The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1919-04-10

ness. III ne had been nypOcrlte ne
would have joined the crowds on the
streets. But not being a hypocrite he
did not go. He sat there, his chin on
his chest-thinking. And quite prom
inent in this thoughts was that theory
Of individualism which had bothered
him for many days.
CHAPTER VII
T was pure perverseness on Corwin's
l part that made him antagonistic
toward the fifth loan-the Victory
Liberty Loan. To be consistent he
must oppose 1t. He had not sub
scribed for the others-except to the
extent OF the thousand dollars Molly
King had forced from him-and he did
not intend to subscribe TO the Victory
Loan. To Molly, one morning in late
April. he said. derisively:
Its time for people to wake up and
realize that the war is over. Do they
think the country will stand for these
loans forever? Don't those grafters
ever get enough?'
"Grafters?" Mollys voice was cold.
Her gaze was scornfully defiant. "Mr.
Corwin." she went on, evenly; you
don't mean to say that you think all
Of the money obtained from the bond
issues has been stolen?"
Corwin's smile was almost a sneer.
"Plenty OF it has gone into the pockets
Of grafters." he replied.
"An public money is subject to that
risk" Molly declared lit is quite i'm
possible to prevent some of the money
going where ii should not go. 1t is
impossible to prevent much of it, for
the nature of the public work-and
particularly war work-makes it easy
for certain INSCRIPTIONS men TO take
things that do not belong to them. In
war work, especially. is there great
opportunity for diverting funds. II
is emergency work and there is no
time to take even ordinary measures
to safeguard the public funds. Men
must be trusted and some Of them vio-
late their trust. That isn't the fault
Of the Governmental is the men
themselves who are to blame. II they
were Americans they would not do
it."
well. | know some OF it cannot be
prevented" admitted Corwin. But
how about extravaganza"
THAT cana be helped, either" de
clared the girl. when a war comes
the Government finds itself in need Of
certain things. Those things must be
obtained quickly. There is no time
TO split hairs over dollars. Business
men must be assured that they will be
treated generously or they will not
turn out the work the Government de-
mands from them. II you find your
self suddenly in need of gun to de-
fend yourself with-and a highway
man threatening you-you are not go
ing 10 haggle very long over the price
Of a gun which man behind you is
Offering you. You need the gun and
you are going to pay what the man
asks for H."
well. there may be something in
that-possibly you are right. But the
war is over. Why should II be neces-
sary to have another Liberty Loan?"
Il thought of that when l heard
they were proposing another loan,
the girl replied. And | asked
my father about il. He said that the
American army had provided the
punch which had won the war. and
that II had been the magnitude Of our
preparations which had convinced
Germany of the hopelessness of fight
ing longer Germany saw that we
meant TO win. Germany was con
WINGED that we would win, because we
were getting enough war materials
together-men. munitions and other
sinews-to make the victory for US
certain. II We had gone about the
thing half-heartedly-if any one OF
the Liberty Loans had failed-Ger-
many would not have asked for an ar
mistice. For those men In Germany
were watching America. They knew
everything we did. And when they
saw that we were preparing 10 war
for a dozen years II necessary. they
became convinced that continued re-
sistance would be futile
"But this Government had TO plan