The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1917-04-20
PRESIDENT APPEALS
TO LOYAL CITIZENS
AMERICANS URGED TO STAND TO-
GETHER FOR COMMON GOOD
IN WAR WITH GERMANY.
Special Appeal Made to Farmers and
Industrial Forces of the Country
to Give Freely of Service for
Benefit Of Country.

Washington. --In personal appeal
addressed to his fellow countrymen,
President Wilson, on April IL, called
upon every American citizen to Join
together to make the nation unit
for triumph of democracy In the world
war.
Putting the navy on a war footing
and raising great army are the
simplest parts Of the great task ahead,
the president declares. and he urges
all the people with particular en-
phasis on his words to the farmers to
concentrate their energies. practice
economy, prove unselishness and
demonstrate efficiency.
The president declared that 1T 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 efa-
Gent than ever and that they must
be more economically managed and
better adapted to the particular re-
quirements of our task than they have
been; and what | want to say Is that
the men and the women who devote
their thought and their energy to
these things will be serving the coun-
try and conducting the fight for peace
and freedom just as truly and just as
effectively as the men on the battle
field or In the trenches. The indus
trial forces of the country, men and
women alike, will be great national.
great international service army
notable and honorable host engaged
in the service of the nation and the
world, the efficient friends and saviors
of free men everywhere. Thousands,
nay, hundreds of thousands of men
otherwise liable to military service
| will, of right and of necessity, be ex-
cused from that service and assigned
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.
Il take the liberty, therefore, of
addressing this word to the farmers
of the country and to all who work on
the farms: The supreme need OF our
own nation and of the nations with
which we are cooperating Is an abun
dance of supplies, and especially Of
foodstuffs. The importance of an AIDE
/ Quate food supply, especially for the
present year, is speculative 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 emergen
cy, but for some time after peace shall
have come. both our own people ant
large proportion of the people o.
j Europe must rely upon the harvests
in America 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 mo-
count upon them to omit no step thai
will increase the production of theil
land or that will bring about the mos
effectual cooperation in the sale ant
distribution of their food products
The time is short. 1t is OF the mos
imperative Importance that everything
possible be done and done immediate
ly to make sure of large harvestss
call upon young men and old alike ant
upon the ahle-bodied boys of the lane
to accept and act upon this duty-tt
turn in hosts to the farms and make
! certain that no pains and no labor Il
lacking in this great matter.
Il particularly appeal to the farm
ers of the south to plant abundan
foodstuffs as well as cotton. They cal
show their patriotism in no better o.
more convincing way than by resist
ing the great temptation OF the pres
ent price of cotton and helping, help
ing upon a great scale, to feed the
nation and the peoples everywher'
who are fighting for their liberties ant
for our own. The variety or thei
crops will be the visible measure o
4 their comprehension of their nationa
duty
ITO the men who run the railways
of tho country, whether they be man
. ayers or operative employees, let M,
; say that the railways are the arteries
of the nations life and that upon then
rests the immense responsibility o
seeing to 1t that those arteries suffe
no obstruction of any kind. no Incl
AGENCY or slackened power. To tn
merchant let me suggest the motto
Small profits and quick service. AM
: to the shipbuilder the thought that tn
t life of the war depends upon him. TIL
{ food and the war supplies must b
: carried across the seas no matter hoy
. many ships are sent to the bottom
The places of those that go down mus
be supplied and supplied at once. T
the miner let me say that he stand
where the farmer does; the work G
the world waits on him. If he slacl
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