OCR Text |
Show OODLES OF IT! The hist Liberty Bond issue was followed immediately by the second Bed Cross drive, and with hardly any interval came the War Savings Stamp Campaign. After their three stupendous exercises in collective collect-ive giving1 came a breathing space a period of financial recuperation re-cuperation an opportunity for economic conA'alesceiice. FjYerv one you met was decorated on various areas of his anatomy with buttons and badges, in token of certain heroic munificences. muni-ficences. And all your friends told you that they were irre-frievably irre-frievably bankrupt, and avouM subsist on doughnuts for the duration of the war. And then an object lesson came. A number of industrial and utility corporations floated loans at six and seven per cent, secured by bonds in denominations denomina-tions of $100.00 and up. And they named the dates on which subscriptions Avould be received. receiv-ed. And yon, gentle reader, what kind of a response would be given by the penniless public pub-lic out of their doughnut-fed penury. With in a fcAv hours after the issues had been opened many of the maturities had been oversubscribed. over-subscribed. At one metropolitan metropol-itan hank nearly everything Avent between nine and ten o'clock on the first morning a large part of it in hundred dollar denominations. Like ticket buyers at the "World's Series people of all classes stood in line, waiting for a chance to disgorge; and most of them seemed to belong to that rather diversified social grade that" is comprehensively labeled "the working class." Is this a meraclo of fiscal elasticity, or merely a sidelight on economic conditions? The latter is less nomantic, but more plausible. Most of us Ave may as well confess it had still a few nickles hidden in a mattress, and the chance of seven per cent is a magnet strong enough to attract any grade of circulated metal. It is no subject for sarcasm; rather for congratulation and thankfulness. After truly gigantic gi-gantic tests of national solvency solven-cy many were able to contribute, contri-bute, in their own interest, to enterprises that make for national na-tional prosperity. Every one has a job these days. Nearly every one working at the es- I sential trades make good a wages. Nearly every one is I more than sohTent. I And when the next Liberty 1 Bonds are offered there Avill be many whose pleas of poverty Avill demand more than passing pass-ing scrutiny. And the OAvners of these seven per cent bonds Avill need singularly original alibis to evade contributions to the Red Cross. |