The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-17
KANSAS BEHIND
nation WITH BIG
FOOD FACILITIES
State Defense Council Plans to
Meet Emergencies.
Organization for Full COnSer-
vatiOn of All Industry.
EVERY ACRE TO Be UTILIZED
Funds With Commission to
Care for Farm Needs.
"Fast Day" Was Declared BY
Hard Working Body Today.

COlN
Mobilization of banking and business in
terests.
Statewide seed survey.
Employment of college and high scnooi
Fund of S1OO 900 to S5OO.O00 at disposal of
commission to meet farm needs
Extra credits by banking interests.
utilization back yards and town lots for
truck farming.
Promotion of live stock breeding and con-
servation meat supply.
State support for dependents OF enlisted
Organization home guards for protection
local property.
encouragement home economics.
Prevention food speculations-
Cooperation with Red Cross organizations
encouragement army and navy enlistments
Publicity campaign.
Use of all state institutions and depart
ments in meeting food crisis.
Extension of organization to every county
in state.
Refusing to recess for lunch and
keyed to the highest interest pitch,
members of the state defense council
are this afternoon preparing posi-
tive, definite and thorc program for
meeting the food crisis Equal inter-
est centers in the organization OF, the
state for the war crisis, with a consid-
Grafton for conservation of every in
dustry and the utilization Of every
acre of available soil for crop produc-
ton. More than twenty five OF the
thirty members of the council are at
tending the conference in Governor
Capper's office.
Chairman Waters declared this a
fast day. with the Kansas council
of defense and without meat or wa
ter the delegates disregarded the
clock and worked right thru the aft
ernoon with their proposed program.
/ Members of the council went on rec
ord favoring every encourag cement to
the agricultural interests of the state
They voted to urge farmers in wheat
producing counties to seek the pro-
duction of large crops of kaffir and
sorghum and the care of the crop thru
erection of silos. Where funds are
needed for labor, seed or machinery,
fund will be advanced.
A special committee will work out
details for the finapcial end of the crop
producing campaign. Where funds will
not be provided in adequate sums by
| local bankers, the state organization
will seek to meet the problem The
| organization will encourage the plant
| ing of every acre of abandoned wheat
land to sorghum, kaffir or some other
profitable crop. committee in
| charge of the organization and finan-
ciaI campaign is composed of Gov
ernor Capper, Topeka; w. r. Stubbs,
Lawrence; Emerson Carey. Hutch
inson; Prof. w. F. Blackmar, Law
| .
lard, Tonganoxie; Henry Lassen,
Wichita, and D. ]. Fair, Sterling.
Utilize Every Acre.
Governor Capper. who presided at
| the formal opening of the council
outlined many of the foregoing plans
| for the commission. Other suggestions
| of needs came from individual mem
bers The governor declared Kansas
should meet the food situation thru
the utilization of every available acre
of soil and should make home econ
omics a fashion and should encourage
economy in the homes of the rich
Army at Home.
Henry ]. Waters, president of the
state agricultural college and chair
I man of the defense council, was NAM
! ed as permanent chairman of the
| meeting. He said that 96 per cent
of the residents of Kansas would stay
at home during the European war
These men and women should be or.
ganized into an army both for home
defense and for cultivation of the soil
1T is our surplus food which must
win this war" President Waters told
members of the council To meet de-
mands, he predicted, the federal gov
ernment will within a few days pro-
vide funds for the department of ag-
riculture. Some of these funds will be
available in Kansas. ITO meet de.
mands," he said. 1--WE must make as
elaborate pldnS LOT enllSllHS men lOl
labor as for war
Use Boys and Girls.
Boys and girls in the schools should
be enlisted for work in canning fac
tories or at gardening pursuits, SAID
President Waters. During the food
crisis, he declared, the government
would doubtless fix a minimum price
for the producer and a maximum price
for ths consumer The burden of the
defense council rested in increasing
the production. Seeds for planting
would probably be furnished by the
government and organizations fol
farm work should extend to ever!
county. President Waters outlined
plans for subdivisions of the counci
to direct work in agriculture, mining
industrial pursuits. banking anC
finance, labor, transportation and pub
licity-
Douglas County's Example.
Prof w. F. Blackmar Of the stat