Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-04-07
War and Conservation

To the Editor of the TeIsgroph:
The great problem now in warning
countries abroad is how to feed their
people and the rations have been cut
down until thousands are starving and
many other thousands are under nour-
ished. With the thousands of producers
called to war; the food producing has
largely stopped and our country has
been called upon to help make up this
deficit, until we are facing a serious
situation in our own country by the
scarcity and high cost of food, causing
even riots in our cities. If our produc-
ers likewise are called to war greater
VIII be the trouble. 1t brings us to a
point that there must be a greater
care to conserve our resources This
can be done largely through the ELI
mination of waste and the greatest
waste to-day in America is the waste
which is brought about by the liquor
traffic. Americas drink bill alone is
50 900 100000 annually. This IN itself
is an awful waste. When we consider
the figures in the report of the COM
missioner of internal revenue for the
year ending June, 1915. that 14,2J9,-
600 bushels of corn, 2,440,000 bushels
of rye, 2.S06,000 bushels of barley,
and 1928. 100000 gallons of molasses,
besides much other food stuff. were
waste, for alcoholic liquors do not
add to the foods or gHe anything
whereby to nourish tho body. but de-
story the grains which would give
nourishment. If this money and TODD
were only wasted. 1t would not be all,
but it brings crime, insanity, disease,
inefficiency and degeneracy in its train
and it will take many generations to
overcome its curse and blight, be-
sides the great burden financially it
places upon the people to care for
these results of the traffic.
The American people have been
aroused over the horrors of people be-
ing drowned by the submarines, and as
dreadful as 1t is, yet it is nothing COM
pared to what we have been having
right in our ewn midst, by allowing
an enemy to exist which DESTROYS
neearly 1000 men a day, every day
in the year, according to statistics of
life insurance companies. Now, when
men are needed, real men (and how
many will not be able to pass the ply
social tests because they are impaired
by alcohoD should not the govern
ment stop this dreadful waste and de-
sfructior of human life as the first
safeguard to our nation?
The countries at war have all found
that alcohol hinders the efficiency and
endurance of the men and it has
lessened in every country. Speaking
in reply to a deputation of the Ship
Building Employers Federation of
England. and speaking as the chancel-
lor OF the eNchequer, discussing a
great public question, David LLOYD
George said: I'VE are fighting Ger
many, Austria and drink, and, so far
as l can see, the greatest of these
three deadly foes is drink. have q
growing conviction, based on accumu-
lating evidence, that nothing but root
and-branch methods would be of the
slightest avail in dealing with the evil.
/ believe it is the general feeling
that, II we are to settle with German
militarism, we must first of all settle
with liquor" What is true of England
may also be true of America.
III our country is to reach the high
state of efficiency it should have, it
must abolish that which is destroying
that efficiency, namely-alcohol; and
conserve our national resources, and
the greatest of these is the American
people themselves.
Patriotism does not consist only in
shouldering gun and going out to
fight foreign foe. but all may show
the greatest kind of patriotism by de-
stroying our internal foes and making
our beloved America q strong, healthy.
sober nation. Let our people demand
that this shall be done.
Ex-Governor Patterson, of Tennes-
see, says Of f-America's First Duty:
The greatest need in America to-day
is the formation OF a new national
mind, the construction of O new ma
tional conscience and a reformation
that will bring about a new nation
nation with flrmer purpose, a