under the delusion that buying victory bonds is a pretty and loyal gesture done partly to please dear louise baker who sits at a little table selling them in that hot department store five mornings a week the governments vigorous determination to spare us inflation is jeopardized our fate is in our own hands now it is for us to decide it one woman I 1 know finds herself today with an income of something ng like a month up to this time it has hovered irregularly around she is putting a month into victory bonds three of her four children work and she insists that one third of what they earn shall be invested that way she does her own work the family table is the same plain old table the girls put aprons over their office clothes and do the bedrooms and the dishes the small boy sweeps porches and runs errands just as he did before the aggregate monthly family inc income ome was approximately 1 I said something praising the spirit of this woman but she laughed it off excellent opportunity wonderful milly carter echoed scornfully theres nothing wonderful about it its a chance to fix this family up for life in ten years these girls will be married and each one will have a good sound investment that will mean a home for all of them I 1 never dared hope for such an opportunity america is still the land that gives the working people the best break milly concluded her eyes on the flag that tha t flies cheerfully above the shabby carter home im taking advantage of it as my ancestors anc estors did all |