The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1917-12-20
THE DEMAND OF THE HOUR.

There are two clippings published on
this page CT the Banner to which your
especial attention is called, reader.
One is under the heading Two of Il
Kind and the other is headed Win
ming in the Present War;
In the first referred to the able ed
itor of the Baton Rouge State-Times
is not giving support to war funds and
war measures, and rightly SO. Give
close attention to what he has to say,
and later make sure there are no Vel
low Dogs in your community. If there
are. expose them.
From the other clipping you will
CLEAN that the editor of that great
Southern daily the Commercial Appeal
(Cf Memphis) is somewhat short of
patience with existing conditions and
particularly denounces the man who
is striving only to make the war a
stepping stone to greater wealth. He
has taken for his text that portion Of
the Presidents message dealing with
unrestrained selfishnesS. Every line of
what he writes here is worth the read
ing. He speaks only the truth, and the
conclusion that the United States
should by the middle Of next summer
have five million men under arms is
not farfetched.
And we are to CLEAN yet something
else from these worthy editorial eX
pressiOns. They come from men who
read. who are well informed as to cur
rent events and who. better than any
other class of men could possibly be,
are well equipped to deal with the sub
jects about which they write. The
viewpoint of these editors is only that
of the people. If not so now, it will
soon follow that that is true. 1t may
he that they are only first informed
and that the masses will later learn.
BE all that as it may, let us come to
the purport of the Banner in this and
in reproducing the two editorials just
under discussion. 1t is to impress the
seriousness of the situation of the day.
Let us not think of the war as of few
HlOItuS lLCI US lot
say that Uncle Sam will have some
contract OH his hands before he whips
all middle Europe" and dismiss the
matter without further thought. The
man who so talks and acts is not loyal,
and you will find out little later OH,
when the line begins to tighten. that
loyal citizens will he greatly in demand
and that all will want to know the
name ana place of residence Of the man
wlc is not considered loyal. These
things will come. When? Well, when
American blood begins to flow freely
on European soil, when this country
suffers internal disturbances, as will
most aikely follow. and when we here
at hd pc IRE on rdtions.
Y (e is present duty that con-
FROM every good citizen, and that is
to st into the fight. But we do not
mean by that that all should take up
arms. Many are. of course, untitled
for that. hut all of us. men and women,
can help in some way in the struggle.
After the fashion in which you can
best help is known only to yourself per-
haEs. The suggestions have been many.
and surely you will follow out the die
tates of your own conscience if you are
good citizen.
One suggestion above may be, as it
were, ION the toes" of some few Of the
Banners readers. If so, we don't care
Il fig. We are in this fight. and we are
only trying to make sure that you are,
or to persuade you to get i'll. And we
add. not hoastingly, that we are setting
back with fist full of Liberty Bonds,
Red Cross buttons, receipts from the
solicitors for several worthy war-cause
funds, and we are going to gather in
more of them if we live and enjoy the
health to work on. We trust you can
say the same.