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Show 181 180 \Vhen these expenditures are considered with relation to cone meree and industry, and this waste of wealth and economic power is measured not merely in the formal figures of the budgets, but by the potential value of these stuns in productive use, the (Ii/st and folly of it all comes home with redoubled weight. The argument against it from the standpoint of commerce and industry is neither unpatriotie nor sordid. it is for the eomman welfare of the millions. it is a plea that these. vast stuns, produced by toil and sacrifice. instead of being dissipated and lost. may be added to the permanent working capital of the world. ;\n indispensable factor in economic and social progress is capital. In the economy of communities and of nations, as in the econumy of individuals and families, it is the dollar left over. the dollar that becomes capital, that counts for pt'flg' . There is independence and inspiration and power, there is leisure and culture and hope in the dollar left overt As the telescope magnifies the power of the eye, as the telephone extends the reach (if the voice. as the lever adds to the power of the arm, so Wt l‘ooauvv mum the dollar left over, the savings fund, by a myriad of agencies multiplies the productive power of a people. The accumulations of society at best are slowly and painfully made. \Vlien from the annual earnings of a community are taken the consumption and waste and deterioration of the year the actual gain is small, estimated at 3 per cent of the total. and it is out of this possible margin, narrow and meager as it is. that this war tax must be paid. And there is literally no end to the pro< ductive employment for capital. for the inventor and the scientist and the genius of enterprise are always waiting with new tasks for it to perform. There are v' " stores of natural wealth to be utilized. there are endless opportunities to improve upon the methods and machinery of production, and finally the larra ‘st and most inspiring; opportunity of all is the opportunity to improve. and develop the lminau factor in production himself. For the gain her obsolete. but the battleship when built is a serious and Continual t‘xljt'tlst‘ and may be obsolete itself in ten years, while the Assouan dam has added $Ior:>,ooo,ooo to the taxable property of Egypt, and will make an annual contribution to the comfort and progress Ur that people forever. The old debt of tireat ltritaiu, the legacy of wars of a linu- dred y -ars and more ago, is like a veritable shirt of Nessus, absorbing an interest charge of $100,000,000 a car. That debt is still greater than all the loans of all the banks of rireat liritain to commerc * and industry, and two small wars, in the Crimea and in South A frica, have offset all the reductions made upon it in the last seventy years. .r\nd if it should be said that the responsibility for this burden is far distant, and in no degree ours, it maybe added that the cost of three recent warsivizq between the ['uited States and Spain, (Ii-eat Britain and the Boers, lx'ussia and japan‘has equaled the sum total of all the loans of the natini _ banlcs of the t'nited States to commerce and industry. lint the cost of war itself is not so great as the cost ni‘ (‘Hii- tinuous and increasingr preparations for \iar. Sir Edward (irey in his notable speech in l‘arliztnient last month said that the pl'ins cipal countries of Europe were expendingr 50 per cent of all their revenues upon preparations to lilll ‘ach other, and the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations at \Vashingtnn state; that ()0 per cent of the revenues of the United States gwrerinnent are beingr devoted to the same purpose. Under the pressure of these expenditures national debts are growing in time of peace, and the ingenuity of cabinets is taxed to find new sources of revenue, while great industrial enterprises and beneticent smiizil reforms await a supply of capital. Damage and Cost of War to Commerce and Industry is not only an effectual means to an end, but the very end itself to which all social aims are directed. _,\ notable illustration of the productive investment of capital is afforded by the e‘t'tat dam in the River Nil ‘ at Assouan. It cirst about $1o,ooo.ooo, approximately the cost of a modern battleship of the type which has made all the navies of the world apparently MR. \V. .\. Mmoxv. Commerce and industry will certainly render due hnnnr and express gratitude to all who have shown devotion and rendered service to our beloved country. whenever or wherever our eouns |