The spectator., 1919-04-04
COST NUT COUNTED WHEN II CAME ID
 SAVING OUR B0Ys
THINK OF SITUATION YEAR AGO AND HOW READY WE WERE
 TO STAKE ALL.
GREAT DEBT INCURRED
Expected, and We Must Finish Paying For It.

Whom your boy was on the fighting front over there last fall, or was in one of the training camps over here being hardened for the most terrible task that ever confronted man; when countless mothers with sad eyes were scanning the death lists with hearts atremble, fearing lest the name of a loved one might be there; when the fate of the nation and of the world hung in the balance. then the thought upperm0st in every mind was the win ming of the war and the avoidance of continued loss of life.
 Then during the fall months of 1918 the purse strings of Americas citizens were cut with willing hands For the Fourth Liberty Loan-the Fighting Liberty Loan--the almost inconceiv- able sum of six billions of dollars was asked by the United States Govern ment to prosecute the war. What the answer was is history-glorious his tory.
 Americans not cnly met the call but threw in another billion for good measure
 It required the most sangune opti. mist then to predict victory over Germany before the summer that is now approaching. Thousands of Americas best and bravest young men, the flower of the country. were daily offering up and giving their lives for the veal of humanity They were suffering ghastly wounds, inflicted by weapons such as only the brutality of Germanys most vicious minds could fashion; they were being blinded and tortured with poisonous gases that Germany introduced against all usages into modern warfare, and they were lying in the mud of slimy trenches, de- prived of every comfort, with each recurrent day sapping their vitality, that America might be saved
 Total Wealth Pledged.
 Then could anyone in absolute au- thority have promised victory before Europe was locked in winters grasp. the total wealth of this rich land would unhesitatlngly have been placed st the nations disposal. that the lives of countless thousands of the flower of American manhood need not be sac. rtficed
 Those who were planning and dh recting the war. or that part of it being enacted by America. were domi. mated by the idea of ending the war quickly and saving every American life possible. The cost was not counted. Tho money that flowed from the peoples purse was spent unstint- edly. Millions were spent to equip the grandest army the sun ever shone on. Other millions were spent for ships to convey them across the Allan tic. Factories were kept at work night and day turning out munitions and supplies.
 America surpassed even herself. She arose even above the glorious traditions of the worlds greatest coun- try. that has never tasted defeat. She accomplished the impossible Al the very moment when the German war machine seemed invincible, when that which was intended as the final drive that WAS to wipe France on the map. then Pershing's lads were thrown against that terrible army in gray. The onslaught was all that Germany had planned. But the stolid German mind had not adequately valued the hghting ability of the boys in khaki. The gray clad hosts attacked with all tho confidence of their training. But the Americans did not yield Their depleted ranks wore filled as if by magic and that which German mill tarists contemptuously termed an un- trained mob, displayed soldierly quail ties and persistent fighting qualities that has elicited the warmest admira. ton of the whole world.
 Finish the Jsb.
 Every day the war was shortened thousands of American lives were saved. For every day it was short. ened your boy or your neighbor's boy will be returned to the family fresids just that much sooner. and this fact that he will return sound in body and 1 mind is due to the splendid prepara- tons his government made for his wea- | fare and fha proa aCnttOp oP tho x,,a,