The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1918-11-08
PUBLIC APPROVAL
COUNCIL OF DEFENSE
War Organization Commended
Heartily or its Course.


Tenn.-Dear Sam: / have just read
the article and list of slackers that
your Council of Denfense has pub
lished to the world / wish to COM
pliment and congratulate you and
express to you my appreciation, not
only as a citizen of Fulton County,
KY, but of the United States and
America, on the step that you and
the other members of the Council of
Defense of your county have had the
nerve to take.
1t is pity that the good people of
other counties are not more like
those of Obion County, Tenn. have
watched the good work of your Coun-
Gil of Defense from the time this war
started.
l have been in the department, as
no doubt you know, to investigate
the crooked and dark side, just as
you have, of what people are doing
and what a lot of them are not do
ing toward aiding in this war, and
while it is a pleasure to me to know
that l have been instrumental in
blocking some crooked affairs that
some were trying to put over, but
since we have begun to have these
magnificent victories and it looks
like the end is in sight, l do not
know but that / really have regrets
that I have been placed in the de-
partment that i have, as / undoubt-
edly have that same feeling that a
Christian mother, father or friend
has when he watches the last breath
of some dear child or friend who has
not lived. the lift that he should and
wonders how he is going to face his
God. AS stated, believe this same
feeling comes to me when I read the
news of the last few days and realize
that this cruel war will soon be over,
on account of my being in a position
even tried to do their duty toward
backing up these boys who are lay
ing down their lives for the protec-
tion of you and me, our families, our
property and the family and property
of every person not only in Fulton
County, KY, and Obion County,
Tenn, but of the whole world.
have seen people in my town refuse
to give to the Red Cross, even dol
lar, when the Red Cross has come to
our assistance here on three different
occasions, two during our foods from
the Mississippi River and once after
that terrible storm we had over
year ago. They poured out money
here by the tens of thousands of
dollars, then sent their nurses and
doctors here to relieve the sufferings
of the dying and wounded and yet,
some of these people who received
the direct benefits of this, have failed
and still refuse to assist the Red
Cross now.
I have seen men, farmers who own
hundreds of acres of our finest land
and who do not owe cent and who
have made thousands of dollars thru
the increase of the value of their
crops caused by this war, who also
claimed to be Christians, some of
them even going so far as to pray in
public, leaders in the churches, Sun
day schools, etc., who have kicked on
their assessment and even after get
ting it cut down sometimes even fifty
per cent, where their assessment
should have been ten times what it
was at the start, have gone out and
sold what bonds they were compelled
to buy rather than to hold them
when they were perfectly able to do
SO, still taking advantage of every
high price where they had products
to sell. When it comes down to the
straight business proposition, when
a man buys $1,000 worth of bonds,
his contribution to back up this war
has not been in reality $50 per year
Our banks all over the country, in
Hickman, have offered to
assist purchasers of Liberty Bonds
and one of our banks here even went
so far as to put an advertisement in
the paper that they would at all
times be willing to loan money on
Liberty Bonds UP to 80 per cent Of
its face value. A man taking $1,000
worth of bonds, for instance, and
even paying per cent, contributes
$3.50 per year, while every boy
who has been volunteered or been
drafted sacrifices more than that
every month, saying nothing of the
hardships he goes thru. Many of
the banks, and I think the banks of
your county, loan money on these
bonds at 6 per cent. A man who
carries $1,000 worth of bonds actu-