The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-28
LIBERTY BOND LESSONS By HOWARD STEER Of HinckS Bros. 6 Co. LESSON NO. g
 TT e
LESSON NO. g
U. S.

l Lour letters. It had twenty-five at enc time, several thousand years ago but one letter, the digamma, grad. uaAy fell into disuse, finally disap- 1 peared, and, as they say, became lost Now a certain college stu dent was found on one occasion after a hilarious football victory celebra- ton painfully and uncertainty light ing match after match and searching earnestly in all the dark corners of the campus. Upon being asked '. hat h ewas doing he replied gravely that he was trying to find the lost digan- ma!
 You remember we went hunting the other day for "the government and we didn't find it. It didn't seem to be any of the things or any of the people we could name. Our search, as far as it went, was just about as fruitless as the hunt for the lost di- gamma with matches!
 Perhaps we were looking in the wrong places, just as the too-happI student was doing. And it must have been just some such misunder- standing of who or what or where the government is that could make possible the following incident:
 He was a shrewd, close listed, na- tive-born American, with a good deal of money. The time was just after the first Liberty Loan. We asked him how many Liberty Bonds he had bought.
 FFNone," he replied. ''Why not"
 'Oh, what's the use? They'll be cheaper later on. I might as well wait till I can get a bargain
 'But how about the country? We are in this war and we must win it. Suppose everybody did as you do?''
 Well, I didn't want the war. Let the people that wanted it buy the bonds.'
 "But Congress and the President have voted for war and you helped elect them.'
 'fNo, didn't. voted for the oth- CT side''
 'But the majority rules in this country
 Well, there are lots of things l don't like about this government and I'm not going to pay par for any 3 1-2 per cent. bond.'
 ''But you like the country well enough to stay in it and make all the money you can."
 'Yes, and I'm not going to be fool enough to buy something now that can get cheaper later on.''
 And there the argument ended. Of course, the man was built like that little black -and-white striped animal of the woods that is no unpopular } and nobody ever heard of reasoning with that little animal to any good effect
 .. But if he had had the true view point of what constitutes this gov ernment instead of his own selfish one he would have talked and acted very . | differently.
 For our search last time at least showed us what the government is not, and thereby put us on the track to find what it is We saw that the government is not the President, nor Congress, nor the Cabinet, nor the Courts, because after all, when you = stop to think about it, those people and bodies are changing all the time while the government keeps going on, n and besides, they are there only be- cause we, you and I, have put them there.
 r. There is no ancestral privilege nor f hereditary birthright about their '' jobs. All that they do or say and all the power they wield is by virtue of that great silent snowstorm of bal lots that the one hundred millions o1 Americans cast regularly throughout n this land.
 So that 1t comes right down to this 5 that you are the government, yous neighlpor is the government, your em. pIoyer is the government, and I am l. the government.
 d And it is only when we think of il | in this light that the peculiar an6 'e symbolic appropriations of our coun- e trys name and initials becomes ap. parent. ''U. s., we write, to indi- cate the great, majestic United States IS But, U. s. simply spells US, anG a and though many books have beer ,, written about this government of our: Il they cannot put the matter more If plainly nor forcibly than those twt
 dignif1ed letters which make US tht
 government, point our high privilege
 to US, and to US our great responsi
 bility.
 Will you not then, if you have beer
 a bit worried about the ability of tn
 government to pay off all it's Libert. h Bonds will you not look round abou
 you, partly in pride, and partly il 'o humility of spirit because of you If doubts? Look upon your own be Iongings,-your clothing, jewelry ant '- money in bank, your furniture, you,
 home, your land, your mortgages
 your automobile. Whatever yo1 y own, gather it all together in you T. minds eye and look upon it. The1 |, look at the amount of the Libert A' Bonds you own and think how mucl
 more money is represented in thos if | other things than in your Lbert
 bonds. Then remember that all tn n, others who own Liberty Bonds are i tO the same position Their Ifbert
 Bonds are only a small portion o
 their total possessions. ld Well then, isn't it all very simple Since we are the government, you an Io I, since it all depends upon US, an ,h since each of us owns a great. dea
 more of other kinds of property tha
 we do of Liberty Bonds, is there an
 danger of our being unable to pa
 ourselves back when the time fo
 payment comes around?
 So throw your doubts in the vast
 basket! And when you learn in 7y few more days how much wealt no there really is in this country you wi ba q acbaroad to think that vou co111