Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1918 — SAYS HIT THE HUN BY BUYING BONDS [ARTICLE]

SAYS HIT THE HUN BY BUYING BONDS

Major General Barry Says Aid Liberty Loan to Avert Indemnity Fund. By MAJ. GEN. THOMAS H. BARRY, [Former Commandant at Camp Grant, Rockford, lII.] Four years ago the German government started a war, which evidence makes certain had for its object the domination of the world, the crushing of democracy and the establishment of autocracy in its stead. Evidence of this far-reaching plot appeared as the war was prosecuted by the Germans with such lawless cruelty, that in an effort to parallel their inhuman savagery a shocked world has revived the mediaeval word “Hun.” The government of the United States observed neutrality until their sovereign rights were openly and contemptuously invaded. They were then called upon to decide whether to Surrender their rights and their liberty or to engage in war. Rightly they decided to engage in w’ar. That war is now in progress and it will be won by “hitting the Hun.” To hit the Hun, soldiers must go to the firing line in Europe, but that costs money, and if we are to “hit the Hun’’ from the firing line at the front there must be no faltering in the fund line at the rear. To prosecute the war successfully larger sums of money are needed by the government than it ever has heeded before. I have read an estimate that it costs a thousand dollars to shoot a Hun. To provide the stupendous total the government asks its citizens for a temporary loan of the cash they have to Invest. As security, it gives its promise to repay the full amount with a good rate of Interest. The promise to repay the amount borrowed constitutes the Liberty bonds. They are offered in denominations to suit all purses, and whoever subscribes to a Liberty bond is helping to “hit the Hun.”

A time will come when so many have been hit that just one more will constitute his defeat, the collapse of his government and the triumph of liberty. But the war will not be won until some one has hit this last Hun. So I beg every American who has in his heart a love for the liberty he enjoys and cash to invest to purchase Liberty bonds, and I urge every social club or society, every school, factory, department store, boy spout company and other organizations and individuals to form “Hitting the Hun clubs” and purchase Liberty bonds enough to take a shot at a Hun. It will give strength to the firing line to observe strength in the fund line, hud some one will have the honor of subscribing the fund that hits the last Hun and the w ar will be won. If we do not subscribe now 7 to the Liberty bonds, to win the war, we will be compelled to subscribe later to an indemnity fund for losing thp war.