MONEY TO WIN THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2848, 12 August 1916, Page 12

MONEY TO WIN THE WAR

AUSTRALIAN STATESMAN'S ADVICE. Speakiug on the quostion of tho war loan, Mr. -Joseph Cook (loader of the Liberal Party in tho Federal Parliament). said tiiafc ho had read with the greatest surprise tlio statements of the federal Treasurer to tho effect that one largo firm at least was dissuading its employees from investing in the loan. If the facts wero, as tho bald, naked statemont would indicate, then the firm deserved the pillory. To interfero with the efforts to iinanco tho war was not greatly different from interfering with recruiting. Money was just as necessary as men in a war like this. Tho latter could not exist'long without tho former. "The Treasurer," continued Mr. Cook, "is entitled to take all legitimate means to get the money. It simply has to bo obtained. If tho public do not subscribo it by waj' of loan it will have to bo obtained in somo other way, probably by taxation. And it the latter course, be taken, tboso protesting associations, unions, or firms, will not, in tho nature of things, escape. Tho present method of raising loans at reasonable interest is the' fairest and most practical and just of all tho methods suggested, both for tho capitalist and the working man.

"But there is another alternative facing tts all. We cannot win the war without money. .If wo lose for want of it, we shall still lmvo to pay dearly for our stupidity. - If we do not loan tho money to our own Government, we shall .part with it altogether to the German Government. This deadly alternative was made quite clear to the Riechstag by Dr. Helfferich in his last financial statement. He said: "As tilings are, "the only method seems to be to leave the settlement of the war bill to the conclusion and the timo after peace has been considered. And on this I would say—if God grant us ,tho victory, and with it possibility of moulding peaoe to suit our needs, we neither can nor will forget the question of costs. We owe that to tho future of our people. The whole course of tho future development of their lives must, if at all possible, be freed,from tho appalling burden caused by the war.' Here, then, is the naked truth, viz., that as "far as they can compass it, we shall, if they win, bo compelled to pay the whole of their war bill as one of tho items of the peace terms. The nlterhative is to lend for good interest to our-own Government, or give outright to tlio brutal German at tho point of the sword."