WAR IS HELL & ALSO EXPENSIVE!

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2411

U.S. WAR EXPENDITURES TOTAL $1 MILLION AN HOUR

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) One hundred years ago, August 24, 1917, the United States Treasury released a statement showing "war expenditures (had) mounted during August (1917) to more than $24,000,000 every twenty-four hours."

Two-thirds of this amount represented advances to the Allied nations fighting the Central Powers.  August expenditures for the remaining one-third amounted to $8,000,000 a day.

Since the United States entered the world war, the treasury had paid out $2,387,490,086.  The Allies had been paid $1,630,500,000.

The Chicago Daily Tribune reported that expenditures for the army and navy, not surprisingly, had risen "from a comparably small amount...at the time war was declared to the present tremendous daily average..."

The Tribune also reported that the United States Treasury was paying out more than $5,000,000 daily than "current receipts from ordinary sources."

SOURCE

"Billions For Defense; Not One Cent Tribute", The Chicago Daily Tribune, August 25, 1917.

"U.S. Currency, $100,000 Gold Certificate", Bureau of Engraving and Printing, U.S. Department of the Treasury, www.moneyfactory.gov/

$100,000 Gold Certificate

1934 Series*

*JFK+50 NOTE

The Bureau of Engraving & Printing says the $100,000 Gold Certificate bearing the image of President Woodrow Wilson was "used for official transactions between Federal Reserve banks" and was not circulated among the general public.