The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-07-14

liberation Of the world. take it for
granted that those who argue thus do
not stop to think what that means. Do
they mean that you must be paid,
must be bribed, to make your contri-
button, contribution that costs you
neither drop Of blood nor a tear,
when the wohle world is in travail
and men everywhere depend upon and
call to you to bring them out Of bond
age and make the world fit place to
live in again amidst peace and justice :.
Do they mean you will exact a price
drive a bargain, with the men who
are enduring the agony Of this war
on the battlefield. in the trenches,
amidst the lurking dangers of the sea.
or with the bereaved women and the
pitiful children, before you will come
forward to 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 defend-liberty and
justice?
"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
on the field of France or else it is no
patriotism at all. Let us never speak
then. Of profits and of patriotism il
the same sentence. Let us do sound
business. but not in the midst of a
mist. Many a grievous burden oi
taxation will be laid on this nation in
this generation and in the next tc
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 tn
sound stuff they need.
Let me turn for a moment to 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 insuperable obstacles, they have
been putting in the way of the sue
cessful prosecution Of this war by the
ocean freight rates they have been ex-
acting? They are doing everything
that high freight charges can do to
make the war failure, to make it
impossible. l do not say they realize
this or intend it. The thing has hap
pened naturally enough, because the
commercial purposes 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. I am not
questioning motives. am merely
stating fact and stating it in order
that attention may be fixed upon it.
1.-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
Germany When they realize this, we
may, take it for granted, count up
on them to reconsider the whole mat
ter. 1t is high time. Their extra haz-
ards are covered by war risk insur-
ance.
Il know, and you know what re-
sponse to this great challenge of duty
and Of opportunity the nation will eX-
pect 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. l am
dealing with the matter thus publicly
. and frankly in order that in all our
: thinking and in all our dealings with
one another we may move in a per-
|, fectly clear air Of understanding.
"And there Is something more that
: I'VE must add to our thinking. The pub