Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-05-10
IN THE HANDS OF THE FARMERS

From his home in Milford, Pa, Gif
ford Pinchot sends the following letter
to The Democrats:
In this great time, when every citi
zen must do his part, the President
has made his chief appeal to the men
who live on the land. He is right in
doing so, for the safety Of our country
Just now is in the hands Of our farm
ers What I mean is not merely our
matter Of food. [ mean that the safety
Of the United States against foreign
invasion hangs on the decision Of the
farmers Of the forty eight states.
The two great weapons in this war
are arms and starvation. The war
against German arms will be won or
lost in France-the war against starva
ton will be won or lost in America.
The Kaiser cannot whip the French
and English armies and the English
navy while England has food. But it
| is still possible that the German sub
marines may be able to keep food
enough from reaching England to
! starve her into submission.
If the submarines win, the first item
i'll the Kaiser's terms Of peace will be
the English fleet. With the English
| fleet in his possession, the Kaiser will
be master Of the world.
! What will happen to us then? Every
man who stops to think knows the
answer We shall have money, food,
labor, land, Everything that is destr-
able in the world except the power to
protect what we have. Experts esti-
mate that it will take us nine months
to get ready to meet a German army of
even 100000 men, with modern artil
| lery. Under such circumstances,
would the Germans treat us better than
they have already treated Belgium and
| France2
Even if the armies of our allies
should crush the German military
Bower UIl1S 5ul1Ll1 DCLOIC z llIC olACA Ctt7C
Of food can reach the point Of want,
the world would still need vast quanti
ties of American food. But if they do
not, only one course can make us safe,
and that is to grow food enough on our
farms for ourselves and our allies,
and to put ships enough on the sea to
carry the food, in spite of the submar
ines, to the men who are fighting our
fight.
IF the war lasts beyond this summer,
it will be the American farmer who
will win or lose the war, who will
overcome militarism and autocracy, or
allow them to spread and control the
world, ourselves included.
This is no fanciful picture, but sober
fact. Many a man will make light OF
il until he comes to think it over, but [
venture to say that few will treat it
lightly after careful thought. 1t is no
more impossible than the great war it
self appeared to be, only few days
before it began.
1t is true that we can greatly increase
the available food supply out of grain
now used in making liquors and by
reducing household waste. But when
these two things are done, and done
thoroughly, they will not be enough.
The final decision will still rest in the
hands of the men who raise our food in
the first place.
The clear duty of the nation is to
guarantee the farmers fair price for
their crops when grown, and reason
able supply of labor at harvest. The
clear duty of the farmer is to raise food
enough to win this war for democracy
against Kaiserism.
No such responsibility has ever rest
ed on any class of men since the world
began as rests today on the farmers OF
America.