The total cost of the war to the United States, down to the signing of the armistice, was, in round numbers, something over $21,000,000,000. The unavoidable continuation for a period of the expenses of the war establishment will have added $10,205,000,000 to that sum by the end of June, 1919, and the complete return of the country to a peace basis will somewhat increase that sum. However, a considerable portion, probably more than one-quarter, will be reclaimed from values gained or salvaged from the properties in which it was invested. Loans to the nations associated with us in the war, of which ten asked for credits, amounted, at the cessation of hostilities, to $8,000,000,000, and were increased by $2,000,000,000 more during the next six months. That sum will in time be removed from the country’s net war expenditure. But $21,000,000,000 in excess of the nation’s usual outlay for the carrying on of its governmental affairs had to be raised quickly and, for the most part, expended as soon as collected. The plan of the Government for financing the war provided for the raising of approximately one-third of this sum by taxation and from customs duties and other usual sources and the remainder by bonds and certificates maturing in from five to thirty years. Therefore the entire cost of the war will be borne practically by those now living who as mature persons have been a part of it or who as children have witnessed or aided the work for it of their elders. Accustomed hardly at all to direct taxation, the people nevertheless took up readily a war burden of income and excess profits taxes far heavier than anything they had ever dreamed of before. For the first time in their lives millions of people were called upon to make direct contributions to the support of the Federal Government. The sum of $3,694,000,000 raised by direct taxation was the largest tax ever paid by any country and represented a larger proportion of the nation’s war budget than any other belligerent engaged in the great war had been able to defray from tax revenues. About seven-eighths of this sum came from taxes on income and excess profits and the remainder from taxes on liquors and tobacco. Only about $22,000,000 of the revenue from incomes was paid by those having incomes of $3,000 or less, the bulk of it coming from large fortunes and excess profits.