Liberty Bond

“ The tears ran down my cheeks so that I couldn't see, but her voice, so faint and clear, still rings in my ears—
"If she had died clutching a Liberty Bond or wearing a Red Cross button, it would have seemed like burlesque. Yet there are men and women who are going without bread and butter to buy Liberty Bonds, and who are buying them not as a safe investment, as rich men buy, but because the boys need the money. And there ought to be poems written and statues erected to commemorate some of the sacrifices for the sake of the Red Cross. ”

“ Abe said, "which while I don't mean to say that making a good investment like buying of a Liberty Bond should ought to be considered as a disease, Mawruss, it should anyhow be infectious and should ought to spread so rapidly that everybody in the United States could say they had it to the extent of at least one fifty-dollar bond of the Victory Loan." ”

“ While the great sums subscribed for the Fourth Loan by banks, corporations, and individuals had a spectacular interest, observed the New York World, it was the plain people who made the loan a conspicuous success, and the twenty-one million subscribers mean in effect the purchase of a new Liberty Bond by "every American family." ”

“ With well chosen words the old gentleman continued his discourse, stating succinctly the necessity of the Liberty Bond issue and impressing upon his hearers the righteousness of the cause for which this money was required.
"The allotment of Dorfield," he added, "is one million dollars, seemingly a huge sum for our little city to raise and invest, but really insignificant when apportioned among those who can afford to subscribe. ”

“ And then we got to thinking it over and decided it'd be a nice thing to invest the whole roll in Liberty bonds. We felt like we ought to do something for the country.”
“That's a fine spirit!” I said. “But I know how you could of done a whole lot more.” ”

“ Well, the Liberty Loan now offers the chance to make the people and the bondholders interchangeable terms. The bonds are issued in such a way that the farmer and the wage-worker have exactly the same chance as the banker to purchase and hold as [13] many or as few as they wish. No matter how small a man’s means, he can get some part of a bond if he wishes. ”

“ Should I Buy Them? Because we are at war. Because we must have dollars as well as men in the fight for freedom. Because they are the safest investment in the world today. Each $100 bond has 60 coupons attached. ”

“ I've bought some Liberty Bonds already, my girl, but you can put me down for a hundred dollars more. We must support our country in every possible way, with effort, with money, with our flesh and blood. ”

“ You’re a saucy young devil, Honor. My word! What are you giving up, who are so free with suggestions? The bank-account that’s to turn you into a prima donna? Come—we’ll bargain. I’ll buy Liberty Bonds with my check from Alured Mannering, which is due next week, if you’ll draw that fifteen hundred of yours and use it for the same purpose. ”

“ Liberty Bonds are engraved certificates bearing the guarantee of the Government and People of the United States to repay in gold the full amount loaned, with interest. Liberty Bonds are as safe as the United States. ”

“ It was a voluntary bond, and was not coerced from the obligor. He was at liberty to accept or refuse the office; his sureties were at liberty to execute the bond or to refuse. Even if it is not a bond under the law, it is good and valid as a voluntary obligation.
The replication states that the bond was executed under the belief that it was a compliance with the law, and that as such it was received by the United States. This was voluntary. It has been decided that the United States may take a voluntary bond. ”

“ I appeal to all who now own either Liberty bonds or war savings stamps to continue to practice economy and thrift and to appeal to all who do not own Government securities to do likewise and purchase them to the extent of their means. The man who buys Government securities transfers the purchasing power of his money to the United States Government until after this war, and to that same degree does not buy in competition with the Government. ”

“ Will our millionaire government contractors become billionaires when the money—our money—is spent? Do you think the days of graft are past and gone? Have politicians become honest now that they are handling untold sums? Let us consider these questions when we are asked to subscribe for Liberty Bonds."
"Why, this is treason!" cried Mary Louise, gasping from sheer amazement and indignation. ”

