Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-07-20

who are enduring the agony Of this
war on the battlefields, in the trenches,
amidst the lurking dangers of the sea,
or with the bereaved women and pitt
full children, before you will come for
ward to do your duty and give some |
part of your life, in easy, peaceful
fashion, for the things we are fight |
ing for, the things we have pledged |
our fortunes, our lives, our sacred hon |
or to vindicate and defend-liberty |
and justice and fair dealing and the
peace of nations?
"Of course yOu will not. 1t is in
conceivable. Your patriotism is of the
same self-denying stuff as the pa
triOtism of the men dead or MANNED
on the fields of France, or else it is
not patriotism at all.
Full Dollars Worth.
LET us never speak, then, of profits
and of patriotism in the same SEN
tence, but face facts and meet them.
Let us do sound business, but not in
the midst of mist.
MANY a grievOus burden of taxa
ton win 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 pockets it shall be possible to
obtain a dollars worth of the sound
stuff they need.
"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.
. Making War a Failure.
| "They are doing everything that
high freight charges can do to make
the war a failure, to make it impos-
sible.
II do not say that they realize this
or intend it. The thing has happened
naturally enough because the CONNER
/ cial 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.
81 am not questioning motives. 1
am merely stating a fact, and stating
It in order that attention may be fixed
upon it.
-"The fact is that those who have
fixed war freight rates have taken the
most effective means in their power to
defeat the armies engaged against Ger
many. When they realize this we may,
1 take it for granted, count upon them
to reconsider the whele matter. 1t is
high time. Their extra hazards are
covered by war risk insurance.
Warning Is Sounded.
-'T know, and you know, what re
sponse to this great challenge of duty
and of opportunity the nation will ex'
pect Of you; and 1 know what re
sponse you will make.
"Those who do not respond, who
do not respond in the spirit of those
who have gone to give their lives fol-
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.
"I am dealing with the matter thu:
publicly and frankly, not because havt
any doubt or fear as to the result bu
only in order that IL all our thinking
and In all our dealings with one an
other we may move in a perfectly cleal
air of mutual understanding.
Must Have Same Prices.
: "And there is something more tina
we must add 10 our thinking. Tn
public is now as much part of tn
: government as are the army and nav,
themselves; the whole people in al
their activities are now mobilized an,
In service for the accomplishment o
: the nations task in this war; it
: In such circumstances impossible just
ly to distinguish between industria
purchases made by the government
and industrial purchases made by tn
managers of industries, and it is jus
as much our duty to sustain the indus
trials of the country with all the III
dustries that contribute to its life a
I it is to sustain our forces in the fiel
and on the sea.
Think Not of Self.
1--WE must make prices to the pull
: lie the same as the prices to the goN
ernment. Prices mean the same thin
everywhere now. They mean the eff
cheney or the inefficiency of the n,
ton, whether it is the government ths
q pays them or not. They mean victor
t or defeat. They mean that Americ
e will win her place once for all anon
y the foremost free nations Of the worl
o or that she will sink to defeat and b
g come a second-rate power alike
: thought and in action. This is a da
e of her reckoning and every man amor
us must personally face that reckonir
e along with her.
k 1.-The case needs no arguing. I a
sumo that 1 am only expressing yol
e own thoughts-what must be in Il
If mind of every true man when he fac
Is the tragedy and the solemn glory
r, the present war, for the emancipatit
d Of mankind.
II 81 summon you to a great duty,
,e great privilege, shining dignity al
70 distinction. 1 shall expect every mi
who is not a Stacker to be at my si'
throughout this great enterprise.
It 1t no man can win honor who thinks
N himself"