Regional President Speech

AN APPEAL TO BOX BONDS ADDRESS AT MASS MEETIHQ (Also Addressed by President Wilson) at Metropolitan Opera Housd, Ssptaob er 27, 1918 Mr. President, and Fellow American Citizen?: During the next three wseks the people of this Second Fodaral Reserve District mast pledge themselves to furnish their Government with not lass than #1,800,000,000 for the prosecution of the war- It is our share of $6,000,000,000, and it will be forthcoming. They will be the dollars of democracy - which have had peaceful employment, in agriculture, Industiy and commerce, in education, art and science. From now on th^r oust be dedicated to the service of the anjy and the navy, for they will be militant dollars; but whan, this war is ended, these dollars of democracy Bust be rededicated to works of reconstruction and mercy* But the Mission of these Liberty Loans is not simply the raising of money. We could say to eveiy resident and every corporation in this district, ■Tour share in this loan is so ouch, *and ask, or maybe require, them to take it. But by that method we would lose the moral and spiritual forces which sire behind the loan, behind the war, and behind our maa in France* We must not only sell bonds - we must sell the war to all the people of the United States. This is a mission of the Liberty Loan Organisation which is of greater importance than simply raising money. We shall not be i#iolly successful in our work unless every citizen bedomes a bondholder, and every bondholder becomes a more devoted citizen. So in embarking to-morrow upon this new and larger undertaking, we must have clearly in mind some things to be accomplished for ourselves at home, as well as what these loans must do in their capacity as fighting dollars in France* One of our organisation called at a little f armhouse in the hills over­ looking the Hudson River to inquire if the owner could not b:y some Liberty Bonds. He was met by a woman, to i&am he explained his errand. She said that she lived there alone, that she owned a cow, and some pigs; that she had some potatoes and vegetaHes in the cellar, and that she was usually snowed in through, the sinter, and could not get to the village, and so had little use for money. She was glad Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - 2 - of the opportunity, however, of sob scribing all that she had - and she gave the canvasser #4*00. After thanking hla for the opportunity of helping, she explained that she was a widow and her three sons were in the Mexican Amy. This illustrates what is taking place in the nation to-dqy. That woman, uho is snowed In in the winter, was thankful for the privilege of doing something - and she had given her three sons I Iso one at this meeting can make as large an investment as she did. Vhen we have examined our accounts, figured our income and expenses and decided i the amount we ahaii take - let us at least double it. In the third loan we were asked in this district to raise nine hundred million dollars, and raised eleven hundred Million. In loan, we are asked to raise eighteen hundred million dollars - twice the amountI Ve must make the sacrifice, whatever it involves, of doubling what we did last tioa. In Near York it is necessary that ths literature distributed by our com­ mittee shall be printed in sightaan different languages. Meetings are held at which speakers deliver addresses in almost evegr tongue spoken in the city. In the Third Liberty Loan 856,000 people in Hew lork City alone subscribed $48,000,000 for $50.00 and $100.00 bonds, to be paid for $1.00 and $2*00 a week* These people were largely 6f foreign birth or parontage. ?e now have a great office in 44th Street, where 350 desks are employed keeping the accounts of that transaction. The statement has bean made to me that the sale of Liberty Bands by this instalmat ■ethod is too costly. One might as well say that in time of war it is too costly to rua the public schools. It vould be better for this country, if, within the next three Teeks, wo sold $6,000,000,000 of bonds to 90,000,000 people than if we sold $60,000*000,000 of bonds to 6,000,000 people, burdan of paying the ultimate cost of this war must not fall unjustly upon any class. These great bond issues must sane day be repaid oat of taxes and if poverty follows in the train of destruc­ tion, how much batter that those least able to suffer are aided in preparing thaa solve.1 to bear it I It would be a calamity were this nation to create a preferred and favored class of rich creditors, who, in the time of the nation's nSed, received Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis insurance against the losses that should be shared by all In proportion to their means* It is, therefore, desirable and just that those of small, means should enjoy exemption a from taxation which those of large aeans do not need* This prin­ ciple is established in the graduated income taxes, and applies equally to graduated exemption from taxes. A great thing is taking place in our midst, which nay have escaped gen­ eral observation. Many of the people who buy thesd $50*00 and $100,00 bonds came to us from foreign lands; - some of them cane to escape conditions which aade then unhappy. They dotA>tless came to this countiy with some suspicions of their new surroundings, They had been accustomed to dose Government supervision and military regulation in most of their daily affairs* Here, in this free countxy, they have, until now, had little contact with their new Go verm sat, They recognize the authority of the policeman on the street, who protects them from Injury and restrains them froa doing wrong, and thqr know the postman Ao brings their letters* By and that thqr haifehad too little contact with their Government. It has not sufficiently influenced their thoughts or lives* These people caae here to better themselves, they have aade hones, they believe in this country, and are happy here* We are now asking them to invest In their new country, and tobecoae even more worthy citizens. This is a part of the work of the Liberty Loan* But the mission of the Liberty Loan is not only at hone. The effect of this great enterprise must also be felt abroad* Germany, without provocation or waning, swept over Belgium