“ Mary Louise read it. It was a circular, printed in small, open-faced, capital type on plain white paper, and unsigned. It said:
"The Treasury Department is asking us to invest billions in what are termed Liberty Bonds. It has the 'liberty' to lend these billions to irresponsible or bankrupt nations of Europe, who are fighting an unprofitable war. Some of our dollars will equip an army of American boys to fight on Europe's battlefields. This may be good business. Our excited politicians down at Washington may think they are acting for our best good. ”

“ The Liberty bonds are the best of all possible investments. Their security and their interest returns give them a peculiar position. Moreover, every one can invest in big or little amounts, exactly as his resources permit. All the people of this country can now become bondholders if they wish. Therefore, all investors in the bonds will get benefits, but what is vastly more important, they will give benefits. ”

“ To finance these tremendous preparedness projects, the government called upon the people to lend their money by buying government liberty bonds. This was an entirely new thing for the American people of any generation, but they responded in a manner that showed the government that the people were backing it to the last inch, and that they were out to win as quickly as possible, regardless of cost, or other sacrifices they were called upon to make. ”

“ The fact is, then, that Philip received a payment late yesterday of thirty thousand dollars in Liberty bonds on some property of yours he had disposed of, and since it was after banking hours and he had to leave almost immediately, he could think of nothing better to do with them than to leave them in his library safe. The bonds are unregistered, and not even listed; so there they lie at the mercy of any chance thief who might come prowling around. ”

“ Latimer turned determinedly to Judith. “Your husband sold your Troy Valve bonds at somewhat of a sacrifice.”
Mrs. Hale caught the words and looked at her daughter in open consternation.
“Judith! You haven’t parted with the bonds your grandfather left you?” she exclaimed.
“Yes.” Judith tossed down her napkin and pushed back her chair. “Joe and I decided that this was the time to invest in Liberty Bonds.” Her charming smile disarmed criticism. “Besides, industrials are dangerous investments.” ”

“ I said. “You can buy twenty-five hundred dollars' worth of Liberty bonds.”
“Not no three and a half per cent, I can't!” said Cross. “A man that don't get six per cent for his money these days is a fish. ”

“ These conditions were more and more accentuated as the war continued, particularly in view of the fact that the U.S. Government found it necessary to advance large sums to foreign countries, selling Liberty Bonds in order to provide the means for so doing. ”

“ Always there was, in their wake, an uncommon sale of Liberty Bonds.
So it happened that on a Saturday the committee sent Eric to speak at the Lynden Knitting Mill. The girl drove with her brother and the three other men, the “workers,” across the city and down into the manufacturing district, and the car slid to a stop before a large square brick building. ”

“ Many corporations invested in Liberty Bonds and other government securities during the war for patriotic reasons, which practice, so far as business corporations are concerned, is not generally prevalent at present, and the commission believes will not exist in the future to any appreciable extent. ”

“ Disloyal circulars have been issued from time to time in Dorfield, designed to interfere with sales' of Liberty Bonds, to cause resentment at conscription and to arouse antipathy for our stalwart allies, the English. ”

“ A. L. H——, a member of the Cleveland Board of Education, had his own idea about education. In the home of a socialist he remarked that the Liberty Bonds would [Pg 263] never be paid, and that the working class for generations would have to work to support these bonds. He stated that the Russian Committee, headed by Elihu Root, who went to Russia to investigate the conditions there, had their report written and signed before they left America. He frequently said that the bonds of the United States were not worth the paper they were written on. Affidavits resulted in the indictment of Mr. ”

“ We are all in England so devotedly attached to that odd, easily pronounced, but difficult to be defined word—liberty, that there is, perhaps, nothing we should all at once set our backs, our faces, and our heads against more, than a national compulsatory system of education, similar to that prescribed in Nassau; and yet, if law has the power to punish crime, there seems at first to exist no very strong reason why it should not also be permitted, by education, to prevent it. ”

