Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-10
THE ONE DisCoURACINc SIGN
Must 1'e Prcudcst Government in the World
Beg the Aid Of Its Own Citizensy

Must ue Proudcst Government In the World
Beg the Aid Of Its Own Citizensy
TNHE one profoundly discouraging and
disquieting thing-the one inexplicable
and almost shameful thing in these jubi-
liant hours-is the tagging of the Liberty
Loan in this district. The loan will be
oversubscribed, of course. But that knowl-
edge does not remove the consciousness
of something wrong somewhere.
The proudest and mightiest Govern
ment on the face of the earth is being
compelled to plead and heckle and argue
with its own citizens to sell its securities
the safest securities in the world. And
temporary interruption of this heart
breaking process-the inability of Gov
ernment representatives to coax and
wheedle us in the usual crowds-has
caused the sale of bonds to lag Left to
ourselves, apparently, we haven't imagin-
alton adequate to make us understand
our simple duty to ourselves or to the
Government.
II we had but little more imagina-
ton and a better vision-if people were
as noble as their collective purpose
men, women and children would stand
in lines miles long for the honor of
lending their possessions to their Gov
ernment for a sacred cause. This would
be service observed with religious zeal.
1t would be an act of the spirit.
We should be so proud of the splendor
that the republic has achieved in the eyes
of all the world that to help it, to be
an active part of it, partner in its glo-
rious enterprise, would be the greater and
most satisfying experience of all our
days.
We are, instead, content to loaf along
and hope that somebody else will do our
part for us.
All of civilization is trusting the
United States with its life and its future.
And we hesitate to buy the bonds Of the
United States, though they are the
soundest and most sensible investment in
this uncertain world today.
You have invested, perhaps, as much
as you conveniently could. Very well.
Invest more. The men who have died
gave. And they gave more than they
conveniently could. A man who sacri-
feed his eyesight or his ability to walk
or the use of his hands could not give
conveniently.
Our men are moving supepbly forward.
1t is their boast that they have never
turned back. Gas or fire or the assur-
ance of certain death could not turn
them back. But we, safely on this side,
have been turned back by an epidemic of
Influenza!
The thought is grotesque. But the fact
remains.
All that you have and hope to have,
your ability to sleep in peace, the knowl-
edge that your home and your children
are to be safe for all time, is due to
the men who have fought in France. 1t
isn't to be assumed that if you were
there to see them going forward, over
weary, dusty sleepless, fiinging last
smile back at world that they might
never see again, you wouldn't try to
give them lift on the way to fight your
battles.
Yet every one who stands back, who
doesn't turn in to buy his own bonds
without being asked, is refusing that
same sort of help to our army.
The Liberty Loans are to make the
army stronger and safer and more as
sured. 1t is to make their stupendous
tasks a shade less difficult. 1t is to keep
your own lad safe and to give him a
better chance of coming back alive and
whole. What can those men say to US
when they return? What right will we
have to cheer them or to feel any part
nership with them if we should fail in the
easiest part of task with which they
engaged themselves to suffer or to die?
1t is easy for any one who isn't
pauper to buy Liberty Bonds. The bonds
are an investment; they are the exact
equivalent of money in the bank. BE
honorable and buy them. Be foresighted.
You are merely asked to save your
money so that the Government may use
it for while and pay you good interest.
Relieve the Government Of the tragic
necessity of peddling its securities and
begging to have them purchased.
Is all our devotion to the republic rep
resented by the army?
Dig-now!
Yours for the fourth Liberty Loan.