Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1918 — ALL IN FIGHT FOR LIBERTY [ARTICLE]

ALL IN FIGHT FOR LIBERTY

Every Man, Woman and Child in the United States Is Charged With a Sacred Duty. A war machine, today, is America. Traveling the road of Success, it is bound for Victory. With the direction of the machine we have, most of us, little to do. We must trust the man at the wheel of State to drive forward with speed and dare. But with the condition of the machine itself we are Implicitly concerned. For its effective operation we are every one.of us responsible. Every American is, in fact, an essential part of the mechanism which Is to carry the world forward to a hew era of liberty. But the motor, alas, is not yet “tuned up.” It rattles badly. Loose and imperfectly assembled, it knocks and overheats. Why? Because so many of us are still careless and confident, indifferent to our duty as citizens. In one week, for instance, there were reported 537 violators of the lighting regulations in New York. There still are profiteers, still women who knit colored sweaters for their own use, still persons who repeat scandalous rumors, deterring the Cause. Tightwads and slackers still abound. No wonder our war machine is still ineffectual. It needs the regulation of a national conscience. How then shall we tighten up the screws? This way: Every citizen must see to* it that his part is well done. We must stop all leaks —economize in light, coal, wheat, beef and sugar. We must get more mileage, give up pleasure and profit, knit, work, Inspire others, Jnsist that all obey the law, and watch out for spies. The motor must have suel —subscribe to the Liberty loan. Lubricate the machinery* with contributions to the Red Cross! There is, in short, only one thing upon which we must all concentrate —Success! And Success will not come until every man, woman and child realizes his own yital responsibility in the prosecution of this war as a great crusade for universal democracy. Are you doing everything in your power to help win the war? —helping in every way and every day? Do you feel that nothing matters except victory? If we do not win—disaster! When everyone regards his obligations as deeply as if he were an enlisted soldier and fights in his own way the civic battle of patriotism, then, and not till then, will the American war machine bring us to the longed-for end—universal peace.— Gelett Burgess, of The Vigilantes.