Meade County news., 1917-04-26
PRESIDENT MAKES
PERSONAL APPEAL
Urges Unity Among American
Citizens TO Preserve the
Nations Ideals.
SAYS SUPREME CRISIS IS HERE
Simplest Part Is Getting Army and
Navy-Important Work for
Farmers of Country.

Washington.-In a personal appeal
addressed to his fellow countrymen
President Wilson calls upon every
American citizen-man, woman and
child-to join together to make the
nation a unit for the preservation of
Its ideals and for the triumph of DEM
ocracy in the world war.
"The supreme test of the nation has
come" says the address. 1--WE must
all speak, act and serve together"
Putting the navy on a war footing
and raising a great army are the SIM
plest parts of the great task ahead,
the President declares, and he urges
all the people, with particular empha-
sis on his words to the farmers, to
concentrate their energies, practice
economy, prove unselfish and demon
strate effectively.
my Fellow Countrymen:
1.-THE entrance of our beloved country
into the grim and terrible war for de-
mocracy and human rights which has
shaken the world creates so many prob
lens Of national life and action which call
for immediate consideration and settle
ment that l hope you will permit me to
address to you a few words of earnest
counsel and appeal with regard to them.
Fighting for Future Peace"
eve 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 addressed ourselves.
There Is not a single selfish element. so
far as l can see, in the cause we are fight
Ing for. We are fighting for what we be-
lieve and wish to be the rights of man
kind and for the future peace and security
Of the world.
ITO do this great thing worthily and
successfully we must devote 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 enterprise itself. We must realize
to the full how great the task is and how
many things, how many kinds and ee-
ments of capacity and service and self
sacrifice it Involves.
''These then are the things we must do
and do well, besides fighting-the things
without which mere fighting would be
fruitless:
1--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 support
and by whose sides we shall be fighting.
Some of the Great Tasks.
eve must supply ships by the hum
dreds out of our shipyards to carry to the
other side of the sea, submarines or no
submarines, what will every day be need
ed there, and abundant materials 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 gallant fellows under arms can
no longer work, to help clothe and equip
the armies with which we are co-operat-
ing in Europe, and to keep the looms and
manufactures there in raw materials;
coal to keep the fires 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 worn out
railways back of the fighting forces; loco
motives and rolling stock to take the
place OF those every day going to pieces
mules, horses, cattle for labor and mill
tary service; everything with which the
people Of England and Franee and Italy
selves but cannot now afford the men, the
materials or the machinery to make.
ut is evident to every thinking man
that our industries, in farms, In shipyards,
in the mines, In the factories, 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 l want to
say is that the men and the women who
devote 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 efficient
ly as the men on the battle field or In the
trenches.
The Great Service Army
1.-THE Industrial forces Of the country,
men and women alike, will be great ma
tonal, a great international service army
"a notable and honored host engaged In
tho service OF the Nation and the world.
the efficient friends and saviours Of free
men everywhere.
"Thousands-nay, hundreds of thou
sands-of men otherwise liable to mill
tary service will Of right and OF necessity
be excused from that service and assign
ed to the fundamental, sustaining 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.
II take the liberty, therefore, OF ad-
dressing this word to the farmers OF the
country and to all who work on the
farms: the supreme need Of our own Ma
tion and OF the nations with which we
are cooperating is an abundance OF sup
plies, and especially OF foodstuffs. The i'm
portance Of an adequate food supply. es-
peclally for the present year, Is super
lative. Without abundant food, alike for
the armies and the peoples now at war.
tho whole great enterprise upon which
we have embarked will break down and
fail Tho 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 a large