Women and War Work Part 11

The first Government Committee set up in Britain to do propaganda work for war loans was established shortly after the war under the t.i.tle of the "Parliamentary War Savings Committee." It did some propaganda for the early war loans. At the same time a very interesting group of people a.s.sociated with the "Round Table," and including in it many of our most able financiers and economists--such men as the future chairman of the National War Savings Committee, Sir Robert M.

Kindersley, K.B.E.; C.J. Stewart, the Public Trustee; Hartley Withers, Lord Sumner, T.L. Gilmour, Theodore Chambers (now Controller of the National War Savings Committee), Evan Hughes (now Organizer-in-Chief), Lieut. J.H. Curle, Countess Ferrers, Basil Blackett, C.B.; William Schooling and Mrs. Minty, Hon. Sec. Excellent articles were written, leaflets published and meetings held at which many of us spoke throughout the country, and valuable work was done towards educating groups of useful people in the country.

In 1915 a committee was appointed by the House of Commons to go into the whole question of Loans and Methods. The committee was presided over by Mr. E.S. Montagu, and its findings were of great interest. It advised the immediate setting up of a committee whose task it would be to create machinery by which the small investor might be a.s.sisted to invest in State Securities, and secondly, to educate the country as a whole on the imperative need of economy. The Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury set up the National War Savings Committee in March, 1916, and in April, 1917, it became a Government Department.

The first chairman was George Barnes, Esq., M.P., but very soon the chairmans.h.i.+p was taken by Sir Robert Kindersley, a director of the Bank of England, who has spent himself unceasingly in his great task.

The committee started its work with a very small staff, Mr. Schooling being one of the original half-dozen in it, and the schemes and methods of work were evolved. It works in its organization by setting up committees. The County is the biggest unit and the Hon. Secretary of the County works at setting up Local Committees, which are established in towns with under 20,000 of a population, and we put a group of parishes together in rural districts under one Local Committee. All towns, cities and boroughs over 20,000 population are set up by Headquarters and have Local Central Committees. There are now in England and Wales over 1,580 of these committees. Scotland is worked by a separate committee. Linked up to these committees and represented on them, the War Savings a.s.sociations work, and there are now altogether over 40,000 of these with a weekly subscribing members.h.i.+p of over 7,000,000 people.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 6 REASONS Why YOU Should Save

1. Because when you save you help our soldiers and sailors.

2. Because when you spend on things you do not need you help the Germans.

3. Because when you spend you make other people work for you, and the work of every one is wanted now to help our fighting men to win the war, or to produce necessaries and to make goods for export.

4. Because by confining your spending to necessaries you relieve the strain on our s.h.i.+ps and docks and railways and make transport cheaper and quicker.

5. Because when you spend you make things dearer for everyone, especially for those who are poorer than yourself.

6. Because every s.h.i.+lling saved helps twice, first when you don't spend it and again when you lend it to the Matron.

POSTER ISSUED BY NATIONAL WAR SAVINGS COMMITTEE]

The committees also did the propaganda work for the January-February Loan of 1917, when five billion dollars was raised (1,000,000,000) and over eight million people (out of our population of forty-five millions) subscribed to the loan.

The work of the committees was admirable at that time and a.s.sisted materially in the success of the loan.

The National War Savings Committee was also asked by Lord Devonport in April to a.s.sist the Ministry of Food by doing, through its committees, a great food-saving propaganda. This request was made, because, it was explained, the War Savings Committees are the best organized and most thoroughly democratic Government organization in the country. This propaganda was also done with marked success. In autumn of this year the committees have done an extensive campaign of education, and of work to strengthen and enlarge their a.s.sociations, and also to push the sale of the new War Bonds.

The Treasury's policy now is to raise all the money needed by the wisest borrowing from the people--day by day borrowing.

The entire work of the committees and a.s.sociations is done voluntarily--nothing is paid in the whole country for the work, and the only charge is Headquarters Staff and propaganda expenses. The County Secretaries are in most cases Board of Education Inspectors whom the Board has generously allowed to help.

The War Saving a.s.sociation is the body that sells the War Savings Certificates, which are very much like the American ones. These are also sold at all Post Offices and Banks. They cost 15/6 each, and in five years from date of purchase are worth 1. The interest in the fifth year is at the rate of 5.4.7 per cent. The interest begins at the end of the first year and the certificates can be cashed at any time at the Post Office with interest to the date of cas.h.i.+ng. The War Savings Certificate has the additional advantage that its interest is free of income tax, and in a country where income tax begins above 120 ($600), and is then at rate of 2/3 in 1 (over 10 per cent) on earned income and 3/. on unearned, its advantage is very clear. The interest does not need to be included in income returns--but no one may buy more than 500 certificates. It is a specially good paying security intended only for the small saver.

The War Savings a.s.sociations can be set up by any group of people, ten or upwards, who wish to save co-operatively. They must establish a committee, small or large. They must appoint a Secretary and Treasurer and then apply for recognition to their Local Committee, or if there is not one, to the National Committee. They are given an affiliation certificate by their committee and receive free all the books, papers, etc., necessary for carrying on an a.s.sociation. These are all supplied by the National Committee to Local Committees.

