158 WAR BORROWING The preface of Pigou’s book is dated October, 1916. In December, 1916, at the meeting of the American Economic Association held in Columbus, Ohio, an eminent American economist, Professor O. M. W. Sprague of Harvard University, pre sented a paper on “ Loans and Taxes in War Finance ” wherein quite independent of Pigou’s ex position the inflationist argument against funding, foreshadowed in certain of the speaker’s earlier writings, was set forth in detail. Admitting that “ it is not absolutely inevitable that war finance based on borrowing should cause a general rise in prices,” Professor Sprague noted that “ it is signifi cant, however, that whenever governments have re sorted to this policy prices generally have manifested marked and continued upward tendency.” Professor Pigou’s and Professor Sprague’s views, spoken with some measure of scientific restraint, were received with attention if not assent within expert circles. They were given circulation and vogue by the lamentable Minnesota “ memorial of American economists to Congress regarding war fin ance,” an ill-fated attempt to determine congres sional action upon the then pending war revenue bill by arraying the body of academic economists in support of such propositions as: “ It may be necessary for a month or two at the outset to issue a limited amount of bonds, pending the collection of increased taxes, but beyond these, which might well be made repayable within a year, no necessity for bonds exists.” Thus far the inflationist doctrine had circulated as an academic hypothesis. In April, 1917, it was