Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 239, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1917 — Awake, Ye Israel Putnams. [ARTICLE]

Awake, Ye Israel Putnams.

Ohio Liberty More than a hundred years ago, when the United States was yet only the dream of a few ardent lovers of liberty, Israel Putnam was struggling with a team and plow among the stumps and rocks of a newly cleared New England field. Possibly he too may have been dreaming of the day when America would be a nation of itself. Up the winding roadway dashed a man on horseback. Opposite the plowman he drew up his steed and shouted, sharply, excitedly, imperiously. Putnam urged his plodding plow horses to a livelier effort. Presently he had reached the roadside and the horseman wildly told the tale of the British raid upon Lexington. It was seeding time in the not overly productive New England hills and Israel Putnam was his own plowman. But over and above all else he was a patript. He did not stop to consider the possible cost of his leaving. He did not look around for a man to finish the job. He did not stop even to tell the folks at the house over beyond thte ridge where he was going. He left the team standing hitched to the plow and hurried post haste to answer the call of his country. Liberty was at stake and he was off to the rescue. Liberty is at stake again today. Your liberty, my liberty, the liberty of half the civilized world. And every day a rural mail carrier brings the story with all its dread warning along the winding country road to the Israel Putnams. But they aren’t in the field with the plow today. They are storing their $3 wheat and their $2 potatoes and the $2 corn and their $3 onions, and all the products of the field that are worth more than they have been since the days of the civil war. And better than anyone else they know in their hearts how well they are responding to the call of Liberty, outraged, oppressed, all but throttled. , . It was Israel Putnam and men of his stamp, tillers of the soil, the yeomanry of a virgin country, that won its freedom in those days of hardship and glorious sacrifice. And m this day of that selfsame nation s great need the traditions of their forefathers will call to them with an appeal that will not fall upon deaf and unheeding ears. The farmer hasn t yet awakened wholly to the crisis. He has been busy making hay while the sun shone. Reaping his gram while the days were fair. Garnering his crops against the coming of Jack Frost. Have patience, Mr. Cityman. Gratitude, loyalty, patriotism on the farm didn’t disappear wholly with the passing of Israel The full-fisted farmer will yet buy his Liberty Bond. ' - ' $