Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1918-08-22
MR.. BUYER, IT's UP TO YOU
BY Roy f. SouIe, Editor Hardware
Age.

The other night one Of General
Pershing's boys went out into No
Mans Land. He didn't come back.
Three hours later a searching party
went out to find him. That boy had
been killed and his body hacked to
bits. His comrades gathered up the
remains and brought them back in a
sack. That brave young American
was chopped to pieces with German
cutlery. Before the war we bought
two million dollars worth of German
pocket cutlery each year.
In the past three years American
factories have vastly increased their
output Of pocket knives. Patterns
have been simplified; quality has
been improved; an American indus
try has been encouraged and devel-
oped; made in Germany" on a knife
blade carried in an American pocket
has become but distasteful memory.
| IuulI VIC uC CuSIOHICIS III LHCSc
blood-stained butchers after the war?
hardly think so. but 1t Is up to you,
Mr.. Buyer.
A captured British officer was re-
Gently found with his throat cut from
ear to ear. This brutal job had been
done with very keen-edged instru-
ment. 1t was not the work OF a
trench knife. The CHASTITY wound
looked as though 1t had been made
with razor. 1t probably was. Be-
fore the war we imported annually
half a million dollars worth Of RAJ
zors from Germany.
Since the war began razor fac
tories In the United States have en-
joyed a greatly increased business.
Their employees are well paid, con-
tented Americans. This industry
must be perpetuated. German COM
petition In the days to come should
suffer handicap in proportion to
German crimes of today.
When the dove OF peace lights in
the pool Of blood, shall we go on buy
ing German razors? 1t doesn't seem
possible. but, Mr.. Buyer. it's up to
you.
Two Canadian Red Cross nurses
outraged Their hands chopped off.
and their tongues cut out that they
might never tell the hideous story of
the frightful wrongs perpetrated up
on them. In America hundreds of
thousands OF Red Cross workers are
using shears and scissors to make
bandages. Before the war; we
bought 100000 dozen shears and scis-
sors from the Central Powers an
nually. American factories making
scissors and shears are busy places
now, and they are making very good
scissors and shears. After the war,
German or American? Mr.. Buyer,
It's up to you.
Belgium, poor. brave. outraged lit
tie Belgium! When Germany threw
to the winds a treaty she termed a
scrap Of paper" she not only
shredded her honor. but tore to bits
business contracts that will never
be pasted together again. America
has fed starving Belgium. We fed,
and clothed and cared for her suffer-
ing people long before we became
her proud ally on the battletields.
Thousands of orphaned Belgian and
French children have been adopted
into American homes. In the days
to come are we going to force these
children to play with German-mnde
toys? God forbid. American toy
manufacturers have stripped us of
the last vestige of an excuse for the
purchase of toys from the Huns. Our
factories are making more toys than
we ever imported. and they are not
the flimsy jim-cracks we formerly
bought from abroad. They are large
~ exercise toys which develop a
child's body. or mechanical or struc-
| WI GU wa y NHfSil tue tIift. ut
fore the war we imported eight mil
lion dollars worth of toys from the
Central Powers. Who win make our
Riddles toys in the days to come?
Once more. Mr.. Buyer. it's up to you
A few weeks ago the Llandovery
Castle. a Red Cross hospital ship,
was sunk by German submarine
That great ship was fully equipped
to care for wounded, suffering sol
diers. Its only passengers were doc
tors and nurses. 1t was marked with
a great red cross made of red cleo
trio lights. The sides Of that ship
were Illuminated. showing for miles
away the character of the vessel.
There was no possible chance of
mistaking the Llandovery Castle for
anything but hospital ship. And
damn them. they deliberately tor
pedoed that ship and took American
doctors from open. life boats and
abused them. The shock of this dis
tinctly british art waS l;ttla Sof,