The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-07-12

hundreds of thousands of our young
men across the seas to serve a great
cause, no true man who stays behind
to work for them and sustain them
by his labor, will ask himself what
he is personally going to make out
of that labor. No true patriot will
permit himself to take toll of their
heroism in money or seek to grow
rich by the shedding of their blood.
He will give as freely and with as
unstinted self -sacrifice as they. When
they are giving their lives will he
not at least give his money?
Plea Unsound.
Il hear ii insisted that more than
la just price; more than a price that
will sustain our industries, must be
paid; that 1t is necessary to pay
very liberal and unusual profits in
order to stimulate production; that
nothing but pecuniary rewards will
Ido-rewards paid in money, not in
the mere liberation of the world. l
take 1t for granted that those who
argue this, do not stop to think what
lit means. Do they mean that you
must be paid, must be bribed, to
make your contribution, a contribu-
ton that costs you neither a drop
of blood or a tear when the whole
WI III 10 Al
where depend upon and call to you to
bring them out of bondage and make
the world fit place to live in again
amidst peace and justice? Do they
mean that you will exact q price,
drive. a bargain, with the men who
are enduring the agony of this war
on the battlefield, in the trenches,
amidst the lurking dangers of the
sea, or with the bereaved women and
pitiful children before you will come
forward to do your duty and rive
some part Of your life, in easy peace
full fashion, for the things we are
| fighting for, the things we have
pledged our fortunes, our lives, our
sacred honor to vindicate and defend
liberty and justice and fair deal
ing and the peace of the nations?
"Of course, you will not. 1t is in
conceivable. Your patriotism is Of
the safe self-denying stuff as the
patriotism of the men dead or maim-
ed on the fields of France, or else, it
Is not, patriotism at all. Let us
never speak, then, of profits and Of
patriotism in the same sentence, but
face facts and meet them. Let us
do sound business but not in the
midst of mist. Many a grievous
burden of taxation will be laid on
this nation in this generation and in
the next, to pay for this war; let
us see to it that for every dollar
that is taken from the peoples pock-
cts, it shall be possible to obtain a
dollars worth of the sound stuffs
they need.
Freight Rates Condemned.
LET me turn for a moment to the
ship-owners of the United States and
the other ocean carriers whose ex-
ample they have followed and ask
them if they realize what obstacles,
what almost insuperable obstacles,
they have been putting in the way
of the successful prosecution of this
war by the ocean freight rates they
have been exacting. They are doing
everything that high freight charges
can do to make the war failure,
to make it impossible. l do not say
that they realize this or intend it.
The thing has happened naturally
enough, because the commercial
processes which we are content to
see operate in ordinary times have
without sufficient thought been con-
tinued into a period where they have
no proper place. / am not question
ing motives. / am merely stating a
fact and stating it in order that at
tention may be fixed upon it.
The fact is LnaL LnOSe VINO nave
fixed war freight rates have taken
the most effective means in their
power to defeat the armies engaged
against Germany. When they realize
this we may, take 1t for granted,
count upon them to reconsider the
whole matter. 1t is high time. Their
extra hazards are covered by war
risk insurance.
81 know, and you know. what
response to this great challenge Of
duty and of opportunity the nation
will expect of YOU: and know what
response you will make. Those who
do not respond, who do not respond
in the spirit of those who have gone
to give their lives for US on bloody
fields far away may safely be left
to be dealt with by opinion and the
law-for the law must of course,
Command those things. l am deal
ing with the matter thus publicly
and frankly, not because / have any
doubt or fear as to the result, but
only in order that in all our think
ing and dealings with one another
we may move in perfectly clear air
of mutual understanding.
Sane Prices to People.
"And there is something more
that we must add to our think
ing. The public Is now as much