The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-06-04
AMERICA SHOULD 0VER-SUBSCRIBE
 LIBERTY LOAN

A bond in the home today may be from today. This, in a nutshell, rep- resents the fact of major importance which the Liberty Loan committee desires to impress on every man, we- man and child In the country.
 An over-subscribed loan, completed in record time, will have g more damaging effect on the morale of Germany than anything else which the United States can do at this juno- ture of the war. The German people have been fed up with the impression that the people of the United States did not go into the war willingly and that they will not finance 1t freely While there is no better basis for this statement than the eninations of the German press agents at Berlin, it has undoubtedly been accepted as true by many of the Kaiser's subjects The only way to remove this false impress sion is to over-subscrtbe the loan without delay. When thi has been accomplished the ordinary German will understand that the people of the United States are ready to empty their pocket-books, if necessary to put an end to the Kaisers reign of terror, and it is believed that 1t will go far to satisfy them that the war should be ended.
 What England and France have given was in their own cause-but that cause is our cause now. There has not beena drop of blood shed, not a dollar spent that has not brought the war nearer to an end for this country. What they have spent in men and money has been a means of saving both in this country
 Another reason there is: The pros- perity that this country enjoys at present, the greatest in its history, has been at the, expense of the AL lies. Out of an a,nte-bellum depres- sion that threatened to come close to panic, we waxed wealthy. The na- tions that contributed to that need. require our money. Successful Lib- erty Loan gives 1t to them, as well as caring for our own immediate needs with regard to supplies and equip ment. The progress of this bond is- sue is being watched by France and England more keenly, perhaps, than by Germany. We have now, for the first time, a chance to demonstrate to the world that we are not a money worshipping race, that in a just fight we will do our part as unselfish1y as any race on earth.
 The glorius example that has been set for us should bring this country to the limit of sacrifice to meet the standard of England and France. In the same length of time that has been granted to the people of the United States to make up $2,000, 0,0Oo,0 ,000, England gathered $5, 100000, ,000 from it's patriots. This is the amount of the last loan floated in England, af- ter years of ceaseless struggle. Frances first loan was over-subscrib ed forty-one tmes-the response was as much as the national debt of the | nation. She paid in on this first loan l $3,100.000. Never has either of these countries appealed in vain to it's citi- gems.
 Two billion dollars is an awesome sum of money. yet when there is put beside it, the expenditure of those who are fighting our battles, it be- comes almost paltry. Since the be- l ginning of the war, the British gov ernment, up to January 1st, had bor- rowed $16,021, 100000; France has taken up $12,040, ,000,0O0; Russia ST. 035, 5,000,000; Italy $2,125, 900, 900; Belgium $1o0.o00,ooO; Japan, s2S.- 900, ,000 and Servia, SIS, 8,000,000, mak- ing in all a total of $37, 400, ,000. Since January 1st, England has put l out her famous 0,000,00O loan; France, one of her $100, 0,O0e, ,000; Rus sia, one that has been estimated at l $1,50O, 100000. and Italy $720,000,- 900. Germany has borrowed $3,000,- 000,O00E and Austria-Hungary also had added an immense sum, the amount of which has not been dis closed. Therefore, the belligerents have expended all told. more than | $60, ,000, 100000. If these amounts can be accumulated in Europe, it cer- tainly cannot be impossible for the United States to over-subscribe a loan of 00,000,00O. When it is taken l into consideration also that most of the wealth in the United States now
 is part of the $60,0O0,0 O,00O that was borrowed abroad, there is even I less reason for hestitancy on the part
 of this nations population. 1 Another element that should aid
 this country to convince our brethern in the conflict that we are not finan- cial "slackers'' is the fact that the primary loan here has been reduced to factors that should popularize it. I England in her first loan had no denomination like that represented in the $50 bond here. It was composed of bonds of high value; consequently
 there were only 100000 subscribers. IL was not untlI the Z1,OUO war SaV- :l tngs associations, with the co-opera- ton of the post-office offered certi-
 ficates. of about $3.60 denominations
 for popular consumption, that the temper of the country really made it. self felt. It took form in the last loan
 subscriptions from over, 5000, ,O0O, ,O0C persons.
 | We have had the prosperity. Now
 we are beginning to realize what wal
 means. By all natural laws, there
 should be something approximatins
 England's response. All that is re. quired for the success of the first Lib
 erty Loan of $2.oo0,000.0o0 will bs
 the affirmative action of as many persons as took up the last British
 loan. With the amounts that have
 been subscribed by banks, corpora.
 tions and wealthy individuals, if B..
 000,000 take even the minimum bond the issue will be over-subscribed. Bul
 we should do more. We should put
 at least one Liberty bond in ever,
 American home.
 That is the effect aimed for. It i,
 essential primarily that the bond is
 sue shall be subscribed. in full. In
 finitely more essential is that the mer
 and women of the United States ris, l to their. countrv's call in a. roapne-