The Mena weekly star., 1917-08-16
NEEDED LESSON.
By F. w. Barber

With the clouds of war looming darkiy over the country; with plots and counter plots against the peace of our people; with food disturb ances III the large cities; and with the price booster stalking abroad in the land, truly it is a time when the sober sense of the American people should be called into use.
 But We are unlike any other peo- pie on the globe. There seems to be something in the very air we breathe that makes for a different outlook on life from that of any other country. No other land can Vie with Us in the yastness of our resources. The increase in our na- tional wealth during the last two decades would make Croesus appear a plker; and beside our own mag nliicence the glories of Solomon are as the moonlight to the radiant orb of day. Our strength and our re- sources are boundless and limitless
 But because of these very facts We find ourselves as people standing on the very brink of na- tional disaster.
 We are the most confidently careless people on earth, hence we find ourselves now engaged in a gi- ganiic conflict and lamentably un- prepared for teh task before us. What boots us that our resources III men and material are so vast? Those resources are as the latent heat of the eoal-undeVeloped and unmoDilized. A strenuous cam paign of preparation is on, but the one absolutely essential element time is in great measure denied us.
 Then we are the most magnif- gently wasteful people in the world. Beside our national extravaganza. the prodigaiiy of kings is as pinch ing economy. And this trait. too, is ! threatening Co be our undoing. Hay ing by our own royal extravaganza consumed much, and by shipment from the country consumed much more, We find ourselves facing de- mand for unlimited supplies with practically empty storehouses. What matters it that other crops may be raised? That same element time may he denied us e'er the insistent demand is upon us.
 The remedy Several
 In Tha fpaf ,,fa.. ,x-r,,t that is urgently needed in this coun- try But perhaps you say that the European nations must be fed. Granted But are we under obliga- tions to feed them and let our own people suffer for food? And was it by any act of ours that the bulk of their men are no wfighting when they should be at peace and produc- ing2 II is well to care for our al lies 10 the limit of possibilities hut our own interests must take pre-
 edenee.
 Next get after the price booster If there is any particular class of humans if such they can be called
 to whom prison garb would be actually becoming, 1t is these gen. try Without mercy themselves, they deserve none: without pity, they can expect nutic. Void even of a sense of justice. they should have meted out to them the justice of ''an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
 Then let America go to work in earnest work with the soil Let us not be satisfied with increased crops this season. but let us plan for even greater increases for years to come, in order that the nations of the earth may be fed and we still have enough left for our consumption.
 And when we produce it let us conserve it and not waste it.
 If the experiences through which we are passing shall have the eff feet of teaching us a rational econ omy. they will be we'll worth the price. If is a lesson we need and should heed.