Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1917-05-11
PRQCH.AAdATION BY TIE PRB6G
DENT TO THE PEOPLE
Nv Observation-Disclosures:

PROC1.AnGATIoN BY TIE PRBs1-
DENT TO THE PEOPLE
Ny Fellow Countrymen:
The entrance Of our own beloved
country into the grim and terrible war
for democracy and human rights which
has shaken the world creates so many
problems of national life and action
which call for immediate consideration
and settlement that I hope you viii
permit me to address to you a few
words of earnest counsel and appeal
with regard to them.
We are rapidly putting our navy
upon an effective war footing and are
about to create and equip great
army, but these are the simplest parts
Of the great task to which we have ad-
dressed ourselves. There is not a sim
gle selfish element, so far as I can see,
in the cause we are fighting for. We
are fighting for what we believe and
wish to be the rig hts of mankind and
for the future peace and security OF
the world. To do this great thing
worthily and successfully we must de.
vote ourselves to the service without
regard to profit or material advantage
and with an energy and intelligence
that will rise to the level of the en-
terprise itself. We must realize to
the full how great the task is and
how many things, how many kinds and
elements Of capacity and service and
self-sacrifce it involves. 49,
These, then, are things we must do,
and do well, besides fighting the
things without which mere fighting
would be fruitless:
We must supply abundant food for
ourselves and for our armies and our
seamen, not only, but also for a large
part of the nations with whom we have
now made common cause, in whose sup
port and by whose sides we shall 20
fighting.
We must supply ships by the hun
dreds out of our shipyards to carry to
the other side of the sea, submarines
or no submarines, what will every day
be needed there, and abundant materi-
ais out of our fields and our mines and
our factories with which not only to
clothe and equip our own forces on
land and sea, but also to clothe and
support our people, for whom the gal
liant fellows mmder arms can no longer
work; to help clothe and equip the
armies with which we are cooperating
in Europe, and to keep the looms and
manufactures there in raw material;
coal to keep the fire going in ships at
sea and in the furnaces of hundreds of
factories across the sea; steel out of
which to make arms and ammunition
both here and there: rails for wornout
railways back of the fighting fronts;
locomotives and rolling stock to take
the place Of those every day going to
pieces; mules, horses, cattle for labor
and for military service; everything
with which the people idf England
and France and Italy and Russia have
usually supplied themselves, but can
not now afford the men, the materials,
or the machinery to make.
It is evident to every thinking man
that our industries, on the FARMS. in
the shipyards, in the mines, in the fac
tories, must be made more prolific and
more efficient than ever, and that they
must be more economically managed
and better adapted to the particular
requirements Of our task than they
have been; and what I want to say is
that the men and the women who de-
vote their thought and their energy
to these things will be serving the
country and conducting the fight for
peace and freedom just as truly and
just as effectively as the men on the
battlefield or in the trenches The in
dustrial forces of the country, men
and women alike, will be great ma
tional, great international, service
army-a notable and honored host en-.
gagged in the service of the nation and
the world, the efficient friends and
saviors Of free men everywhere.
Thousands, nay, hundreds Of thous-
ands, of men otherwise liable to mill
tsry service will Of right and of ne
cessity be excused from that service
and assigned to the fundamental, sus-
tanning work of the fields and factories
and mines, and they will be as much,
part Of the great patriotic forces of
the nation as the men under fire.
I take the liberty, therefore, of adj.
dressing this word to the farmers of
the farms: The supreme need of our
own nation and of the nations with
which we are cooperating is an abund-
ance of supplies, and especially of
foodstuffs. The Importance Of an ade.
quate food supply, especially for the
present year, is superlative. Without
abundant food, alike for the armies
and the peoples now at war, the whole
great enterprise upon which we have
embarked will break down and fail.
The worlds food reserves are low. Not
only during the present emergency, but
for some time after peace shall have
come, both our own people and large
proportion of the people of Europe
must rely upon the harvests in Ameri-
ca.
Upon the farmers of this country,
therefore, in large measure rests the
fate of the war and the fate of the
nations. May the nation not count up
On them to omit no step that will in
crease the production of their land
or that will bring about the most ef-
fectual cooperation in the sale and
distribution Of their productse The
time is short. It is of the most imper-
alive Importance that everything pos
sible be done, and done Immediately,
to make sure of large harvests. I call
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