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Show Ki-lp:i.std by Western New.sparer Union. I'.KEAKING DOWN OUR NATIONAL IIKBT IN WASHINGTON we are given astronomical figures which, we are told, represent the government debt. That is what you and I, and all the men, women and children in America Amer-ica collectively, owe. No one, not excluding the secretary of the treasury, treas-ury, has any conception of the meaning of such a figure as $105,-040,029,857. $105,-040,029,857. It represents the government gov-ernment debt as of October 31, 1943. While that is the story of what we, collectively, owed on that date, it is not until we break it down to what each individual or each family owes, and must pay, that we begin to realize what it means. What portion por-tion of that sum is charged against Dad, Mother, Johnny, Mary and the baby tells us the real, the individual, story. On that basis, and going back a few years for comparisons, gives us some interesting and startling facts. On March 31, 1917, each one of us, as citizens, owed only $12.36. That was a mere nothing. For the whole family it amounted to only $61.00. No need to worry about it. Dad could pay out for Mother, Johnny, Mary, the baby and himself any time he was asked for the cash. Then, a week later, we stepped into World War I and immediately began spending real folding money. ' By the time we were through with that war and the peace terms were decided upon, August 31, 1919, I each of us owed, as our share of the government debt, $250.18, a total of $1,250.90 for the family. That was something to worry about and we began saving our pennies, nickels and dimes so it might be paid and not kept hanging over our heads. We i reduced it gradually up to December j 31, 1930. At that date we had it I down to $129.66 for each Individual, with a total of $648.30 for each family of five. WE REALLY START SPENDING It was at that time we began spending money like drunken sailors. We paid out vast sums for raking leaves, for building Chic Sales specialties, for teaching girls to tap dance, the girls and boys to write poetry and plays or paint pictures, to pay men for leaning on shovels, to produce movie shows and hundreds hun-dreds of other things that had never before been considered necessary. From that December 31, 1930, to November 30, 1941, we had again - - . run ourselves into debt to the amount of $412.32 for each individual, $2,061.60 for the family. That was very, very serious. For many of us it was as much as the home was worth at a forced sale. Then the Japs struck at Pearl Harbor Har-bor and we could not save fast enough to meet the cost of war, with no possibility of reducing the debt we had incurred by our wild spending. By October 31, 1942, that indebtedness for each individual had jumped to $686.36, a total of $3,431.80 for the family. The figures continued to climb and by October 31, 1943, each individual individ-ual share of that national debt amounted to $1,203.71, and for the family the staggering sum of $6,018.55. It is still increasing at a rate of about $50 a month for each of us, $250 for the family. By the time the Christmas bills must be paid it will be not less than $1,353.31 for the individual and $6,766.55 for the family. In time it must, and will, be paid and each of us and each family will pay our share, directly or indirectly. indirect-ly. You hold collateral covering some of that debt in the war bonds you bought. You expect them to be paid and they will be. The payments pay-ments of the debt will extend over a long period of years. It is not only we grownups and Johnny, Mary and the baby who must pay but their children and grandchildren will fall heir to a part in that payment. pay-ment. There will be no pennies, nickels, dimes or quarters for the piggy banks. They must, for many years to come, go toward paying the individual in-dividual and the family share of that government debt. IN THESE YEARS of high speed war production our national income is around 135 billions of dollars per year as against 90 billions as a maximum peacetime figure. If, when the war is over, we are to pay as we go we must pay more than 45 billion a year as taxes. Today such a figure represents about one-third one-third of our income. Should that income drop again to peacetime proportions pro-portions it would mean that one-half one-half or more of all we take in would be paid out in taxes. Certainly it is time to economize. "YOU CANNOT FOOL all of the people all of the time" but the imported im-ported phoney lecturers, with a deep voice and an air of knowing it all, can do a considerable job in that direction, while honest home talent would not have an audience. . AT THE LAST PEACE CONFERENCE CONFER-ENCE Russia sat on the side lines and her interests were not considered. consid-ered. At the next peace table Stalin will be the Clemenceau of 1919. and like Clemenceau Stalin is very much a realist. |