Connecticut western news., 1918-03-21
THE WAR, The FARM
AND The farmer
BY Herbert Quick

Since the dawn Of history the farm /
ler has been the man who suffers
most from war. All that he poss-
esses lies out of doors in plain sight, |
and Is spoil of war-his house, his |
grain, his livestock. But the farmer
everywhere is a warrior when war
is the only thing which will make
and keep him free-efther a warrior
or a serf. He is sometimes the last
TO heat up; but he stays hot, and IN
q long fight he is always found sturd-
fly carrying the battle across No
Mans Land to the foe, in the last
grim struggle.
This war was at first hard to I'M
derstand. No armed foe invaded the
United States. The night skies wee
not redeemed by the burning byres
and farmsteads of America. No raid
ing parties harried us of our cattle or
horses. No sabre-rattlers insulted
our women. We did not then know
that q monster had arisen with
thousand arms who could reach across
enc seas huu LdhC lAOuI 10 IhA w
fourths of everything we grew with
out our being aware of it, and who
could follow up his robbery with in
vasion, subjugation and national
death.
What the Imperial German govern
nent offer~d the farmers Of Amer
aca In It's ruthless submarine warfare
was not the loss OF profits, but
slavery to the saber-rattlers OF Pots
dam, by numbering the people who
take our products to market. BY
Ill the laws Of civilized warfare COM
msrce under a neutral flag was free
from any hindrance except the legal
Interference justified by war; but
the Germans not only stopped mer-
chant vessels, they sunk them with
cut warning and without trace.
Having the right, according to the
laws Of war, to take the sea with
his fleet and fight the thing out gun
20 gun, but being afraid to do 80 for
fear he might lose his feet, or un-
able to stop the selling Of our pro-
ducts to his enemies or to open HIS
own ports TO US by fair means, he
declared his intention to do 1t by
the foulest methods ever resorted to
in war.
To have submitted would have cost
us dear in prosperity; but that would
have been the least Of our loss. By
10 doing we should have accepted
DEGRADATION. We should have &C.
cepted, at the behest of half crazed
autocrat In Europe, lower standard
of living In America. We should
have basely yielded up our birthr1ght
as Americans. Peace at such price
would not be peace, but only pre-
paration for a future revolt against
subjugation Better any sort OF war;
better war forever than thatl
This, then, is the war in which
we are fighting. Whenever the time
comes FOR new sacrifices, let us re-
member that we fight not only for
the liberty of the Belgtans, the
French, the servians, the Rus
slams, the British, the Montenegrins,
the Roumanians, the Italians, but OF
all nations, even Of the German peo-
ple themselves; and most of all, for
our own liberties-for our freedom
today! There In loss and sacrifice
! In the war; but there would have
been far more In accepting the Ger
man terms. We should have lost
more In money than we shall spend
In the war; and something far more
precious than money-our souls!
Z This is the crucial year OF the war.
Our soldiers-hundreds OF Thousands
Of them-are In the trenches, and a
million more are ready to 90. The
! whole burden of carrying On our own
part in the war, and or aiding our
ssstsr nations I'm arms. rests on the
United States Treasury. Therefors
Svery cent we cum raise and scrapo
tarether belongs TO the Treasury,
NAT our boys may come back to ua
victorious. We can whip the Ger
mans. not with the money In our
rockets or our bank accounts, but
with what we put into the Treasury
In subscriptions to Liberty Bonds!
| Never since the Turks threatened
10 oyerwhelm Europe, perhaps noe
even then, was the world In such
danger as now. Germany La not ye'
defeated. We must defeat her this
wear. We must withhold nothing
from the support of the war. We
must give our sons. We must bring
forth food in abundance multiplying
our labor to that end. We must give
into the Treasury Of the United
States, in subscriptions to Liberty
Bonds, every cent we can spare.
This summer the support OF TIM
war is up to the farmers; and Uncle
oa1ln6 the farm