Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1918 — MARGINS WIPED OUT [ARTICLE]

MARGINS WIPED OUT

The United States h'as always heretofore been a land of plenty—in fact a land or surpluses. Up to two or three years ago we have always had a fair balance to run on at the end of each year,’ 4 and had no need to practice real economy. There* was plenty of every commodity and a reasonable plenty of money with which to buy it. Now the only commodity of which the United States has plenty is money. Of the things which money will buy she finds herself alarmingly short. Wheat, meat, wool, .coal—the four great requisites of life, she is called on to conserve and to use as sparingly as possible. The

serious phase of the matter is that in all these ifties the erstwhile margins of plenty have been completely wiped out and in their place is a positive deficit. It was estimated during the fuel saving period that the Country was actually short fifty million tons of coal; that we lacked that much of having enough fuel to carry on normal activities. Practically the same condition prevails, in other lines. What is the answer? CONSERVATION! Waste must be absolutely eliminated. Production must be speeded up by every means in our power. And wherever a substitute for either of these four articles can by any means be made to serve the purpose, it is the patriotic duty of every true American man and woman to make use of that substitute. The time for discussing the war has passed. The problems growing out of the war* are pressing for attention, and should be met aS live Americans have always met the stern problems of liffe —with a smiling courage and a firm determination to solve them and solve them correctly. The war must be won. so let every American say from the bottom of his heart, “We can and we will.”