Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1917-05-29
The Benedict Arnolds
Bv HaDSburu liebe.

oy OdpSuuiY Licuc.
If you're looking for something pretty,
brother American, just pass this by. For
this isn't pretty. But it is truth!
There l. n name that has stood accused
IN America for more than century, n name
that is inseparably connected with the very
blacklist of all the brands of shame, u
name that will be coupled with the very
lowest depths of treachery as long as time
lasts. There is no need to tell you what
that name is. for You know already. You
wouldn't nave to walk Il thousand miles to
put your finger on a man who il a great
deal wose than Benedict Arnold. Not that |
am upholding traitors. To with traitors.
I'm merely making a statement of fact,
which falls far short of being a pretty
thing to tell You.
| know q farmer who has in his grana-
ries a thousand bushels of wheat that he
bought in from his ~neighbors at a dollar
and a half. He is holding it, and he boasts
of his business acumen." Living in little
houses on adjoining farms there are poor
men who must now do two days of hard
labor in order that they may buy one lit
tie bag of flour-for that matter, there are
millions of men scattered all over the
United States who are in the same unhap-
py fix. They were already poor; the own
price of wheat has doubled. The rich far
mer has made fifteen hundred dollars on
his wheat.
Now tell me this: What did that man do
that he should have fifteen hundred dol
lars from the purses of the poor men? An
old and Interchangeable, immntable law of
our universe il that a man must pay for
what he gets. just what did that farmer
pay for his fifteen hundred dollars?
I'll answer. He paid in character. He
is not only a Benedict Arnold, but he is
worse than a Benedict Arnold. For did
not this man of the everlastingly accursed
name nave a fancied grievance and did he
not risk his life on the event;
What has this to do with patriotism?
Everything. The laboring man will blame
either the war or the government for the
high prices. Oh, yes, its a fact; I've been,
and I've seen, and Eve talked. 1t makes
the common people, the supporters Of our
country afraid of war; ii takes the Aemri-
can spirit ont of them; it keeps them from
volunteering to fight. Or, on the other
hand, it makes them feel worse toward the
overworked government than they would
care to say; they don't believe the govern
ment wants to regulate prices; there are
some who viii tell YOU that a snake won't
bite itself, Now I'm casting no i%nsinua-
tions. I believe in the government.
Let me tell you this. brother: There is
more of this than anybody has dreamed
of, much more. Ii is a woeful state of
~affairsl For when the common people
won't stand for the nation, what is going
to become of the natione
The wheat buyer Is merely an example.
There are men who are holding potatoes
in their cellars, and corn in their barns;
there arc men who are holding other nee
e~ssaries of life in other places. These men
may not know it. but they are Benedict
Arnolds. and worse; they are vampires
who today are drawing out Americas life
blood; they are more to be feared than all
the submarines Germany could build in a
hundred years. We may send millions of
fighting men 10 France, but this wal of
the world. this Armageddon of democracy,
viii be lost or won right here at home.
Read that again. It's worth it.
And still we send misisonaries to China,
while these Arnolds, here under our noses,
sit in the comfortable pews Of their
churches and humble amens with the
preachers prayer. Properly, they belong
to hell. They are the worst of all Ameri-
cas- enemies.
See what you ear do about it, but keep
your head. You can't do anything if you
lose your head.