Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-10-11
COMMITTEE PLANS
APPEAR INVERTED

''The working classes are withou
any doubt doing their part, and thu
well-to-do and wealthy dlasses are
holding back. Picture to yourself
the loyalty of laundry worker who
is now paying on the Second ant
Third Liberty bonds and Willingly
subscribes for the Fourth, and this
on weekly wage of SO to $11. There
are thousands and thousands OF
these kinds of subscriptions. Is i,
fair that these poor people put up
the money for the protection of your
property and your family? Is there
anything that will put the "Bolshe.
Wiki" in power in this country more
quickly than the knowledge that the
wealthy are not doing their share to
assist our government in the hour of
peril. chairman Spokane Liberty
Loan Committee.
And the Liberty Loan situation in
Spokane, indicated by the foregoing
quotation, is not peculiar to that city.
An identical problem confronts the
loan committees in all our cities. 1t
not only is true of the Fourth loan
but was true in the previous drives.
This is not extraordinary, for the
possession of wealth implies that the
bump of acquisitiveness has been de-
veloped at the expense of more de-
sirable qualities, and the ordinary
conduct of the business of the loan
committees. perhaps, has led these
people to believe, as they no doubt
do believe, that they are in a de-
ferred classification, to be called
upon when all other citizens have
gone the limit and failed to raise the
sums necessary. The loan machinery
at times seems inverted. Supreme
efforts are directed in fields rather
barren of resources. while the fruit
full soil is only scraped.
Suppose at a meeting of Liberty
Loan committee, at which were pres
ent two bankers, three agents of the
owners of industrial plants, an attor-
ney, a preacher and two society wOm-
en-, that the chief question under dis
cussion was perfection of plans for
cleaning up the scanty earnings of
the workers; that, the district APP
portionments having been fixed, the
district chairmen then proceeded to
outline their plans for raising their
quota chiefly among the wage earn
ers of the community: that all had
In mind the use of force; that one
patriot should query the chairman
as to the feasibility of charging to
the employees on the books of his
company the price of 500 bond
and withholding the amount from the
pay check, with or without the con-
sent of the employee; that each COM
mitteeman conceived the big idea
was to squeeze from employees in the
industries every possible cent, and
made this as plain as the MONDAY
cuu IhaI hOl q o4uCoh was hSoAu 80
regard to subscriptions from those
who possess the wealth and the
profit-taking machinery, except a
statement that some of the wealthy
of one community had signified their
intention of pairing down their sub
scriptions?
In the one instance, with relation
to the worker was the desire and the
intent, upon the part of those with
out moral or legal authority, to arbi-
trarily assess and collect. In the
other instance, that of the person OF
wealth. moral suasion and Difference
was the key of the situation.
Such a situation does not promote
team work. Equity should be given
more attention. Ability to pay ought
to receive more thought, and the
practice of coercion. confined in large
measure to workers through their
employers should cease. 1t is fair
to assume that the possibility Of
coercion causes those who are in pO-
sition to do so to run to cover. And
isolated instances of coercion against
the moneyed man are not convincing
to those who are really bearing the
burdens and who know that those
who control the machinery are out
of sympathy with them
In the case of the person of means
no sacrifice whatever is involved in
an investment in Liberty Bonds. In
the case of scores of working men
to buy q bond does entail some sac
rfice.