and into France, leaving behind her azmie3 a trail of horror and desolation too sad and terrible to describe* The most sacred cities and buildings in Belgium and France, historical monuments, farmers* cottages,, and crops are destroyed* One o: the most precious possessions of the French peasant, his fruit tree, for which he cares as a part of his family, has been cut down in wanton rage* The extreme of devilish ingenuity has been applied, not only to the \ destruction of property, hut to the infliction of needless anguish upon a helpless Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 4 - - civilian population. These are the eights now balng witnessed by the great any of dAocracy tifcich ve have sent to Trance* Let us consider the spirit with which oar men view this awful spectacle and see whether it bears not some resemblance to theqgirlt of that woman on the banks of the Hudson* I have just heard that spirit described. A few days ago I asked an army officer what Impression our nn Bade in Trance* He is a grlsaled old soldi or, Ao has seen thirty years' service, a cap­ tain now in a section of the Trench Anqr which wakes snail claim to sentimentality - the Foreign Legion of Trance. His reply epitomised the spirit with which this country entered the war. He said, *0f coarse yaar man fight magnificently* in fact they have not yet leasned vhan it is time to stop fighting.11 And then he described the great thing thqy have done in capturing the hearts of the Trench peasants. Vhan these refugees retained to their homes in sections now occupied by American soldiers, they were met by our men whistling and Fringing, who, with smiles on their faces, tossed the children on to their shoulders; took up the bundles for the old and infirm; pushed the barrow loaded with household goods} patched the fences; cleaned the wells; and helped to straighten up ruined cot­ tages. These men, hastily assembled and trained, with new and strange weapons in their hands, have smashed German troops that have been forty years in the training. Our boys do not learn readily when to stop fighting I In their spare time they are employed in bringing joy and hope to hearts that for four years have been filled with misery and despair. These are the soldiers of democracy, raised in the same spirit in which w6 are raising dollars of democracy. The world has been awaiting the test of the permanence of democratic governments ever since the Franco-Prussian lar. The day of that test has now come. Our any, hastily raised, under the providLons of the most democratic statute ever passed by the Congress, faces Prussian armies which have been educatedjaad trained for the purpose of destroying the only power that Germany fears - the power of enlightened and free peoples of whatever race. This anqr of ours, once characterised as ridiculous, is there to meet the test. And is now on its way to Berlinl Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - 5 - The tine is coning when our great Military effort will be crowned with victory* The work of a great aray (of sen and of dollars) in the military sense wfll be concluded. When that day arrives, there will than be disclosed to the world at their true value those motives and purposes which, in the excitement and anxle'ty of war have not been wholly apparent. Our own purpose can be made unmis­ takably clear* An unselfish, generous people can well afford their share of help to rebuild a devastated florope. The sorrows of this war will not disappear until cottages are rebuilt, fans are put aider cultivation, and fruit trees are replanted. Cities aust be restored and the opportunity afforded to those who have suffered the severest penalties of the war to return to their peaceful occupations with some hopfi of contentment. Our inediate task is to raise monegr to win the war. That we Bust do. But we can also show our people the bitterness of suffering which we have escaped and others have felt. Our work has a loftier purpose than military victory alone. Germany and Austria have made mazy and vital mistakes, but their crowning Achieve* aent in stupidity was in their misj udgment of the people of this country. They .must have analyzed our character by some intellectual formula which they use for a stucfcr of the Gera an mind. What they should have used was a stethoscope, and they might thus have discovered the American heart* On April 6, 1917, this country entered the war, not as a ailitary nation, not with a great any and navy, but with a moral force that is greater than either* And what we are doing now comes from that heart that Germany failed to discover* Great armies and great loans are being raised; ships built, and the business of the nation reorganised for war* This is being done in the spirit of a righteous crusade* And in the same spirit our mtian is talcing world leadership for humanity, and it is again in this same spirit that the war will be won* We have been led through a maze of difficulties Into the presence of a greater and nobler nation* We have discovered that the altruism of America can survive the brutalising effects of war* And tills great conception of an unselfish people and Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - 6 - of a nobler America has been revealed to us by the unerring vision of the President of the United States. And our appeal is no less to the heart than the parse. This is the Bessage of the Liberty Loan Committee to the people of this district* The people of this great district have not failed us in the past, and will not do so nowl When these things that I have mentioned are done, the mission of the American Any, and of the Liberty Loan, «±11 have bean gloriously accomplished. Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Benjamin Strong (1918, September 26). Regional President Speech. Speeches, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_19180927_benjamin_strong

@misc{wtfs_regional_speeche_19180927_benjamin_strong,
  author = {Benjamin Strong},
  title = {Regional President Speech},
  year = {1918},
  month = {Sep},
  howpublished = {Speeches, Federal Reserve},
  url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_19180927_benjamin_strong},
  note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}