Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1919-05-08
loan EXCUSES DO I
NOT co WITH OUR
RETURNED TROOPS
IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE SOME
! PRETTY GOOD ONES YOU
WILL NEED THEM.
DOUGHBoYs CAN'T SEE EN-
."lf Could Afford to Face Death You
Can Afford to Subscribe"
Says Soldier.

If you are framing up any excuses
for yourself as to why you are not
going to take any Victory Notes"
| you had better make them mighty
good ones. They Will need to be vital
ly important to really excuse you, as
there are thousands of mighty sharp
critics listening for those excuses.
Maybe you think you have some
pretty good ones-if so, you will need
them. Don't worry trying to decide
just which is the best excuse you have.
In one day recently $4,000 American
soldiers landed in New York. The
country is filling up with others who
are back from the front You may
have seen some of them. Some of
them have empty sleeves. Others are
walking with a crutch instead of the
sturdy leg they had year ago Some
;of them have that gray and drawn look
of the man who has tasted Hun gas.
Some of them have lost an eye
These boys know what that war
game was. They have looked on the
'doings of the Boche in France aliu
Belgium. They know what the Ger
man did to those countries. Looking
at the ruins Of nations there in Europe
they got a pretty clear idea of what
the Hun had planned for America when
our time came
Furtherrs ore, these men are going
to want to know just why any man
who calls himself an American is
hunting up excuses for not subscribing
to Liberty Loan. They know that
il was Americans who signed the deatS
warrant of the Hun overseas and they
are going to ask some mighty pointed
questions of the stay-at-homes, who
stayed 5000 miles away from the
danger and went calmly about their
businesses in war time
The fighting man is going to argue
this way; IF | could afford to leave
everything that made life sweet to me
and go overseas for America; | could
afford to take my chances with sudden
death to get there and sudden death
after | arrived; / could afford to face
filth, disease, gas, shrapnel and ma.
chine gun bullets; l could afford to
face cold steel and showers of hand.
grenades and fight hand to hand with
the Hun in dirty ditch. And these
Americans who stayed at home tell
me that they can't afford to subscribe
to Victory Loan!"
You can begin to see that you need
some handmade, copperriveted ex.
.cuses can't you? You can begin to see
that these excuses are going to have
TO be a little above the average run,
can't you?
These armless, legless, eyeless men
who have come back from overseas
will be glad to listen to your excuses.
Try scrle of them on the first one you
run across. Try them all on him, if
ne has the patience to listen to them.
If you can convince one of these
men who has looked upon He'll with
the lid off, on that smoking Western
Front and can rake him believe that
you have done everything you ought
10 do and all that you can possibly af.
ford to do-why then you ought not
to have so very much trouble standing /
eff the Victory Loan salesman when
he comes around with the subscription
blanks for the Fifth, last and Victory
Loan.
But people who have already tried
it on the returned soldiers are not
very enthusiastic. They haven't had
much luck at convincing these men
who did the fighting for the rest of US
that there is anything American abou,
quitting on Uncle Sam when he is max
ing his last call and needs all that re
can do for him.
Frankly there isn't much use in
polishing up the excuses. You may
try to believe in them yourself, but
down in your heart you know them
for what they are-just excuses to help
you dodge a plain duty that is yours
and yours alone. May as well make up
your mind to subscribe every dollar
that you honestly and conscientiously
can, and let it go at that