The daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Leflore Co., Miss.) 1916-1919, 1919-05-03
Bis DEBT assume
But It SAVED OVER
A MILLION LIVES
HUGE PREPARATIONS PREVENT
30 sHEDDiN1 Or ELoe0 AND
.DARkENiNG CT HOMES.
HUNS KNEW IT W.S DUz
Instead of Being Dead Heroes. Thous.
ands OF Yankee Lads Are Be-
ing WeicoaaSd home.

seventy thousand American homes
have been darEened by that shadoy
that is inevitable in warfare. Ameri
losses in France total 10000 dead
1t cost US just that much to put the
Hun back across the Rhine, to make
him acknowledge that he was beaten
to his knees.
Our losses mfeht have been stagger
lngly higher It Is conceded by tne
hlsher-ups of the army that another
half year Ct war would have cos;
America a full half million laore lives
ours would have. been the hardest
task.
1t would have been our task because
We We're the freshest and.youngest ma;
ton il the struggle. France had beer
lighting for more than -four yea
when peace came. England had beer
lighting fully as long. The first
strength CT these counties was aonc
when we came in.
1t would have been our task to have
lei the vanguard to hurl ourselves
against the Hun defenses. To hammer
and follow up u advantage.
There would have oeen a shadow on
another half million American homes
had this come to pass. By the time
our losses had mounted to a half MI,
lion we would have known something
about what war is like as the con,
tinent of Europe knows it.
IhIs blood that was never she'd was
saved to America by the fact that this
county went out and assumed a ei-
2antic debt in preparing for a lone
and a desperate war. It is a debt that
IS beyond the comprehension of the
average man. It runs into billions. Il
was unavoidable il we wanted to win
the struggle. To have gone into the
war on the installment plan would
nave prolonged it, made it a LOSING
proposition and forced some of CIR
allies to make peace.
We took no chances on the matter.
1t was wisely decided that it would be
better to saddle a generation of dept
on the people than it would be to let
the war drag, see some OF our allies
forced out and possibly lose the war
IN the end. We wanted to save lives.
10 shorten b war, to finish it up with
an ~unQuestioned victory, and events
nave shown that we took the right
course.
Back in Old jobs.
Because Of the fact that we did go
ahead and make a Fifth Liberty Loan
necessary We saved the lives of a frlI
half million of American soldiers. Men
are tack home, back in civilian
clothes, back at their old jobs. who
would infallibly have died in battle
last winter Or this spring or this sum-
mer had not the armistice been signed
There are hundreds of thousands of
American soldiers who have been well
coined by their families as n re-
turned from the dead. America was
saying little about it, but fer the most
part every man who went overseas
was regarded as having taken a step
that set him apart from the rest of us
as a mark for death.
NOW that the men are coming home
some of them are back, others OF
their way and others are to he released
within a few wees, have W. no snaec
Of gratitude thai they have been
spared, that the var r. over "a thee.
is to be nc mere blcof piled?
In doing tie o ta s.. in SAVING
these 500 600 Z es. Uncle Sam as
sumed a terrific debt. He prepared
beyond aIl precedent for this coming
summers fighting. There was to be
a tank for every IS yards of the front.
a great crawling engine CT death .rof
every IS feet. Machine guns were
to be massed nor thickIy than the
Hun had eve messed them. There
were to be 1000 gas shells for every
1000 that the Huns could produce,
Alrplanes were to literally darkcn tha
sky. Guns, guns and guns, big and
little, tremendous h~owitzers. machine,
suns, on~e-pounders, 75's, all kinds of
guas, by the ten thousand. Munitions
were being made ready on a scale that
dWarfed the best efforts of England
France anS Gerrnany.
These tlsAgs were unpaid for. many
of them. To pay fer them, those that
We're used as well as those that were
not finlsHed, We are raising the FicEsry
Liberty Lean, Once the Fun u9dnr-
stood what was gathering for him II
the West, he quit, quit cold.
To pay these debts the Victory Lb-
erty Loan is offered. It represents
what it cost US to save 500, GOO lives.