The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1918-03-07
PREPARE FOR NEXT
LIBERTY LOAN

The first shot in the Third Liberty
Loan campaign has been fired by the
Liberty Loan Committee of New Eng
land in the form of an address to be
read at eahc town meeting. In dis
tinctive Colonial language and dress
this memorial reads
Citizens of New England. Assembl-
ed in Town Meeting for ordering and
preservation of your affairs in com
mon, you have just cause for gratitude
that you are enjoying the wisest form
of self-government ever devised by
men. No one should be allowed to
take from you this precious heritage.
Viewing a nation great in territory,
but weak in the co-ordinated forces of
democracy, being made the prey of a
constituencies military autocracy; and
small nations either obliterated or
forced stubbornly to hold to fringe
of their rightful territory, their ma
tional and racial lives all but snuffed
out by that same merciless autocracy,
we should be seriously happy that
we still possess our country and our
rights.
If we honor our forefathers for hav
ing founded this free country, it will
be ignoble in us not to suffer equal
sacrifices in maintaining it. These
priceless possessions of free people
are in great danger.
A war-loving and highly developed
fighting combination is not only
threatening to dominate Europe, but,
drunk with bestiality which has fol
lowed military successes, threatens
our free and peaceful development as
we'll. 1t means to destroy our form of
free government which has been the
hope of liberty-loving people of all
nations.
We are at war with the Central
Powers of Europe to prevent small
nations from being dispossessed fof
their lands, their property, and their
self governing powers. But we are at
war for a much more weighty reason
than that, great as that is. We are at
war to preserve our national existence,
to keep self government alive, to pro-
tect our families, our homes, and our
industries.
If we win this war, we win it for
ourselves as we'll as for all those ma
tons now so sorely pressed. If we
lose this war, we let the whole world
slip back into the feudalism of the
middle ages.
To the prosecution of this righteous
war we have dedicated our fortunes,
our lives, and our sacred honor To
the last man, and to the last dollar, we
are pledged to our Allies.
We have been at war nearly year.
Our own imperative needs and the
necessary aid to our Allies has begun
to draw upon our resources. The
strain upon our communities is alter
ing our lives and habits. We are
adapting ourselves to greater econo-
mics and we are speeding up our pro-
ductivity.
But we are not afraid.
The Third Liberty Loan will soon be
offered to the people of the United
States. Each citizen here assembled
is invited to consider the seriousness
Of the grim business in which We are
engaged and, jealous as we know him
TO be Of his rights as a self-governing
freeman. is earnestly urged to do all
in his power TO have the Loan sub
scribed in full promptly upon its an
nouncement.
Well may you now, in town meeting
copy the act of the first |
own meeting held in New England, |
1t Plymouth, November IL, 1920, and
n the presence of God and one anoth-
n, covenant and combine yourselves
.ogether for your better ordering and
preservation, by agreeing that the
portion Of the Third Liberty Loan al
otted to your town shall be instantly