The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1919-04-17
It's tbyO
They Will ADeightul treat OO N0I1CS

assailing Corwin's ears. 1t seemed to
him that every citizen Of the town
must be in the street in front Of the
office, and that each citizen was try
ing to make more noise than his neigh
Dor.
Molly was putting on her hat when
Corwin again looked at her. Her eyes
were very bright-they glowed with a
light that made Corwin's widen with
admiration.
81 can't work any more today, Mr..
Corwin!" she said; 1--WE simply got
to go out and celebrate! shall be
back tomorrow morning-if l sur.
vive!"
Corwin sat alone in his office. He.
too, was glad the war was over. But
his gladness was tinged with bitter
ness. If he had been hypocrite he
would have joined the crowds on the
streets. But not being hypocrite he
did not 60. 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
I 7 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 it. 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:
ops 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?" Molly's voice was cold,
Her gaze was scornfully defiant. "AIr.
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?"
Corwins smile was almost sneer
"Plenty of it has gone into the pockets
of grafters," he replied.
"All public money is subject to tina,
risk" Molly declared; ''it is quite i'm
possible to prevent some of the money
going where 1t 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 tax,
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 nc
time to take even ordinary measures
to safeguard the public funds. Men
must be trusted and some of them VIC
late their trust. That isn't the fault
Of the Government-it is the men
themselves who are to blame. If they
were Americans they would not dc
It,"
well, know some Of 1t cannot he
prevented" admitted Corwin. "Bui
how about extravaganza"
THAT can't 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 moi
turn out the work the Government de
mands from them. II you find your
self suddenly in need of a gun to de
fend yourself with-and highway
man threatening you-you are not go
ing to haggle very long over the price
of a gun which a man behind you II
Offering you. You need the gun and
you are going TO pay what the mar
asks for it."
We'll, there may be something In
that-possibly you are right. But the
war Is over. Why should 1t be neces
sary to have another Liberty Loan?'
II thought of that when l heard
they were proposing another loan,
the girl replied. "And asked