Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-16

I'LL spoon~
4 ~ In the great fight for the
food of today the devil is the kaiser
and Uncle Sam has one of the chief
seats at the table. He has score of
spoons on each side his plate, and some
of them are exceedingly long. In my
letters about the great American In
dustries I have shown how many OF
them surpass those of the kaiser, and
the spoon 1 write of today is the long
est of all. / refer to the corn crop. 1t
is a vital factor in our fight with the
Germans. In the shape of grain, hour,
money and meat. 1t is filing our banks,
our warehouses and the ships which
are crossing the ocean loaded with
food for our allies in Europe. There IS
nothing like it on the face of the globe.
1t Is the greatest crop of all time and
all nations, and upon it today are
founded our hopes for the future.
Have you any idea what the corn
grown in the United States this year
will amount to? / have before me the
latest estimates of the Agricultural De-
partment. From it's statisticians. scat
tered throughout every corn raising
section of the Union, 1t has figured up
the possibilities. 1t estimates the
amount at just about 3,200,000. 900 bush.
els. and you cannot buy bushei OF II
anywhere for less than $40. The av-
erage price November 1 was $1.46 per
bushel. The total value of the crop 10
more than four billion dollars. II II
were turned into gold eagles. worth
$50 each, there would be 200 .00o, 600 OF
them, SO many that II the Wandering
Jew, who Is supposed to live forever.
had sat down before a pile OF such COLO
pieces one hundred years before the
pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and
connted a gold piece to the minute,
from then until now, he would be still
on the job.
The sum is SO great that before the
war began it would have PAID .. ). our ea
public debt four times over 1t IS SO
great that it will pay the interest,"
on any debt we are likely to incur. Al
S per cent it would equal the DIVIDENDS
on more than eighty billion doiials.
The crop this year is equal in value 10
all the money we had in circulation In
1916 It is equal to more than nail
the value of all our farm animals, and
to more than that of all the manu-
features we exported last year.
Looking upon our corn fields as one
great gold mine, we shall get out OF
them in single year more than SIX
teen times as much as all the precious
since we bought that. country of the
Russians We shall get forty times as
much as all the gold mined in the
United States within the past twelve
gold taken out Of South Africa since
the precious metal was discovered at
johannesburg many years ago. me
total is more than eight times as great
as all the gold and silver product or
the whole earth in any one year since
the world began. Moreover. we shall
have just as much from the same mine
next year, and for every year during
news itself. Like the widows cruise. 1t
is always full. and 1t will feed the
United states to the end of time.
And now look again at the magnitude
of the crop and consider the mighty
mass Of foodstuffs of which 1t is made.
A single grain of corn planted in the
earth often yields more than IL thousand
fold. have raised many an ear on my
farm in Virginia which had more than
800 kernels on the cob, and / have
had two or three ears on single stalk.
The volume Of the corn crop is beyond
comprehension. To say that it meas
ures more than 1900, 000, 900 bushels of
shelled corn gives no idea of its i'm
mensity. To see what the figures mean.
let US load the corn upon wagons. We
shall put forty bushels, or more than
ton, in each wagon. Such q load would
be enough for two horses. We shall try
to load the whole crop and shall start
the PROCESSION eastward, putting the
noses of the horses at the tailboards of
the wagons in front of them, allotting
to each team forty feet on the roadway.
How far away do you think the first
wagon would be when the last wagon
was moving. Suppose we start at the
Mississippi river. would it be in Pitts
burgh on the other side of Ohio? No. In
Boston on the coast of the Atlantic? No.
Suppose we could bridge the ocean.
would 1t be where our Army is fighting
in France? No. Tho caravan would
reach far beyond that. It would extend