Letter on War Bonds.

My dear Mr. Secretary:

Through you, as Secretary of the Treasury, I want to congratulate the American people on the way in which they have supported the voluntary pay-roll savings plan.

I am proud of the fact that 27,000,000 patriotic Americans are regularly investing more than $420,000,000 a month to help pay the cost of the war. And since all of this money comes from wages and salaries—nearly 90 percent from people earning less than $5,000, and the bulk of it from those working in war plants- I do not hesitate to say that the pay-roll savings plan is the greatest single factor we now have in protecting ourselves against inflationary spending.

This is a great record, both from the standpoint of curbing inflation and from the standpoint of financing the war. However, I heartily endorse your present drive to improve that record, and I agree it must be improved if we are to keep pace with the increasing demands of the war.

I therefore join you in calling upon the American people and upon labor and management particularly- to do still more. Additional people should be convinced of the necessity of participating. Everyone now on the pay-roll savings plan should materially increase the amount of bonds he is buying. We originally asked for 10 percent, but now we need considerably more.

I hope every American on a payroll will figure out for himself the extent to which he can curtail his spending, and will put every dollar of additional saving thus made into the pay-roll savings plan.

Sincerely yours,

The Honorable,

The Secretary of the Treasury