American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-06-07

lsn COMMANDER 10 cine WIN MIN.
! without a word of apology the bril-
! liant American general sat his dis
tinguished guest down to the meal.
? II consisted of one course only:
: Baked potatoes with a little salt
served on pieces Of bark
DO you remember the incident?
Curiosity, establishment, embarrass-
ment we're registered by the Tory.
General" he asked, may inquire
II this is your customary fare?"
Sure It is, only we've a little more
than usual. Help yourself" Marion
replied.
HE'LL" the British officer exclaim-
ed, there are not men enough in Eng
land-if they were all hereto keep
you fellows from winning!"
/ may not have given the exact
words used in that old, old history in
which | read the story but I'll gamble
a full-grown waffle against the hole
In a doughnut that the conversation
was approximately as | have given II.
But historical quotation, yerbatum,
Is not the thing at which / am aim
ing
The thing | want to know is this:
Have you or have /, since America
entered this war we are now fighting,
sat down to a meal at which the whole
three or five or nine or eleven courses
as the case might be, consisted only
OF baked potato-baked potato doing
what "13-Red" used TO do with such
satisfying and enthusiastic frequency
In the long-horn days on Old Bonan-
za's roulette wheel when Curley Brown
was whirling the INCORPORATING it
self.
Have you done 1t? Are we willing
TO do 1t?
If we are not we don't deserve that
freedom for which Marion and his
handful of fearless patriots fought
and starved and fought again and yet
again.
That's damned plain.
"Oh. but we don't need to-and you
mustn't swearl"
or course we don't need to-yet-
and | know | didn't have to say that
word but you are liable to before this
war is over and | wanted to make it
as plain as possible and there isn't any
palmer plain than the kind of plain
| said.
Anyway that one particular word is
the same thing in conversation as the
Joker wild" is in poker-it sure is
powerful and convenient and fills out
your hand in a complete and salts
flying manner.
II isn't baked potatoes with a little
salt for America yet. Ii isn't going
to be II we can help 1t. You bet your
life we can help ii IL we will and we
will all right.
But Il might be.
And In case 1t might now is a good
time to begin training.
Al least to begin training in the
spirit of 1t II not with the expectation
of facing the actually of spuds a
la Marion.
That is what America is asking
Americans to do.
Learn to endure privation, learn to
practice economies. learn to cut out
useless expenditures and invest the
money we save this way In war savings
stamps.
The government is asking us to give
up "luxuries"-
"Luxuries?"
Bless you there are none these days.
Luxuries these days are crimes.
Felonies of the most ferocious and
%felonious form. Yes. at this moment
the very soul of civilization is groan-
ing and straining in mortal combat
with the incarnate spirits of primitive,
~lustful. savagery. luxury-"extrava-
CANT indulgence in the pleasures of
The senses, dress, etc. becomes an
outrageous o%ffense. a brutal crime,
against humanity; against the bodies
that have been broken and torn and
mangled on the battlefields of Belgium;
against those of our own flesh and
blood who are at this instant facing
the agonies of hell in the she'll holes,
on the wire. under the deluge of iron
and steel and poison gas On the No
Mans Lands of Europe that Liberty
may live
II these can pay such a price-if
Marion and his devoted followers
could endure. as they did endure.
starvation and rags and shelterless
nights in the rain-drenched swamps
of the south. could uncomplainingly
sit down to a meal of baked potatoes
with a little salt served on pieces of
bark to win freedom for you and =
for Gods sake, is It asking too much
of us TO ask that you and l give up
some trivial pleasures, some useless.
s%enseless fancies that we may keep
it?
That Is all America is asking in this
war savings stamp effort
That we stop spending money for
unnecessary things and with the mon
ey help ourselves preserve our "
Liberty. our own independence.
There is only one answer:
Wen remember Marion and the
baked potatoes. well forget luxuries
and darn fool things We do not need
Wen make il a val savings stamp
stampede!"-Earl Wayland Bowman.