The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1917-09-12

! treat with the German pee-oo-ple That means
, if it means anything, that the German people
i invited to change their form of government and
that if they will be the ones to do the job inside
their own family, we will stop fighting them and
assist them in continuing the peace of the world
That is a magnificent state paper and ladies and
gentlemen. one that you ought to read every word
| Of it.
We all want peace; we all love peace but when
we have to fight for peace we will fight not only
at the front, but will also clean out the black
crowds in our midst. This is time when there
should be no divided loyalty in the country There
are some who entertain pro-German idea and
believe in standing up for their fathers and their
greatgrandfather and their greatgrandmother who
are dead, in preference to their own sons and
daughters who owe their allegiance and their love
to this country. l would rather fight, friends, any
time for live friend than for dead one and
believe in fighting the battles of this country for
my children and not for my greatgrandfather who
lies at rest in his grave
l want to tell you, boys in blue, that when you
went down to the southern soil to fight you didn't
stop to see whether you were fighting the on
southern soil. Not much! You were glad to go
anywhere at the command of the leader, outside
of the domains of the north and in that great
march to the sea you did not care for anything,
just so you brought home the milk and the honey
And when the people say that we
neutral. they are Icing. We treated with Ger
many and France as with any other country, for
did we not permit one of the German ships, the
Deutschland to land shores? Did not
load her down with nickel, and rubber and other
supplies to take back, and bullets to fight their
battles against France Did the Germans think
hat Of ;4,,9 Wo cold
whoever wanted what our market offered It
wasn't fault that Germany couldn't get any
goods into her country except by undersea route
That her trouble and not our fault, nor be-
cause Of our lack of neutrality.
Let US see further. We entered into the war to
defend our stand. Did we? That is along the
line of another argument that you hear people
say, that it is rich mans war; that it is Wall
Street which is countenancng it; they are MAX
ing the money; that going to make a lot
of millonaires out of this war; that the poor peo
pie will suffer in blood and that their sons must
| alone go to war. The rich mans as well as
the poor mans son must 60 The assertion is
made that the poor mans son must go for the
benefit of the big boys in Wall Street. Just
moment; is this the rich mans war! Is it? 1t was
perhaps up to the time the United States got into
it, because wealthy men in this country and
our manufacturers of munitions, and you farm
ers getting as high as $500 per bushel for
grain to be sold to those people who were fighting
on the other side of the water. We were all get
ting rich in a measure and the big fellows down
in Wall Street were getting exceedingly rich
Bet now accept the argument Of the pro-Ger-
mans. Did those deliberately get this coun-
try into war? How foolish! Because the very
moment that we entered into this war steps were
taken to set price things to prevent certain
men from getting big profits, on "copper" STEEL
wheat, everything that we need to prosecute
these war, prices will be governed by the govern
ment of the United States and prices will be set
The price has been set wheat and copper al
ready. Wheat, you know is S2.17 in Minneapolis
and will remain that until the first day of July
That means that you will get little more than
$500 and you cannot get any no matter
whether you hold it or sell it now We, if we had
not done that, would have been getting $500 or
So. so for our wheat, and the copper manufactur-
ers and the munition makers would have made
millions where now it is question whether they
will come out even or not.
It would have been folly for rich man to en-
broil this country into the and then be COM
PEELED to have the prices set upon those NUM-
tons and thus prevent him from making fair
price. But the top of all this there is special
war tax that will run from forty to fifty on all
those wealthy big boys down in New York, that
will squeeze some of them so tight that they will
be glad to disgorge what they have been accum-
ulating for the last fifty years.
Another argument about this rich mans war
business. They say the rich will stand back and
make money while the poor go out and fight their
battles Is that SO? Why, the greatest man that
this country ever produced, Abraham Lin
coin, and yet this men forgot, or Congress over
looked with him, the necessity Of having
scripted army that would mean the drawing of
men from every walk in life. This is the most
democratic and the best proposition of raising an
army that has ever been conceived on earth. There
facing the khaki boys) are those who represent
that proposition. I don't know many of those
boys, if any, but say to you that it doesn't
make any difference whether he is the son of
day laborer, or of the richest man in Redwood. or
of the minister, or Of the lawyer. It doesn't make
a difference whether he is the son of loafer or