FROM DAYS GONE BY May 3, 1918

May 3, 1918.
The following was written by W. C. Wardlaw, state chairman of the Liberty Loan Executive committee in the campaign to raise funds to help the government during World War One.
"What about this war? What does it mean to you? When Noah started building his Ark, nobody would have paid five cents for a ticket. When the waters started rising everyone would have been willing to give everything he possessed to be aboard; a ticket would have been a bargain at any price.
When the war started, it was 3,000 miles away, and the fighting is still there. How much are you willing to lend your government to keep it that far away? If the Germans come over here you will be like those left out of the Ark, and neither you, your family, nor the property you have, would be worth five cents to you.
I have maintained that the farmer is as loyal to his country and as patriotic as any class of people and that his failure to subscribe to the First and Second issue of Liberty Loan Bonds was because he was not informed. There are just as good reasons why other red-blooded Americans should answer this call to come to the assistance of the government which furnishes him protection, liberty and prosperity; but the following reasons have been suggested why the farmer should support this loan:
We must tell him that while our boys are fighting hand to hand with the enemy, we must have heart to heart talks with our farmer friends. We must tell them that this is as much their country as our country. We must tell them that if we had allowed Germany to keep us off the seas, their crops would have rotted in the field for the want of a market, and prices would have been extremely low, lower than when their cotton was six cents per pound in 1914.
We must tell them that our country is trying to protect their farms from invasion; to protect their wives, mothers and daughters from being outraged; their children from being maimed; and their usefulness from being destroyed. We must tell them that the United States Government is not calling on them for a donation, but for a loan and for this loan is willing to pay four and one quarter percent interest.
We must tell them that the money loaned to the U. S. and our allies comes back to them when the government buys their crops at prices never before heard of; that they are really investing war profits in gilt-edged securities. We must tell them that the government is calling for this money to be used in feeding and clothing our boys; to build airplanes and ships, to make guns and cannons, shot and shell; and other implements of war to defeat the world's worst enemy of liberty; and to keep the enemy from invading our country.
We must tell them that our government is going to raise the money necessary to carry on this war to a glorious victory; and that if the farmers and others who have the money will not lend it to the government, the government will tax both farm and farmer, cotton, and everything owned by mankind in this country so as to raise this money. We must tell them that if the government tax on cotton is just $10 per bale, farmers would pay over one hundred million dollars annually to the war fund.
We must simply tell them that if every farmer invested $10 in Liberty Bonds for every bale of cotton he raises, the farmer would own over one hundred million dollars of the best security on earth, paying him four and one quarter percent interest. We must tell him that a government bond is worth more than a government tax receipt.
The Stars and Stripes have never trialed in defeat, and no red-blooded American will let it trail so long as he has an atom of manhood or a dollar in money. This is no time for penny patriotism, and that there is only one kind of patriotism, the kind which is born of unselfishness and reared in sacrifice.
I feel sure that the farmer will do their duty. A moment ago a farmer came t me and bought four thousand dollars of the Third Liberty Bonds. Some farmers understand what we are fighting for; they need not be told. Some do not understand what we are fighting for, they have to be taught; and for that reason we have an organization in each county, whose duty it is to teach those who are not posted; and I am sure that you will carry this message to them. I have no fear as to the outcome of the Third Liberty Loan campaign. The Stars and Stripes will never go down in defeat."