The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1917-07-20

who are enduring the agony of thi,
f~wa<- tho -hRttlefelds, 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
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
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 will 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.
ST or fr1rr q tn 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 Failure.
"They are doing everything that
high freight charges can do to make
the war a failure, to make it impos-
sible.
Il 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. /
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,
l take it for granted. count upon them
to reconsider the whole matter. 1t is
high time. Their extra hazards are
covered by war risk insurance.
Warning Is Sounded.
81 know, and you know. what re-
Spouse to this great challenge of duty |
and of opportunity the nation will ex-
pect of you; and 1 know what re-
Spouse you will make.
"Those who do not respond, who |
do not respond in the spirit of those |
who have gone to give their lives for |
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.
II am dealing with the matter thus
publicly and frankly, not because have
any doubt or fear as to the result but
only in order that in all our thinking
and in all our dealings with one an
other we may move in perfectly clear
air of mutual understanding.
Must Have Same Prices.
"And there is something more that
we must add to our thinking. The
public is now as much a part of the
government as are the army and navy
the whole people in all
their activities are now modified and
in service for the accomplishment of
the nations task in this war; it is
in such circumstances impossible just
" to distinguish between industrial
purchases made by the government
and industrial purchases made by the
managers of industries, and it is just
rs much our duty to sustain the indus
trials of the country with all the in
lustries that contribute to its life as
t is to sustain our forces in the field
md on the sea.
Think Not of Self.
1--WE must make prices to the pub
ic the same as the prices to the gov
Prices mean the same thing
now. They mean the eff
iency or the inefficiency of the ma
ion, whether it is the government that
'ays them or not. They mean victory
II defeat They mean that America
viii win her place once for all among
he foremost free nations of the world
r that she will sink to defeat and be-
ONE q Second-rate power alike in
bought and in action. This is day
f her reckoning and every man among
S must personally face that reckoning
long with her.
1.-THE case needs no arguing. / as
ume that / am only expressing your
wn thoughts-what must be in the
lind of every true man when he faces
le tragedy and the solemn glory of
le present war, for the emancipation