New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-14
What Each of Us Can Do
To Help the Liberty Loan
First Buy to the Limit; but Having Done &c. Every One
Who Can Must Work and Work and Work Until
the Last Minute of the Campaign
WITH every street in the city
w humming with Liberty Loan
activity with everY factory

MYTH every street in the city
w humming with Liberty Loan
activity, with every factory
busily engaged in canvassing its en-
ployes, every church calling upon its
members, every industry reaching out
to the last man and woman with the
same appeal, it would seem almost
futile to ask for any more assistance
in selling the bonds Of the third Lib
crty Loan.
But there is another side to the
question, and that is: What can each
Of us do to help? This question prob
ably has been ignored to large ex-
tent by most Northumberland because
of any shortcoming in their resolution
of duty, but because of failure to
appreciate the real extreme needs of
the great national emergency.
In part, this is only excusable be-
cause the average man or woman is so
thoroughly taken up with personal or
business affairs as to be unable to de-
vote detailed consideration to national
problems. In part, also, it is due to
lack of complete knowledge about con-
ditions at the front in Europe How
ever, the existence of an individual
duty is easy to prove. The United
States to-day Is waging a war against
autocracy, not because it has any OBJ
lection to autocracy in itself, but be-
cause wherever autocracy exists it
threatens the safety of democracy. In
other words, if this autocracy of the
Germans had been benignantly con-
Quoted, and had really been intended
to improve the condition of mankind
the chances are we would not be in
conflict with it to-day. But the war
was bound to come simply because,
as an autocracy, it attempted to extend
it's power until it could achieve COM
plete world domination. This would
naturally involve the sitting of all
democratic ideals, and, consequently,
the sitting of all individual liberty.
Privileges Are Equal;
SO Must Burdens Be
the war home to each one of u.s. In a
democratic nation the theory is that
opportunities are open to all in equal
measure, that privileges are extended
to all in equal measure, and that bur-
dens should be assumed by all in equal
measure. Due to many different local
situations and other causes, this theo-
retical equality of opportunities, privi-
leges and burdens does not work out in
actual practice. But it represents the
ing. In the case of the draft, for in
stance, one of the strongest and most
readily accepted arguments in favor of
CONSUMPTION was the fact that in a
democracy the burdens should be
borne equally.
This serves to direct attention, at
any rate, to what the individual means
in democracy. II the country is
prospecting nothing should be laid in
the way of each PERSONS individual
prosperity, although the degree of that
prosperity must be dependent largely
on personal ability. On the other hand,
IN the case of war the prime con-
sideration in a democracy should be
the fact that defeat would represent
rot only common menace, but also
an individual menace. That is to say,
If the country should be beaten, the
defeat for Uncle Sam would represent
defeat for Mr.. Smith or Mr. Brown
or Mrs. Jones or any other individual.
Hence it follows that each of them
and each of the. other 11O,O00O0O of
fellow citizens should accept the du-
ties of war in an individual sense. If
all are menaced one is menaced; and
if one is fighting, all should fight Each
should fight in his individual way, the
soldier with his rife, the sailor on
board ship, the munition manufacturer
in his factory, the farmer on his farm
and the mechanic in his workshop. 1t
devolves upon each one of us to dis
cover what particular share each can
take In this business of running the
war and bringing it to the earliest
possible termination.
If You Can't Fight,