The midland journal., 1917-10-26
WHY SHOULD THE FARMER BUY
LIBERTY BONDS?
By Herbert Quick,
Member of the Federal Farm Loan
Board.

When I am asked why farmer
should buy Liberty Bonds I wonder
what I should say. It is so clear
that the farmer of all persons should
make himself the greatest buying
class in the world.
If all the other classes in the
United States should lie down and
refuse to buy, the farmers should
rally to the flag and buy, buy, buy
these bonds as long as they had a
cent to invest.
do not wish to appeal to farmers
to buy bonds because they are good
investments. They are good invest
ments as any good business man can
see. They are safety ITSELF Moth
ing can ever throw doubt on them
as investments. Many farmers are
holding lands which do not pay them
more than two to three per cent after
the rents are collected, the repairs
kept up, insurance paid and taxes
settled. If all the actual and re-
tired farmers in the United States
would put in Liberty Bonds the
money they could get for lands
which pay them less than the Liberty
Bonds will pay, they alone could
buy all the bonds to be issued.
Liberty Bonds pay four per cent.
They are the best security for loans
at the banks when the owner wants
a loan. They are cheaper to carry
than the land. A man may buy
Liberty Bonds and forget about them
except to collect the interest every
six months.
But that is not the main reason
why we should buy, and buy, and
keep on buying as long as any are
offered The farmer should buy
Liberty Bonds because the value of
his farm, the chance to make a
peaceful living, the very right to an
Independent life is staked on this
war.
The German empire threatens the
world. 1t seeks to take from us the
very thing that makes our farms
valuable. What is the value of a
farm anyhow, except the privilege of
living free American life on par
ocular piece of land? Take that
away, and your farm becomes thing
which is worthless.
Germany is out to conquer the
world. Germany still has the chance
20 crush Russia, France, Italy, and
Great Britain. If she crushes them
3he crushes US; for we are in the
war until the finish.
If Germany wins our lands will at
0nce be mortgaged for all the terri
BILE struggle which will then be upon
us to save ourselves from invasion.
She will demand of us that we pay
her indemnities running into the
tens and perhaps hundreds of bill
lions of dollars. All these indemn-
tiles, if Germany could defeat us,
and the fight against them in case
we alone are able to defeat her, will
be a mortgage on every acre of farm
land in the United States.
Germany is half licked now. We
have fighting with us the mightiest
nations of the world. If we cannot
whip her with their help what will
farm be worth in the United States
when we face her alone?
Buy bonds, farmers, and help
make the world safe for our kind Of
'ife--the life of democracy. Let US
'trike for freedom as did the farmers
If New England at Lexington and
Concord, and the farmers of the
Sputh at Kings Mountain.
Let us finish Germany now, while
We have help.
Let it never be said that the farm
ers of the United States refused their
money while our young men are
giving their lives for the holiest
cause ever fought for. Let us strike
for our altars and our fires-and for
the farms we love. All these are at
stake in this the greatest of all wars.