"ECONOMIZE AND SUBSCRIBE"

In an article appearing in the Boston Transcript, Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague '94, of the Economics Department, tells of the necessity of the Liberty Bonds being subscribed to by the American people.

"If the loan is taken by the banks it will involve credit inflation and a further rapid advance in price. If taken by the people the advance in price will be far less considerable and the mobilization of the country for war will be more speedily accomplished. We cannot enjoy all our accustomed luxuries and comforts during the war, because there simply is not enough labor to produce them, and at the same time equip large armies with the huge quantities of military supplies required in modern warfare.

"If we economize and subscribe to the Liberty Loan, labor will be available for war uses. If we do not, the Government will buy away labor and the products of labor from us with the credits which the banks will furnish, and finally through the advance in prices our civilian demand for goods and labor will be reduced. The direct method of economy is clearly the better way.

"Generally speaking, it is neither advisable nor necessary for people to sell the securities which they own, or to withdraw deposits from savings banks. Securities and savings deposits represent capital already invested. The capital can only be made available for the loan by selling it to others who have uninvested funds on hand.

"Take such an amount of bonds as you may reasonably expect to be able to pay for while the proceeds of the loan are being expended. This is entirely possible, since the bonds may be paid for on the instalment plan, and liberal borrowing facilities are available to all subscribers at the banks. The borrowing which this method of subscribing to the loan involves will not occasion serious credit inflation if the loans are liquidated about as fast as the proceeds of the bond issue are expended by the Government."