The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-05-02
AMERICANS AND
TRUE DEMOCRACY
Dollars Are Needed as ExempIifi-
cation of Spirit.
TIME TO BUY LIBERTY BONDS
Citizens Must Lend Their Financial
Assistance to Government to For
ever Eliminate Effects of Ger
many's Influence.
BY GEORGE (. BOWEN
of the ViQiIantes.

In the main, it cannot be said OF
America that she is without her Amer
leans, or that the faith and service of
the mass is un-American in spirit.
Dollars do not always go with de-
mocracy, but when informed, inspired
and enlisted they can be mighty useful
to it.
There has been a mistaken idea in
certain sections of America that dol
lars, according to the number of them,
spelled "aristocracy."
They don't. That is an imported
idea. And that it is perishing in the
land of its origin, witness the war and
the CONSERVATION of the few aristo-
Gratis, both external and inbred.
There have been, possibly are,
few external aristocrats in America,
who, in a moment of excessive vanity
measured their social Importance by
the size of their material fortunes.
The war erased that absurd notion,
almost with the first blare of the
trumpet.
Millionaire PriVates in Ranks.
There are millionaire privates in the
ranks of the American army and navy
who have renowned all the prestige
of fortune for the privilege of comrade-
ship.
In the crucial test humanity was
first, last, and all the way between.
Men are more than money. The outer
veneer has been quickly shed. The
man has emerged.
What he thought was his pride, in
days of social and financial triumph,
he finds was but a cheap and trivial
plaything. Now, his real pride is a
thing Of purpose, power and dignity.
Before the war is over, dollars that
hid in aristocratic seclusion or vaunt-
ed themselves in ostentatious power
are going voluntarily and humbly to
join the forces of democracy.
After the war they are going to de-
velop a system of popular redistribu-
ton relieving the old congestion whose
fevers broke out in many forms Of lux
ury and extravaganza incompatible
with universal cOntentment.
The only aristocracy America wants
or needs is of the heart and of the
mind
The shoulder touch Of men on the
march or in the trenches has welded
this feeling into a living creed, a saw
ing faith.
The escutcheon of American man
hood may be either a splash of Bel
gian mud or a splotch OF German
blood.
Drawing True Men Together.
In place Of the dollar crest will be
fho Ci of no
There was a lot of sound democracy
in the old Neutrality-suspicious. for de
Tense, but not one cent for tribute"
Therein is the basic principle Of re-
sistance of Prussiauism. That prin-
ciple is drawing all true men together
It is putting service above self. 1t is
asking America to take the gold of
vanity and pour it into the cause OF
humanity.
The spirit of democracy is the only
vital, uncompromising thing in a hu-
man world.
It laughs at dollars and dynamite
and royal degenerates.
The America Amounted of this spirit
is at last to carry it forth to a perish
ing world.
And the despised American dollar
shall, with the courage, generosit.
and chivalry of American manhood, be
the instrument of salvation.
The day of contribution is at hand
Where is your dollar?