Liberty Loan

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23976, 17 June 1943, Page 4

Liberty Loan

If the Liberty Loan campaign continues with the impetus of its opening, it will sweep to success before the day fixed for its close. And this achievement should be the aim of all who are conducting the campaign and all to whom its appeals are addressed. This money must be raised. It can be raised without undue strain on the resources of the people. The spending power in the hands of the public at present is far in excess of the supply of goods and services—in excess of it by an amount several times greater than the £35,000,000 required to fill the loan; and this spending power is being replenished at the rate of millions a week. If everyone refuses some extravagance, forgoes some luxury, defers some necessary purchase, fixes his month’s savings in the loan instead of leaving it at call in the Post Office, or begins now to make weekly war savings deposits at the best figure he can keep up, the loan will be filled rapidly. The effort should be general, it should be the utmost possible, and it should be prompt. Nobody should wait to see how the loan is going before deciding to lend or deciding how much to lend.

Everybody’s duty is the same: to lend what he can. And if it is done promptly, and done with a will, the loan will succeed abundantly. More than that, it will succeed without having drained the time and energy of Cabinet Ministers, officials, and voluntary organisers. Too much has had to be devoted to loan campaigning in the past, not more than the results have been worth, but much more than should have been necessary. The public will save this cost, a serious one, even if it cannot be estimated in pounds, shillings, and pence, by responding to the loan appeal at once. So far, although the National Loan Committee gave promise of following' a much more realistic line of publicity, there has been disappointingly little evidence of it. The Minister of Finance, in the Financial Statement, rightly emphasised the importance of the small investor. His own statement on Sunday recalled this, when he said that there had been 5179 applications up to the day before, 84 per cent, of them for less than £SOO, But, so far, nothing more has been done than to give totals of savings lodgments and bonds purchases, while large subscriptions have been detailed above them. It is certainly possible to publicise the small investor’s part more effectually than that. Mr Nash has said, as we have often said here, that the number of investors in past war loans has been small because of the “ generally “ accepted idea that such loans are " applicable only to the large ins.ti- “ tutions or to individuals with substantial sums to invest.” It is a false and dangerous idea, as he went on to show. It must be combated, strenuously and unceasingly. The admirable effect of Mr F. P. Walsh’s direct appeal to workers must be sustained by every possible means, every day; and continuous publicity bearing on the point is the best of all possible means.