Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-07-13
UNFAIR FOOD PROFITS
PLACED UNDER BAN
BY u. S. GOVERNMENT
CONTINUED Prom Page one.)

the lurking dangers of the sea, or
with the bereaved women and the
pitiful children, before you will
come forward to do your duty and
give some part of your life, In easy
peaceful fashion, for the things we
are fighting for, the things we have
pledged our fortunes, our lives, our
sacred honor to vindicate and de-
fend-Iiberty and justice and fair
dealing and the peace of nations?
BURDEN OF TAXATION.
Of course, you will not. 1t is in
conceivable. Your patriotism Is Of
the same self-denying stuff as the
patriotism of the men dead or
manned on the field of France, or
else it is no patriotism at all. Let
us never speak, then, Of profits and
of patriotism in the same sentence,
but face facts and meet them. Let
us do sound business, but not in the
midst of a mist. Many a grievious
burden of taxation 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 stuffs
they need.
Let me turn for a moment to the
ship owners of the United States
and the other ocean carriers whose
example 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
thew have been exacting. They are
doing everything that high freight
charges can do to make the war a
failure, to make 1t impossible. L
do not say that they realize this or
intend 1t. The thing has happened
naturally enough, because the COM
mercial processes which we are
content to see operate In ordinary
times. have without sufficient
thought been continued into a period
where they have no proper place. l
am merely stating a fact and stat
ing it in order that attention may be
fixed upon 1t.
The faot Is that those who have
fixed war freight rates have taken
the most effective means in their
power to defeat the armies engaged
against Germany. When they real
ize this we may. l take Ut Tor
granted, count upon them TO re-
consider the whole matter. 1t as
high time. Their extra hazards are
covered by war risk insurance.
1 know, and you know, what re-
Spouse to this great challenge or
duty and Of opportunity the nation
will expect of you, and know what
response you will make. Those 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 these
things. am dealing with the mat
ter thus publicly and frankly, not
because L have any doubt or fear as
to the result, but only In order that
in all our dealings with one another
we may move in a perfectly clear
cir of understanding.
PEOPLE Modified.
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 themselves; the whole people
In all their activities are now
mobildzed and in service for the
accomplishment of the nations task
in this war; it Is in such circum-
stances impossible justly to dtstin-
gufsh between Industrial purchases
made by the government and indus
trial purchases made by the man
ayers of individual industries of the
country, all the industries that con-
II ic tn es1re=taiT
our forces in the field and on the
sea.
We must make the prices to the
public the Same as the prices to the
government. Prices mean the same
thing everywhere now; they mean the
efficiency or the ineff1ciency of the
nation, whether it Is the government
that pays them or not. They mean
victory or defeat. They mean that
America will win her place once for
ell among the foremost free nations
of the world. or that she will sink
to defeat and become a second rate
power alike in thought and in action
This is a day of her reckoning, and
every man amongst us must person
ally face that reckoning along with
her.
The case needs no arguing. !
assume that L am only expressing
your own thought-what must be in
the mind of every true man when
he faces the tragedy and the solemn
glory of the present war for the
emancipation of mankind. 1 sum-
mon you to a great duty, a great
privilege, a shining dignity and
distinction. l shall expect every
man who is not a Stacker to be at
my side throughout this great enter
prise. In it no man can win honor
who thinks of himself