WAR BURDENS

"Shifting the burden of war costs" is a theory advanced by many who maintain that "this generation is fighting the war; let the next finance it." A plausible, even if not very altruistic, attitude toward the burdens of our time, but unfortunately entirely out of accord with economics.

For the real costs of war are not monetary ones. The price of our participation is measured in blood and property and shortage in the necessaries of life, rather than in dollars. Such sacrifices cannot be shifted. They must be borne by the members of our own generation. When our Government issues bonds, it means two things. In the first place, the money borrowed will be utilized in buying the essentials of war; supplies formerly consumed at home will be diverted to our army. In the second place, a debt will be incurred which in the future must be paid to the holders of bonds. In so far a burden is placed upon the next generation. Non-bondholders will be forced to pay up just what bondholders will receive. Some obligation for the future is inevitable. But although Liberty Bonds are a convenient method of financing the war, they fortunately go far from accomplishing that ignoble "shifting of the burden," for the real burdens are being borne now. Buy Liberty Bonds because of those things for which they stand, but avoid the illusion of a theory which is as untrue as it is lacking in the very elements of honor.