The Nevada County picayune., 1918-04-25
AMERICANS AND
 TRUE DEMOCRACY
Dollars Are Needed as ExempIifi-
 cation of Spirit.
TIME TO BUY LIBERTY BONDS
Citizens Must Lend Their Financial Assistance to Government to For ever Eliminate Effects of Ger
 many's Influence.
By GEORGE E. BOWEN of the VigiIantes.

In the main, 1t cannot be said of America that she Is without her Amer jeans, or that the faith and service of the mass Is un-American in spirit.
 Dollars do not always go with de- mocracy, but when informed, inspired and enlisted they can be mighty useful to 1t.
 There has been a mistaken idea in certain sections of America that dol lars, according to the number of them, spelled "aristocracy."
 They don't. That Is an imported idea. And that 1t Is perishing in the land of it's origin, witness the war and the consternation of the few aristo- cratS, both external and inbred.
 There have been, possibly are, a few external aristocrats i'll America, who, in q moment of excessive vanity measured their social importance by the size of their material fortunes. The war erased that absurd notion, almost with the first blare of the trumpet.
 Millionaire Privates in Ranks.
 There are millionaire prvates in the ranks of the American army and navy who have renounced all the prestige of fortune for the privilege of comrade- ship.
 In the crucial test humanity was first, last. and all the way between. Men are more than money. The outer veneer has been quickly shed. The man has emerged.
 What he thought was his pride, in days of social and financial triumph. he finds was but cheap and trivial plaything. Now, his real pride is . thing of purpose, power and dignity. Before the war is over, dollars that hid in arstoeratic seclusion or vaunt- ed themselves in ostentatiOus power are going voluntarily and humbly to join the forces of democracy.
 After the war they are going to de- velop a system of popular redistribu- ton relieving the old congestion whose levers broke out In many forms of lux ury and extravaganza incompatible with universal contentment.
 The only aristocracy America wants or needs Is of the heart and of the mind.
 The shoulder touch of men on the march or in the trenches has welded this feeling into a living creed, saw Ing faith.
 The escutcheon of American man. hood may be either a splash of Bel glan mud or n splotch of German blood.
 
 Drawing True Men Together.
 In place of the dollar crest will be the sign of the courage test.
 There was a lot of sound democracy in the old ultimatum-"milllOn for de- fense, but not one cent for tribute"
 Therein Is the basic principle of re- slstance of Prussianism. That prin- ciple Is drawing all true men together It Is putting service above self. It is asking America to take the gold of vanity and pour 1t into the cause of humanity.
 The spirit of democracy Is the only vital uncompromising thing in hu- man world.
 and royal degenerates.
 The America annonted of this spirit is nt last io carry 1t forth to Il perish Ing world.
 And the desplsed American dollar shall, with the couraES, generosity and chiyulry of American manhood, be the instrument of salvation.
 The day of contribution is at hand. Where is your dollar?