New Britain herald., 1917-04-16
PRESIDENT APPEALS TO NATION FOR COOPERATION
Urges His Fellow Counrymen to Speed Their Energies in Field and Factory to Ensure Success
 for the Stars and Stripes. s.


 abundant food, alike for tho 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 and large proportion of the people of Europe must rely upon the hafvests in America.
 Upon the farmers of this country, therefore, ir' large measure reSts the fate of the war and the fate of the nations. May the nation not count upon them to omit no step that will increase the production of their land or that will bring about the most ef- fectual cooperation in the sale and distribution of their products? The time is short It is of the most inn perative importance that everything possible be dcre. and done imme- dlatelN. to make sure of large har- vests. I call upon young mon and old alike and upon the ablebodied boys of the land to accept and act upon this duty--to turn in hosts rc the farms and make certain that no pains and no labor is lacking in this great mat ter.
 "I particularly appeal to the far mers of the south to plant abundant foodstuffs. as we'll as cotton. They can show their patriotism in no better or more convincing way than by re- sisting the great temptation of the present price of cotton and helping, upon great scale, to feed the nation and the peoples everywhere who are fighting for their liberties and for our own. The variety of their crops will be the visible measure of their comprehension of their national duty.
 "The government of the United States and the government of the several states stand ready to CO., operate. They will do everything possible to assist farmers in securing an adequate supply of seed, an adequate force of laborers when they are most needed, at harvest time, and the means of expediting shipments of fertilizers and farm machinery, as well as of the crops themselves when harvested. The course of trade shall be as unhampered as it is possible to make it, and there shall be no un- warranted manipulation of the na- tion's food supply by those who handle it on it's way to the consumer. HIS IS OuT OppOTtUulV IO strate the efficiency of a great. demo- cracy, and we shall not fall'sffort of it!
 "This let me say to the niddlemen of every sort, whether they are handling our foodstuffs or our raw materials of manufacture or the pro- ducts of our mills and factories: The eyes of the country will be especially upon you. This is your opportunity for signal service, efficient and disin- terested. The country expects you, as it expects all others, to forego un- usual profits, to organize and expedite shipments of supplies of every kind, but especially of food, with an eye to the service you are rendering and in the spirit of those who enlist in the franks, for their people mot for them selves. I shall confidently expect you to deserve and win the confidence of people of every sort and station
 ''To the men who run the railways of the country, whether they be man. agers or operative employees, let mo say that the railways are the arteries of the nations life and that upon them rests the immense responsibility of seeing to it that those arteries suffer no obstruction of any kind, no ineffciency or slackened power. To the merchant let me suggest the motto, Small profits and quick ser vice. and to the shipbuilder the thought that the life of the war de- bends upon him. The food and the war supplies must be carried across the seas, no matter how many ships are sent to the bottom. The places of those that go down must be supplied, and supplied at once. To the miner let me say that he stands where the Fx,n ,Iy J waits on him. If he slackens or fails. armies and statesmen are helpless. He also is enlisted in the great Service Army The manufacturer does not need to be told, hope, that the nation looks to him to speed and per- feet every process; and want only to remind his employees that their service is absolutely indispensable and counted on by every man who loves the country and its liberties.
 'Let me suggest, also, that every l one who creates or cultivates a gar-I den helps, and helps greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of the { nations: and that every housewife who 1 practices strict economy puts herself in the ranks of those who serve the 1 nation. This is the time for Am erica | to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance. ~ Let every man and every woman assume 1 the duty of careful, provident use and ] expenditure as a public duty as dic- tate of patriotism which no one can i now expect ever to be excused or for 1 given for ignoring. .<f
 Tn the hope that this statement of the needs of the nation and of the ! world in this hour of supreme crisis ! may stimulate those to whom it ! comes and remind all who need re- hinder of the solemn duties of time such as the world has never seen be- fore, beg that all editors and pub fishers everywhere will give as promi-