Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1918 — OUR EXPANDING NEEDS [ARTICLE]

OUR EXPANDING NEEDS

The need for saving and economy by our people, the need for the most liberal and loyal financial support of our government by the people and incidentally the need tor some such financial (machinery as that, sought to be secured by the war finance corporation bill, now pending in congress are not only verified by the extraordinary demands made upon the United States to meet its war needs and the war needs of its allies, but are also emphasized by the growth of our own domestic trade. The domestic trade of the United States for 1917 was estimated by Prof. Anderson of Harvard university at $64,000,000,000; in 1913 it was but $30,000,000,000. The strain on the financial machinery and resources of the country to take care of this tremendous increase in our domestic trade as well as meet the extraordinary demands of the war can not be appreciated by all. The secretary’ of the treasury, in drafting the war finance bill gave thorough study to the measures adopted by our allies in Europe and to the conditions in this country, and it is believed that the proposed bill is a wise and conservative war measure to give relief during the period of the war. It is primarily a measure to enable the financial institutions of the country to furnish necessary credits to industries and enterprises essential to the prosecution of the war,- and Secretary McAdoo is of the opinion that the mere existence of the machinery established by this act would be so effective in maintaining confidence that the actual exercise of the power would seldom be needed.