Women and War Work by Helen Fraser
page 104 of 190 (54%)
page 104 of 190 (54%)
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was the patriotic one. Save your money to save your country. Throw
your silver bullets at the enemy. We have not been content to say only "save," we have tried to educate our people on finance and economics. We have tried to show them that no country can go on in a struggle like this unless it conserves its resources--not even the richest countries. We have tried to appeal to the spirit behind all these things and our Chairman in one of his admirable speeches said: "It is upon these simple human feelings of loyalty, comradeship and patriotism that the great War Savings Movement is founded. Because of the strength of this foundation I feel convinced that we shall succeed in the great national work we are setting out to perform. However difficult our task may prove, however serious the times ahead, this spirit will carry us safely and triumphantly through everything, and in the end we shall find ourselves not weakened but strengthened on account of these same difficulties which we shall most surely overcome." The problem before us is the problem of finding ten times the amount of money we did before the war for National purposes. We are spending over $30,000,000 a day. By our taxations, which includes an 80 per cent tax on excess profits, we are raising over 25 per cent of our total expenditure. We have met some other part of our expenditure in the three years of war by using our gold reserve very heavily; a great deal of it in payments in America, where you now possess more than a third of the gold of the entire world. We have also used a portion of our securities, our capital wealth and past savings, and we have had to borrow heavily. Our National Debt is now £4,000,000,000. It was £700,000,000 at the outbreak of war. £1,000,000,000 has been lent to our Allies and the Dominions. |
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