Defending Spending on the War, April 24, 1919

From The Alamance Gleaner, Graham, N.C., April 24, 1919

The Reason Why

Is it not wise to spend lavishly to save in the end? Is it not best to pour out money like water to save human lives? Haste always makes waste, but haste gets things done before it is too late. When we needed men and ammunition, we needed them at once. A million men blocking the German drive toward Paris did more in less time than 2 million probably could have done if the capital of France had fallen. And so if any one thinks that the United States did not receive full value for every dollar raised by its Liberty Loans let him ask himself why and then buy Victory Liberty Bonds to his limit.

Take for example this instance: Your little girl is standing in front of the parlor fire. Suddenly her clothes blaze up. Will you run up to the attic and hunt out an old quilt or carpet to smother the flames, or will you seize the first thing you can reach, perhaps the most beautiful Oriental rug you possess, and wrap it around the child? In the first case you would be saving the rug, but running a large chance of losing something infinitely more precious, the little girl. In the second, by using all the means available at the crucial moment, you would save far more.

Haste always makes waste—but haste in this case would put out the fire before anything besides the child’s dress was burned.

Now, the United States might, perhaps, have saved 67 cents on each keg of nails, or $1.73 on each rifle, had haste been of no consideration. In the aggregate a great deal of money was spent rushing war preparations through in the shortest possible time; but had the results which were achieved in a few months been spread over a longer period the war would have lasted perhaps a year longer. By the most conservative official reckoning this extra year of war would have cost 400,000 American lives—and $36,000,000,000.

It was by pouring men across the ocean in a steadily increasing stream and by quickly providing an enormous quantity of all war necessities that our government saved not only an incalculable amount of suffering and bloodshed for the whole world, but actually twice as much in money for this country alone, as the total of the first, second, third and fourth Liberty Loans.