Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1918-04-05
American People Must Lend Part,
= or Pay All to Finance
Great Conflict.
BUYING OF LIBERTY BONDS
Liberal Loans to Govern tent Is Ad.
~aHcing Financial Assistance to !.
Our Children, obviating Total
Cost by Taxation.
(5y EUGENE P. LYLE, JR, of The
VI0ilantes.)

Freedom comes high, being a PIE.
cious thing Being the most precious
thing, 1t comes highest. No people Is
worthy Of freedom that is not willing |
and eager to pay dearly for it. In
fact. you will find no people possess
ing freedom that has not paid dearly |
for Il, and you win find no people con-
tinuing to possess freedom that does
not stand every ready to pay dearly,
over and over. to retain 1t.
If this were not true, Belgium,
france, Italy and England with her
oversee domfntOns, would now be as
Russia 10 today. If this were not
true, America would Still be neutral,
contemptibly awaiting her turn to pass
under the yoke.
Blood and treasure, anguish and sac
rifice-these are fine coin we bring
to market; the coin we must pay. Yet
the coin may be, and, Is expressed In
dollars and cents, not alone as a sym
boil of the real price we pay, but be-
cause this real price would be wan
tonly squandered, or paid In more
CHASTITY measure than need be- If the
cold, calm. practical business of dol
lar-and-cents financing were not at the
heart of the heroic transaction.
Vainly would. the soldier shed his
blood If he were not trained and
equipped to make his blows count to
the utmost, and the cost OF this train
Ing and equipment is an item that may
be, and is,3 expressed in an exact mum,
Der of dollars added to an, exact num-
Der Of cents. His country must spend
precisely this amount to enable him to
/ defend her. 4as
Consequently. we OF America are
now confronted with the biggest war
bin in history. One year of this war
Is costing US as much as all the'wars
we have had before added to all the
other expenses Of our federal govern
ment since we first won our freedom.
-" Lending TO Our Children.
:, Ungrudgingly, yes + Of that we are
proudly conscious that there is no
question. The one. and only question
| is the practical question of finance.
How shall the money be found? We
ourselves must supply 1t, since 1t can
not be borrowed elsewhere. But how3
The, bill is too big to pay cash on
The nail as we go. And, furthermore,
4 to pay all as we go would be just
/ neither to ourselves nor TO our pos
terity. 2a$ - =
1t would not be just to ourselves
! because we alone will not be the bene-
dciaries, The generations. to come will
benefit incalcuiably benefit in the lib
critics preserved to them-and 1t Is
proper that they should be left to as
same fair proportion of the debt.
They are buying freedom today as.
much MS we. But we shall have TO
lend them the money now TO pay their
share, In lending to our government
lin huying Liberty bonds we lend to our
children and gratefully our children
u will pay 1t of,
Any other arrangement would me-
be just to them for the reason that.
should we strip ourselves bare to pay
all nows We would be crippled in pre-
. pairing our children for the ordinary
tduties' Of citizenship. Better far that
i we retain enough to so equip them for
I success In life that they may without
undue hardship take over their quota
of this wars. burden, Better fer us,
and better for them! .5e saa
Sound common sense, then, as well
MS equity, points the why. The wars
burden should be divided. Let us pay
in cash as heavily as we wisely may
Il that is taxation. Bat the rest let us
leave to the future beneficiaries, lend
Ing them the money now-that IS buy
Ing Liberty bonds,
y Freedoms Great Price.
The present moment Is good time
to contemplate what win happen-in,
, evitahly happen-if we do not lend to
posterity to help pay freedoms huge
price. Nothing is clearer than the al
ternatlye.
If we do not lend our government
what 1t asks OF us in loanss then we
must consent that the total cost be
taken from us outright by taxation
even by prorated confscntion.
Before such an alternative even the
herman, or pro-German. having prop
erSy interests In this country. should
che use to subscribe for Liberty bonds
J In our own self-interest, apart from
the issues vital to the. integrity of ouI
. manhood, we can do no less less
than lend to the last cent we may pot
sibly save; and this not once merely
but each and every time that Uncle
, Sam steps from his counting house tC
tell us that he mast have more money
Uncle Sam is telling US this now
He awaits our response. But he Il
: not the only one who waits. WhereyeI
men are free or suffer to be free, there
they await orr response ~ the answer
TO their hopes. And there is yet an
other who svaits-the enemy. II
whatever degree our answer fails Of (
reverberating affirmative. in exactl!
that degree win he take heart TO pro
long the, hIdeous slanghter.