The Monticellonian., 1917-07-19

what that means.
DO they mean that you must be
paid, must be bribed. TO make your
contribution. contribution that costs
you neither a drop of blood nor a tear,
when the whole world Is in travail and
men everywhere depend upon and call
10 you to bring them out of bondage
and make the world fit place to live
in again, amidst peace and justice?
Appeals to Honor.
"Do they mean that you will exact
price. drive n bargain. with the men
who are enduring the agony of this
war on the battlefields In the trenches.
amidst the lurking dangers Of The sea,
or with the bereayed women and pitt
ful children. before you will come for
ward to do yenr 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 viii not It 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
he midst Of mist.
.'Manv grievons burden of taxa
ton will be laid on this nation. i'm this
generation and in the next to pay for
this war; let us see 10 it that for
every dollar that is taken from the
ppople's pockets it shall be possible to
obtain dollars worth of the sound
stuff they need.
Let me turn for moment to the
ship owners of the United States and
he 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.
"Thexz are doing everything that
high freight charges can do to make
the war failure, to make it impos
sible.
Il do not SLY that they realize this
or intend IT, The thing has happened
naturally enough because the CONNER
ciaI processes which we are content to
see operate in ordinary times have
without sufficient thought been con
tinued into period where they have
no proper place
Il am not questioning motives. l
am merely stating n fact, and stating
il in order that attention may be fixed
upon 1t.
'Fhe 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,
| take il for granted. count upon them
Ia reconsider the whole matter 1t is
high time. Their extra hazards are
covered by war risk insurance.
Warning Is Sounded
II know. and you know. what re-
sponse to this great challenge of duty
md of opportunity the nation will ex
pect of you; and [ 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.
Il ain dealing with the matter thus
auhlicly 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 a 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 us much n part of the
government as are the army and navy
themselves: the whole people in all
their activities are now modified and
IN service for the accomplishment of
the nations task in this war; 1t 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 Il is Just
as much our duty to sustain the indus
trials of the country with all the in
dustries that contribute to its life as
it is To sustain our forces in the field
and on the sea.
Think Not of Self.
we must make prices to the pub
lie the same as the prices to the gov
ernment. Prices mean the same thing
everywhere now They mean the efii-
cheney or the inetficiency of the ma
ton. whether it is the government that
pays them or not. They mean victory
or defeat. They mean that America
will win her place once fer all among
the foremost free nations of the world
or that She viii sink to defeat and be-
come n seeoEd=rate power alike in
thought and in action. This is day
of her reckoning and every man among
MS must personally face that reckoning
along with her.
"The case needs no arguing l as
sumo that | am only expressing your
own thoughts-what must be in the
mind of every true man when he faces
the tragedy and the solemn glory Of