Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1918 — EXTREME MEASURES NECESSARY TO SETTLE DEBTS. [ARTICLE]

EXTREME MEASURES NECESSARY TO SETTLE DEBTS.

Our national debt is five times greater than it was when we entered the war nine months ago and amounts to more than $5,600,000,000. But according to the estimate just issued by the treasury department this is only about one-third of the debt that is expected to develop within the next twelve months. Ow'ing to delays the expenditures for the developi.nent of the military establishment have not been as large up to this time as had been previously anticipated, but the next few months promise to make unusual demands upon the nation's strong box, through the completion of orders for supplies that are already’ under contract.

The debt of America's allies now amounts to about $84,000,000,000, or fourteen per cent of the wealth of those countries, while the debt of the central powers and those allied with them amounts to $40,000,000,000, or twenty-eight per cent of the total wealth. With the end of the war nowhere in sight there is no telling to what lengths the financial resources of the nations, engaged will be drained before peace is declared. But in the event of a prolongation of strife fcr a period of four or five years one of two radical •courses will be forced upon some, if not all of the belligerents. Either a vast part of the debt must be repudiated or wealth must be 1 conscripted to settle the obliga-j tions that will have been incurred. The expense grows greater from year to year in every quarter and

bankrupt nations will not be uncommon if the end does not come soon. In England the conscription of wealth is already being discussed as an ante-war program in order, to expedite payment and reduce the enormous interest charges that will accumulate annually. Other nations will no doubt be compelled to pursue some similar course as the burden of taxation will ultimately become, enormous. The details of such a plan remain to be worked out, but that extreme measures will be necessitated seetms apparent. The treasury department is yet Uncertain as to the number or amount of Liberty Loan bond issues that will have to be absorbed by the people of the United States before the close of the fiscal year on June 30, but that, the demand will be heavy now seems assured. —-Lafayette Journal.