“ And the whining sound of the hypatomic motors heightened as the Liberty, its goal in sight, leaped through unworldly space like a bow-sped silver arrow.
It was as they neared Magog that Gary Lane experienced a final qualm of misgiving. Dim memory stirred him. He recalled a remark the man they had known as Dr. Anjers had made on Jupiter.
"It is ridiculous to think of us, tiny mites that we are, daring to attack the people of a universe so infinitely greater than ours that we will be as dust motes beneath their crushing heels," Borisu had said. ”

“ The Space Patrol dies but never surrenders! If you want to board us ... come find us!"
And his finger pressed suddenly down upon the green key installed by the Jovian engineers. A violent shudder trembled the Liberty from stem to stern, warped plates screamed in metal agony, and for an instant it seemed the straining ship would shake herself to shards, so great was the shock of that abrupt movement. ”

“ When we haff taught them the benefits of freedom and democracy, they too shall take their place in a new and better universe."
A bell clanged in the control turret of the Liberty, and Captain Hugh Warren, seated in the pilot's swivel, turned to his friends. "Well, I'm afraid that's the signal. All ashore that's going ashore."
"Short circuit!" roared Gary. "For God's sake...!"
Tsalnor and his retinue left. A few minutes later the Liberty was once again tenanted only by those making the return trip to the solar universe. To an Earth free now forever of the dangers which had threatened it. ”

“ Bryant cried, "A planet! But which, Warren? One of our own universe, or—?"
Warren grinned mirthlessly. "Not on your life. The only place to lick an enemy is in his own back yard. Thank heavens, those Jovian engineers taught me how to use their tricky drive! I warped us clean around that space fleet into the night side of their home planet. The world you see beneath us is Magog itself!
"And now for our landing—" His fingers flickered over the studs. The Liberty dropped slowly, smoothly, speed dwindling as Warren searched for a likely landing place—and found it. ”

“ Thus, not as free men freely seeking a gift of equals, but as already half-adjudged and half-condemned captives, were the space venturers transported to the Council Hall of Pangré.
Here sat in judgment upon them white robed and diademed beings of a race not now to be found on any of the inner planets. The azure-tinted people who, if Dr. Kang's explanation were true, had in eons past spread culture throughout the whole of the solar system.
The judging of the Liberty's equipage was a swift formality, speedily concluded. The Jovian council's handling of the case was a travesty of justice. ”

“ With this assurance everyone had to be content, until ten days out from Mars the Liberty hove within range of that tremendous swarm of shuttling bodies which comprises the Bog, spaceman's term for the belt of myriad asteroids ranging in size from tiny granules of rock to life-sustaining mountains of matter larger than many satellites. ”

“ That one was Flick Muldoon.
"Not fools, eh? I wonder if he'd like to make book on that...."
"So," said Hugh Warren, "that seems to be that. What do we do now, Gary? Give up?"
Gary said, "I don't know what to do, Hugh."
"I am afraid," sighed Dr. Anjers, "our mission is a failure. Perhaps it were best we go back to Earth and throw ourselves on the clemency of the World Council."
"You maybe," said the skipper of the Liberty ruefully, "but not me. I'm in it too deep. Well, Gary, better make up your mind."
"We go on," decided Lane suddenly. "That's all we can do. ”

“ If we do not, then according to your own calculations, there will be no Hugh Warren to stand trial, nor court to sit in judgment upon his sins."
Thus sped the Liberty through space at a rate of speed attained by no other spaceship before her. Each passing hour found Earth dwindling smaller and dimmer behind them; each hour saw Earth's sister planet looming ever larger and brighter before. ”

“ Have the men of Earth gone mad?
"This message says," he read aloud, "'If Liberty and crew, including group of Earth scientists, arrive on your planet, in the name of all humanity offer them every possible assistance. Investigation proves their theories are absolutely correct. Sun is dwindling rapidly to dwarf-star stage. Planet Mercury tottering in its course; may plunge into Sun hourly. Entire solar system hovering on brink of dreadful disaster.'"
"Thank God!"
The grateful cry ripped itself unbidden from Gary Lane's throat. ”