The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1917-04-21
|adlv responding to the request

of the president VI sflS IHlIeo states,
the Chief deyotes considerable part
Of it's space to the following stirring
address to the people, in which the
great duty of the hour is pointed out
to every intelligent man and woman
in the nation so clearly and forcibly
that none may with reason misunder-
stand it nor with patriotism evade it,:
Washington, D. G, April Is, 1917.
NV Fellow CountryHlen:
The entrance Of our beloved coun-
try into the grim and terrible war for
democracy and human rights, which
has shaken the world, creates so many
problems Of national life and action
which call for immediate considera-
ton and settlement that ! hope you
will permit me to address to you a
few words of earnest counsel and ap-
peal with regard TO them.
We are rapidly putting our navy
upon an effective war footing and are
about to create and equip great
army, but these are the simplest parts
of the great task to which we have
addressed ourselves. There is not a
single selfish element SO far as I can
see, in the cause VI ght -,
We are fighting for what lead. !
and wish to be the rights of made o
and for the future peace and steer ina
of the world. To do this great
| worthily and successfully we must de-
vote ourselves to the service without
regard to profit or material advantage
and wich an energy and intelligence
that will rise to the level of the enter
| prise itself. We must realize to the
| full how great the task is and how
| many things, how many kinds and
| elements of capacity and service and
self-sacrifice it involves.
These, then, are the things we
must do, and do well, besides lighting
the things without which mere
fighting would be fruitless:
We must supply abundant food for
ourselves and for Our armies and our
seamen not only, but also for large
part of the nations with whom We
nave now made common cause, in
whose support and by whose side we
1 shall be fighting
We must supply ships by the hun
dreds out Of our shipyards to carry
to the other side Of the sea, sub.
marines. OF no submarines, what viii
every day be needed there, and abun
dant materials out Of our fields ant
our mines and our factories witt
which not only to clothe and equip on
own forces on land and sea, but ais
to clothe and support our people to
| whom the gallant fellows under arm
can no longer work, to help cloth
i and equip the armies with which W
i are cooperating in Europe, and kee,
/ the looms and manufactures there il
raw material; coal to keep the fire
going in ships at sea and in the ful
i naces of hundreds of factories acros
| the sea; steel out Of which to max
arms and ammunition beth here an
there: rails for Worn-out railway
back of the fighting fronts; locome
tives and rolling stock to take th
place of those every day going t
! pieces; mules, horses, cattle for ls
bor and for military service; every
thing with which the people of En-
gland and France and Italy an
Russia have usually supplied then
selves but cannot now afford the mel
the materials or the machinery I
make.
It is evident to every thinking ma
that our industries, on the far
the shipyards, in the mines;zan. A
factories. must be made moRaadsrs
and more efficient. than eve
they must be more aeaS1aEtse- stree
aged and better adopted to theApx
1icular requirements of our task tina
thew have been; and what want
| saw is that the men and the wonne
who devote their thought and the
energy to these things will be servln
! The country and conducting the figl
for peace and freedom just as trul
! and just as effectively as the men 9
| the battlefield or in the trenches. III
industrial forces Of the country, me
! and women alike, will be great nj
: tional, a great international, servIt
arnv-a notable and honored no
engaged in the service Of the matte
and the world, the efficient frien'
and sayiors of free men everyWher
Thousands, nay hundreds of tho
sands Of men otherwise liable to mi
tary service will of right and Of n
cessity be excused from that servi
md assigned to the fundament'
sustaining work Of the fields and ia
tories and mines, and they will be
much part of the great patriot
forces of the nation as the men U
ier fire.
I take the liberty, therefore, of q
dressing this word to the farmers
The country and to all who work
he farms: The supreme need OF 0
,wn nation and Of the nations WI
which we are cooperating is
abundance of supplies, and especia
Of foodstuffs. The Importance OF
adequate food supply, especially
the present year, is superlative. Wi
,ut abundant food, alike for
lrraies and the peoples now at w
the whole great enterprise UP
which we have embarked will bre
down and fail. The worlds fo
reserves are low. Not only duri
the present emergency, but for so
-ine after peace shall have come b,
our own people and large prop
ton of the people Of Europe must r
upon the harvests in America. Ur
the farmers of this country, thereto
in large measure, rests the fate
4 the war and the fate of the matte
1 Nav the nation not count upon tf
TO omit no step that viii increase
1 production of their land or that
4 bring about the most effectual CO.
d Grafton in the sale and distribution