The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-05-09
THE ACID TEST
OF LOYALTY

The Official Returns Show That the
Fasmers of the Country Outclassed
the Business Men in Subscribing
for Liberty Bonds.
BORAH DEFENDS THE FARMERS
The Government is Determined to
Wipe Out the Profiteers, Whose
Greed is Coming the Very Life
Blood of the Nation Into Dollars.
! Washington, D. c., May Gold
but indusputable figures in the Treas
ury department show that the farm
ers have outstripped the business men
in subscribing for liberty bonds. The
Treasury department has just given
out the story Of six wealthy men
whose application for charter for q
national bank was turned down, be-
cause on investigation it was found
that the entire six had purchased on
ly 5000 of the first two issues Of LII
berty bonds and had contributed on
ly $149 to the Red Cross. Several Of
these men claimed to be worth $780,
900 yet they heard the call of their
country but family when it came to
putting up cash for its defense. The
identity of the men is not disclosed,
1t is said vaguely that they dwell in;
a western city. In some places farm
ers who forgot to do their patriotic
duty toward the loans are hauled be-
fore local committee and their names
are published wide. a
Borah Defends Farmers.
Speaking on this subject Senator
Borah said on the floor of the SEN
ate: 81 observe through the press
that there were number of people
appearing before one Of the import
ant committees of the senate testify
ing with regard to disloyalty in diff
ferent parts of the United States.
One reading the report would conclude
that the agricultural sections Of the
country were saturated with disloy-
! atty.
"It seems while these gentle
men were advertising the disloy-
atty of the farmers and the
farmers organizations through
out the country, the farmers at
home were engaged in putting in
their crops and subscribing for
| Liberty Bonds"
Then he read from a morn
ing paper statement that the
agricultural states were leading
the country in the Liberty Bond
campaign, that Montana and
North Dakota had oversubscrib-
more than fifty per cent beyond
their quotas. That South Da-
kota, rural Minnesota and North
ern Wisconsin were gloriously to
the front with their subscrip-
tions.
"North Dakota" he said, with
a touch of sarcasm, twas partic-
ularly subject to attack by some
of these witnesses. You would
suppose that the farmers-and it
is almost entirely an agriculture
al state-where practically all out
of sympathy with this republic
in its hour of peril. l regard it
as libel respecting these peo-
pie.
II trust that these political
pharisees who come here with
the American flag wrapped about
them to exploit their own virtues
and to decry the virtue of entire
communities and entire states will
not be regarded as voicing the
real sentiments of the American
people in this war;"
Must Curb Profteers.
Carl Vrooman, assistant, secretary
of agriculture, says that the govern
ment is determined to wipe out the
profteers and that it stands prepared
to take any measures that are found
necessary to the accomplishment Of
that end.
Vrooman declares that the govern
ment is now trying to mobilize the
food distributing and marketing agen-
cies of the country on basis Of pa
triotic efficiency, and that if simple
and conservative measures fail to take
the profteering out of these agencies,
then other measures will be applied
until the job is done. The govern
ment will not stop should of complete
reorganization of it's marketing and
distributing system, if need be, to put
the nation on an effective basis for
it's task.
"The government did great job
when II created tha Federal Reserve
SYSTEM" said Vrooman. "That was
the greatest piece of financial pre-
paredness the world ever saw. Gre.
alton of the Federal Trade Commits
sion was a preparedness measure for
without it the work of the govern
ment's price fixing boards would have
been long delayed or would have been
done by guess instead of by scientific
investigation. The creation Of the