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Show ARK STOCK Before the Deluge. By Fred C. Kelly. When Noah went to work on the blueprints for the ark, he was handicapped handi-capped in whatever effort he made to arouse popular interest in his enterprise, enter-prise, inasjnuch as the -sky had not yet begun to cloud up. If the storm that was to come had threatened, or even been predicted by competent weather experts, a few weeks in advance, ad-vance, Noah not only would have been a hero for his farsightedness, but he could have floated stock for a whole squadron of arks. I venture to say that once the Big Rain got well started, and people' saw that it was really going to be not a mere shower but a humdinger, breaking all spring records, they would gladly have bought Ark Bonds, redeemable at maturity, to the full limit of their resources and no questions asked -if only they could be carried along to safety. The man who would have quibbled about the expense, if offered a chance to buy first-class passage on the ark just before it sailed, would have been unceremoniously kicked to one side for blocking the aisle. The only thing, I repeat, that prevented pre-vented people from clamoring for reservations on the ark, weeks in advance, ad-vance, was the. fact that they didn't believe any flood was coming. Today we have no such excuse for not buying buy-ing Liberty Bonds, v We KNOW the war is here. We know, too, what kind of people we' are fighting what kind of treacherous, merciless, double-crossing bullies we would be oblidged to deal with if the enemy should be victorious. Victory is a bargain no matter how much it costs. Mere money would hold small charm if Teutonic autocracy should prevail in the world. For the world would not be fit for a self-respecting human to live in. Compared with having a Prussian officer with an arrogant strut and a peak-shaped head standing stand-ing on my street telling me where I may go, and what I may think and what my boy may be permitted to be-"lieve be-"lieve when he grows up Compared with that sort of thing, I started to say, being drowned in a historic flood is a trifling hardship. The man who refuses to buy Liberty Bonds is still more stupid than the fellow who refused to pay his last penny, if need be, to get aboard the ark. It is too bad these two couldn't have- been personally acquainted. They doubtless would have enjoyed each other's company. |