Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1917-10-25

The principle is now firmly grounded
IN our national policy that graduated
taxes shall be laid upon wealth in orde,
that the burden of taxation NAV be
equltably distributed and made to bear
more heavily upon the rich than upop
the poor. The correctness of the prin.
clpio Is not challenged. 1t is, therefore
essential that government bonds should
be issued upon u basis which will be
equally just to the poor man and the
tich man, so that they may purchase
government bonds upon practically the
same interest basis after allowing for
the scales of taxation.
The second Liberty loan bonds are
put upon such basis. There will not
he created in this country a great mass
OF securities congested into the hands
OF the very rich and wholly free from
taxation. The burden of taxation will
not fall heavily ON the many to the ex.
clusion of the few.
To Shorten the War.
The effect in shortening the war of a
heavy oversubscription to the second
issue of Liberty bonds can hardly be
overestimated.
however brave front Germany NAV
endeavor to present to the outside world
ana to her own people, the truth is that
she is facing fearful odds and is in dire
straits. The embargo placed by Presi
dent Wilson on American shipments to
heutrals struck Germany q body blow.
and shipments to her from South Ameri.
can countries are going to be stopped
or greatly curtailed through our in
lliehce and our control over coal sup
pies needed by their navies and indus.
tries. Germany's efforts for peace are
dictated largely by fear of American
and Americas power. The German peo-
pie are crying for peace, and the time
has come or is shortly coming when the
German imperial government must
needs listen to the German people. They
are being fed now on hopes of victory
and stories of dissensions among the
American people and lack of support
OF our government by our people.
NO more convincing argument could
be made to the people of Germany of
the hopelessness of victory being OBJ
tanned by continued fighting than a
great oversubscription of the Liberty
loan, demonstrating not only the ire
mendous power of America but the fact
that the American people are whole
heartedly in favor of prosecuting the
war with vigor and willing to finance
our government to the limit.
Every purchase of Liberty loan
bond not only supplies the sinews of
war but it shoots a fact into the Ger
man mind-the fact that the American
people are behind the American army
and behind the American president, and
that there is no end to this war except
the achievement of the ends that
America is fighting for. Every pur-
chaser of a Liberty loan bond does
something to end the war, does some
thing to shorten the war.
When you shorten the war you shor-
ten the terms of our soldiers who serve
IN France; you save many from death
and suffering and privation. You save
others from the dangerous voyage
across Summarized seas and the dangers
of service in, Europe. The success of
the Liberty loan will be shortening
of the war and saving of American
lives. We have given our sons to bat
tie, we must lend our dollars to back
them up, to make them powerful and
effective, and as safe and as secure as
may be-. . -
Our uncomfortable determination to
fight to. the end. to fight to the last
man and the last dollar must be mani
tested between Oct. J. and Oct. 81, 1917,
and bring to the German people the
hopelessness of their struggle in behalf
of the German imperial government
against liberty, right, and justice and
the American people.
The Perfidy of Germany.
1t has been rule of information law
honored and accepted for centuries by
every civilized nation that in time of
war merchant vessels, whether neutral
or belligerent, should not be sunk by an
enemy war vessel until the lives of the
passengers and crews were first made
safe.
Germany consistently since the out
break of this war has destroyed mer-
chant vessels on the high seas without
sending to death noncombat-
ant men and women and children with
out mercy and in the most brutal and
ruthless fashion in defiance of inter
national law and every accepted rule
of humanity and civilization. The
act of infamy in Germany's
ruthless policy was the sinking on May
z, 1916, of the Lusitania, unarmed
passenger vessel, by which ia Ameri-
can citizens, some of them babes in
arms, lost their lives.
On Sept. /, 1915, the German govern
ment gave assurance to the United
States that liners would not be sunk
without warning or without provision
for the safety of the lives of noncom-
Six weeks later the British
steamer Arabic was sunk and three
lost their lives. The German
government promptly disavbwed the
act, but scarcely had the disavowal
been received before the promise was
broken again by the destruction of the
Italian steamer Ancona, by which seven
American lives were destroyed The
promise was renewed many times and
many times, the German gov
keeping no faith with the
United States.
Finally, on Jan 81, 1917, it brazenly
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