The 40,000 a.s.sociations are in the Army, Navy, Munition Works, Government establishments, Railways, Banks, Mines, Churches, Shops, social groups, clubs, men's and women's organizations and 10,000 are in the schools. The schools, where we receive subscriptions down to 2 cents have done wonderful work and the teachers have done a great deal to make our movement what it is. We find the children do the best propaganda in the homes. One teacher, after explaining to his children what it all meant in the morning, in the afternoon had dozens of subscriptions, and among them a sovereign which had been clasped tightly in a hot little hand for a mile and a half's walk. The little boy said, "I told Mother about it and she gave me that for fighting the Germans."

Our a.s.sociations have unearthed piles of gold, one village a.s.sociation alone getting in 750 in gold ($3,750). Old stockings have come out and one agricultural laborer brought nine sovereigns to one of our Secretaries one night, and asked her to invest it to help the soldiers. She said, "Why did you bring it to me?" and he said, "Because its secreter than the Post Office." And the a.s.sociation has the advantage that all its affairs are confidential, and though figures and amounts are known, no single detail need be.

The schemes are two and apart from schools, the minimum weekly subscription is 12 cents. There is a Bank Book scheme and a Stamp scheme in which the member holds a card which takes thirty-one 12-cent stamps, and when filled up is handed in to the Secretary and a War Savings Certificate is received.

The financial advantage to the members of forming an a.s.sociation is quite easy to understand. Every week the takings are invested by the Secretary (using a special slip given by the National Committee) in War Savings Certificates, so that when members finish subscribing for a certificate, instead of getting one dated the day they finished paying for it, as it would be if they saved by themselves, the Secretary has a store of earlier dated certificates on hand, and the member receives one of these.

This works out quite fairly if one rule is observed--never give any one a Certificate dated earlier than the first week they started paying for it.

The people of England needed a great deal of education in war saving.

We had to fight the strongly held conviction that of all sins the most despicable is "meanness," and that too much saving may seem mean.

No Englishman will ever really admit he has any money, and he was inclined to question your right to talk about the possibility of his having some--and your right to tell him what to do with it, supposing he had any. Some of them were a little suspicious that it was the workers we were talking to most--it was not--and some of them were not quite sure they wanted their employers to know how much they saved.

That is entirely obviated by the men running their own a.s.sociations.

Other people told you the people in their District never did, could, or would save and were spending their big wages in the most extravagant way--that pianos and fur coats appealed far more than war savings certificates. The official people in the towns when we approached them about conferences said much the same in some cases, but, yes, of course, you could come and have a conference and the Mayor would preside and you could try. And you did, and in six months they had dozens of a.s.sociations and thousands of members and had sold some thousands of certificates. We sell about one and a half million certificates a week and have sold about 140 millions since March, 1916. The appeal that won them was not only the practical appeal of the value of the money after the war for themselves, to buy a house, to provide for old age, to educate the children. The strongest appeal was the patriotic one. Save your money to save your country. Throw your silver bullets at the enemy. We have not been content to say only "save," we have tried to educate our people on finance and economics.

We have tried to show them that no country can go on in a struggle like this unless it conserves its resources--not even the richest countries. We have tried to appeal to the spirit behind all these things and our Chairman in one of his admirable speeches said:

"It is upon these simple human feelings of loyalty, comrades.h.i.+p and patriotism that the great War Savings Movement is founded. Because of the strength of this foundation I feel convinced that we shall succeed in the great national work we are setting out to perform. However difficult our task may prove, however serious the times ahead, this spirit will carry us safely and triumphantly through everything, and in the end we shall find ourselves not weakened but strengthened on account of these same difficulties which we shall most surely overcome."

The problem before us is the problem of finding ten times the amount of money we did before the war for National purposes. We are spending over $30,000,000 a day. By our taxations, which includes an 80 per cent tax on excess profits, we are raising over 25 per cent of our total expenditure. We have met some other part of our expenditure in the three years of war by using our gold reserve very heavily; a great deal of it in payments in America, where you now possess more than a third of the gold of the entire world. We have also used a portion of our securities, our capital wealth and past savings, and we have had to borrow heavily. Our National Debt is now 4,000,000,000. It was 700,000,000 at the outbreak of war. 1,000,000,000 has been lent to our Allies and the Dominions.

Numbers of people have an impression that Governments can find money.

They can, to a certain extent, but only in a very limited way, without great harm. There is in this creation an addition to the buying power of the community, but if everybody goes on spending no addition to the productive power, so it only creates high prices and hards.h.i.+p. The inflation of currency caused by it is a risk and an evil. The sound way is to get the money by taxation, from resources and in real voluntary loans.

