River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-04-25
DUTY OF EVERYBODY TO HELP
Question Is rot Whether We Fee
Like Subscribing, but Our People
Must Spend or Be
Spent.
BY ALBERT BUSHNELL HART,
OF the ViqiIantes.

80
the United States Of America on that
famous July 4, 1776. We thought that
message had gone out once for all !;
that freedom in the United States was
q rock of Gibraltar that. could not be
scaled nor penetrated nor moved. We
have thought that the old days of ma
tional sacrifice and anxiety were for
ever passed What so strong, so per-
manent. 50 vigorous, SO dominant as
government of the people in these
United States?
If the American Revolution had been
only bell ringing and the passage OF
resolutions, we should not now be the
foremost republic Of the world nor any
other kind of republic. The Declare
ton Of independence was bold state
ment Of liberty which had still to be
made good. The heroes of the Revo-
luton knew how to watch as well as
to pray, how to march as well as to
resolute. The Declaration Of indie
pendence is a mighty force in the
world because when the country called
soldiers sprang into the ranks. Liberty
had to be spelled out by such big capt.
tai letters as Lexington, Illinois, Ben
nington, Eutaw, Rocky Mount, trenton
and Yorktown.
We Are Better Fortified.
The hard fighting in the field won
,nly half the battle. Our fOrefatherS
were able to proclaim liberty
throughout the land because they
found the sinews of war. 1t was one
thing to raise the flag, another to raise
troops and still another to raise the
wind" There was not bank in the
United States till the Revolution was
nearly over and few were the people
who had money enough to lend to any
body, yet that 100000, of whom q
fourth were slaves who could have no
property, somehow induced the people
of the country to turn i'll their small
surplus of provisions, clothing and
military supplies and take for it the
obligations of the government, which
toward the end of the dark period OF
the Revolution seemed little likely ever
to be paid. They furnished about $780,
OOO, 900 in taxes, contributions and sup
plies and at the end of the war the ma
tional debts incurred in behalf Of the
Revolution were, including arrears OF
interest, $7OOOO,OO0, which was then
about $40 head on the population.
man. woman and child, whites, In
dams and negroes, seamen, farmers
plantation slaves as they ran.
Must Spend or Be Spent.
Make no mistake; this is not a ques
lion Of whether we feel like subscrib-
ing to loan any more than question
of whether we feel like receiving news
of a break on the war front and the
capture or retreat of the American
troops The nation is compelled to
choose either to spend or TO be spent.
There is only one possible way to end
the war to the honor and safety of the
United States and that is to fight for
it. Our sons fight in the army, our
daughters fight in the Red Cross, we
elders must fight with safe deposit
boxes and mortgage deeds and sheets
of securities.
In the DAYS when the French were in
the habit of recruiting troops in Swift
zerland, there was saying, mo
money, no Swiss" Nowadays it is,
'No money, no Yank!" for unless you
subscribe to the loan your son cannot
be trained or equipped or fed or trans
ported over seas or carried to the
front or protected by barrage of ar
tillery fire or put where he can attack
the enemy.
Remember the Liberty Bell.
The battle is going on from day to
day in the national banks and the saw
ings banks and the trust companies
and the treasures of the fraternities
and the clubs and the churches and
the restaurants just as much as in
northern France or Belgium. No one
soldier can win at the front nor hun
dred thousand together. 1t would take
a million, but if every one of that mil
lion hangs back, there is no army, no
war, nothing but shame and misery
for the nation. Just so, you cannot
save your country all alone by your
but YOU can unite with million 9th
ers. Do your duty and expect and urge
others to do theirs. That makes a vic
torious army of people pouring in their
rafting dollars as the boys at the front
hurl hand grenades..
"All the inhabitants thereof" that is
what the Liberty bell aroused. Not
the soldier only, not merely the Red
Cross, the Y. NJ c. A and the other
noble co-workers and co-fighters with
the troops. You plain farmer, you
banker, investor, manufacturer; you
doctor, lawyer, teacher, scientific man,
engineer, business man, railroad man,
mechanic working man; you schoolboy
and schoolgirl, listen to the Liberty bell.
subscribe to the Liberty loan.