The American public is not responding to the Second Liberty Loan to the extent asked by the Government. Of the sum of five billion dollars called for, only one-tenth has been subscribed in half the time allotted. Five billion seems a tremendous sum until we remember that only last February, England, with a population and a national wealth less than one half our own, and weakened by two and a half years of war, cheerfully subscribed to an even greater sum. The average American has not yet reached that point of patriotism where he will invest all his savings in government bonds, while the present state of the stock market, lowered to panic level by vast liquidation of British collateral, offers him a chance to buy some gilt-edged security at an unusual bargain. In reality he is defeating his own ends, as should the loan fail, taxation would of necessity be largely increased, and the war considerably prolonged.

The Government has distinctly requested that savings bank accounts be not withdrawn to buy bonds, nor investments sold. It is from the savings of the nation that the issue should be subscribed.

This week a campaign is to be held in the University, the Committees hoping to interview every student and persuade him to take a bond. It is not expected that many large subscriptions will be obtained in this way; the average college allowance seems small enough to the recipient. But there is scarcely a student who is not according himself some luxury, which he could well do without. From money thus saved his subscription should be made. One fifty dollar bond, bought at a sacrifice, is worth more to the holder than many large ones bought with surplus cash. And every man who has not made this sacrifice for the government should feel troubled at reading the latest returns, for to him and to his kind the present undersubscription is directly due.