Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1917 — The Liberty Loan Campaign. [ARTICLE]

The Liberty Loan Campaign.

New York Work!. The announcement that Secretary is to tour the west in the interest of the Liberty Loan indicates that this country is not yfet reacting to the war. It is (not surprising. England only slightly reacted to the war for a year. It did not fully react until it 'was disc osed what sort of a war this is and what would be the consequences of losing it. Only a few among us as yet sense thess throes as personal concerns. If they were felt as they ought to be, the secretary would be too ousy at Washington counting the size of the surplus subscriptions to tour the country with a suggestion that the loan mav not be so successful as it ought to be. His task is a difficult one-. What words can be used to arouse a nation which does not perceive that the nation is at war, ahd not ita arniy alone? The men who will push the bayonets and throw bombs from the trenches are only the spearhead. Behind the spearhead there must be the thrust of the-power of every man and woman in the country. Nothing less can prevail against those who

make war in the German manner. There never was such a war.-There never was a country so ravaged as Belgium, whose sufferings are rightly ours. There never before was a nation which shot nurses and commanders of merchant vessels for reasons which are their imperishable claim to be avenged by those next in line for such treachery. There never before was a nation which drowned women and children, and was unashamed and unrepentant. The purpose of the bonds is to bring that shameless peoto a perception of their crrtnes. There never was a man who brought '■such-'-misery-*upoft““’m®»kwi , d- -aS" themonarch who after years of such conduct commands the loyalty of his the agent of God. Such topics as these are the ones to arouse the people of the country until they shall see that the bonds are the missiles

which they individually must use, unless they are to expose themselves to danger and shame. - Our defenders have -battled with almost superhuman endurance for years and have not won. They have spent many times more billions than are asked of us. The money thev have spent is as nothing to the blood they have poured forth, while our skins are whole. They have impoverished themselves for our enrichment, and the question is whether we shall rally to their support. It is a reproach to ask it. It is a shame that the loan should be in doubt a week, even a day. There are reasons, but they are of no consequence. The fault lies with the people who must take the bonds if they than fail to do so. Too many are letting others do what they Should, not from unwillingness to do their share, but from fajlure of personal perception of the issues involved. Too manv think that the rich should bear the burden, that the soldiers should defend their country, that there is no dancer here across the seas. There could bo no greater mistake. There is no American woman who has not been insulted iir her sex by those against whoifir these >bonds are weapons. There np American man whose manhood is not concerned to help make democracy safe. The man who does not take what bonds he'can is in danger of having all that he has taken from him. He is .saving his dollars at the cost of a memory that he failed at the hour of test. He is dishonoring his manhood and forfeiting the esteem of those who are doing more than they should because he : s doing less. The war must sell the bonds, not their terms. The Germans will not practice a different war against us than against others. They will fight our friends just as thev have done and so long as they are able. The Liberty Loan is merely our insurance against such bitter experiences.