Show t THE WAR THE FARM I ND J THE FARMER I II I I IBy By Herbert Quick Member Federal Farm Loan Board t r t r I i What the Imperial German government govern govern- ment offered the farmers of America In tin its ruthless submarine warfare was not the loss of profits but slavery to the saber rattler of oC Potsdam He lie purposed purposed pur pur- posed to mako make us slaves by murderIng murdering murder murder- Ing tho people who took our products to market By Dy all the laws of at civil civil- warfare commerce under a neutral neutral neu neu- flag was free from rom any hindrance except except tho the legal interference justified by war But the Germans not only stopped merchant vessels they sank them Sank them without warning without trace trace the the most devilish thing war has seen since the savages scalped our ancestors and threw throw screaming babies Into Inlo the flames of oC burning cabins The German plan of sinking merchant merchant merchant mer- mer chant vessels without trace Is based on on the murderers murderer's maxim that dead men tell no tales It was executed exe- exe by t the e mas massacre acre of men women women wom worn en and children who having committed committed com com- themselves to small boats inthe Inthe in inthe the open sea after their ships were t torpedoed were mercilessly raked with gunfire and exterminated to the thelast thelast thelast last unprotected soul These are the murders that stain the hands of of the Kaiser his advisers and min ions These Thes outrages were perpetrated on on neutral vessels when all that civilized civilized warfare gave the Germ Germans ns a aright aright aright right to do even with tho the merchant vessel vessel under a hostile flag was to stop It at sea and make It a prize of war To Ta kill the civilians on board even under a hostile flag was nothing but unmitigated murder And these murders murders murders mur ders ders were committed In order that we might be enslaved Having the right to take the sea with his bis fleet but being afraid to do so BO for fear Cear he might lose it and being unable b by t fair lr means to ta stop the selling of oC our our products to his enemies the Kaiser I declared that he would do It by the foulest methods metho s ever resorted to In I war He declared the sea clo od d and that he would keep It closed hot by br war war but by murder To have submitted would have cost costus us dear In prosperity but that would have been the least of oC our loss We should have had to grovel before before before be be- fore the German government We should have had to acce accept t mur mur- f der as a thing against which wo we could no defend ourselves We should have Jave ave allowed this new neww horror to become a part put of all 1111 future future wars and have b been n responsible fO for its incorporation into international law We should have proved that b cause causo the fire which burns bums up ou our farms farms' usefulness is beyond the horl hori horizon horlon son zon on we would submit to the kindling kindlin of at It IL Wo We might have accepted the seventy sev- sev enty cents for wheat and tho the six cents cents cents' cents cents' for cotton but wo could not have done It merely because we were commanded to do it By BO so doing we e should have accepted degrada 1 tion We should have begun after winning our freedom In our own own- revolution and establishing a union Q on the foundation of liberty In the the blood and tears of at our war between the states to knuckle under to autocracy autos auto Co racy We should have basely bagely yielded up our birthright as Americans S Such ch a thought Is Intolerable Peace at such a price would not be peace percel but only a preparation for Cor a future revolt against subjugation Better Detter an any sort of war better war forever that that I Whenever the time comes for new sacrifices let us remember that we we fight not for or our liberties tomorrow or next year ear or twenty years fro from now but for our freedom today Not Note for the right to live In the future but but for the right to make a living this year this I German German- oppression had begun to to pinch us before beCore we entered the war war If It we had not declared war but had accepted the conditions of life Ufe ordered for us b by the Kaiser we should today be a stricken poverty people Ou Our factories would be shut down our workmen unemployed our people starving our farmers ruined by tho poverty of those for whose consumption j tion they grow their crops There Is b loss and sacrifice in the war but there would have been far more moro of of at loss and sacrifice In accepting the German terms We Ve should have lost more In money than we have spent In the war but we should have lost something far more precious Wa We should have lost Jost our souls |