America's burden is very much the same as our own, and the need here also of voluntary saving and lending to the extent of more than half the expenditure is clear. America, like ourselves, is very wisely trying to democratise its war loans. Nothing is wiser or sounder or more calculated to make progress, and the changes after the war which will come, sound and steady than widely-spread, democratically-subscribed loans. These vast debts will have to be paid by the ability, productiveness and work of all, so it is in the highest degree desirable that the money and interest to be paid back should go out to every cla.s.s of the community--and not only to small sections. It is well to remember, too, that the country that goes to the peace table financially sound is in a position to make better terms.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ONE OF THE POSTERS RECENTLY ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WAR SAVINGS COMMITTEE]

But the purely financial side of war savings is not the most important one. We talk in terms of money but the reality is not money but goods and services. The problem before our Governments and the problem that cannot be left to our children (though the debts incurred in securing the credits may be) is the problem of finding every day over $30,000,000 worth of material and labour for the struggle. War savings among the people is not only essential to secure the money needed--it is far more essential from the point of view of securing the cutting down of the consumption of goods and labour by our peoples.

Economists in peace time argue over what is termed "luxury"

expenditure, the wasteful expenditure of peace. War expenditure may be correctly termed wasteful to a very great extent, and no country can carry both of these expenditures and remain solvent. Luxury expenditure should be entirely eliminated and the material and labour which was absorbed by it should go into the war. If this could be done completely, little damage would be done to the nation's economic position. The thing to be clearly realized is that all the productive effort of the nation is needed for three things--the carrying on of the war--the production of necessaries and the manufacture of goods for export. Every civilian who uses material and labour unnecessarily makes these tasks harder and goes into the markets as an unfair compet.i.tor of the Government. Every man and woman who saves five dollars and lends it to their country give their country what is far more important than the five dollars. They transfer to the Government the five dollars worth of material and labour they could have used up if they had spent it on themselves and that is its real value. This means the needful purchases of the State are subst.i.tuted for, instead of added to, the purchases of the civilian.

Further, the influence of economy in preventing undue inflation of currency and consequent high prices should be realized. A certain amount of high prices in war is inevitable but if civilians buy extravagantly, compet.i.tion becomes intense and prices rise beyond all need. The supplies are limited--in our case that is greatly added to by the submarine menace--and the demands of the Government are enormous. The compet.i.tion between the Government and the people grows more and more intense. Prices go still higher. The Government pays more than it should and so do the people. Higher wages are demanded with consequent higher prices, and so you get a vicious circle that gets more and more dangerous. If the civilian will relieve this pressure by demanding less, and cutting down his expenditure, prices will become more reasonable and the cost of the war less.

The chief difficulty in time of war is to make people realize the need of economy when they have, as our people have, more money than ever before, when enormous sums of money pour out ceaselessly to the people from the Government. They have to realize the fundamental difference between peace prosperity and war prosperity. Peace prosperity comes from the creation of wealth. War prosperity comes from the dissipation of wealth--the use of all resources--the pledging of credits. It is just as if we, as individuals, to meet a personal crisis, took all our personal savings and borrowed all we could and proceeded to spend it.

The wise man or woman will save all of it they can and realize that every unnecessary dollar spent helps the enemy. No civilian in a struggle of this kind has any moral right to more than necessary things. We want every man and woman to have all they need for their efficiency. We would not say for one moment that every one can save, and money spent on clothing and feeding the children and keeping the home comfortable is well spent, but nothing should be wasted.

The standard in this matter should be set by the rich, on whom rests the greatest responsibility, moral and social. It is impossible to expect workers to save if they see luxury and extravagance everywhere round them. One cannot too strongly say that.

The civilians who work hard to produce, who have done heavy toil in munitions and industry, and receive good wages and then go out and spend it lavishly might just as well have slacked at their work. The ultimate effect is the same. They have undone the good they did. It is as if soldiers having won a trench let the Germans come back into it.

People of small means often feel that all they can save is so small that it cannot really help and wonder if the effort to save is worth while, but if every person in America saved 2 cents a day, it would amount to $730,000,000 in a year, and that would find a great deal of munitions.

Finding the money by saving finds everything, releases men for the army, finds labour and money for munitions, finds labour for s.h.i.+ps and relieves the demands on tonnage, finds supplies. It is the fundamental service of the civilian, and no good citizen wants luxuries while soldiers and sailors need clothes and guns and s.h.i.+ps and munitions.

Everybody, man, woman, and child, can join the great financial army and march behind our men, and women have done with us and can do everywhere a great work in this. Women are on our National Committee and doing a great deal of its organization. Our men in the trenches, in the air, at sea, endure for us what we would have said before the war was humanly unendurable. They pay for our freedom with a great price--and we send them out to pay it--in death, disablement, suffering and sacrifice. To fail in our duty behind them would be the great betrayal.

Our treasures are very small things compared with our men. Shall we give them and not our money?

[Ill.u.s.tration: REVERSE OF BEFORE YOU SPEND]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A BOOKMARK, ISSUED BY N.W.S.C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THINK BEFORE YOU SPEND]

[Ill.u.s.tration: REVERSE OF HOW 15/6]

ANOTHER BOOKMARK