New Britain herald., 1917-04-16


 volunteers for a great service army to help win the battles of the nation and its allies against the German Govern ment was issued by President Wilson appeal to "my fellow w-countrymen," and it set forth the vital necessity for the m mobilization of all the industrial forces of the country to produce the things necessary to help the armies in the field and the warships at sea.
 ''The supreme test of the nation has come," declared the president. We must all speak, act, and serve togeth- er.''
 The address is taken here to show that the president is more than ever determined that the commerce of the world shall not be paralyzed by the German submarine menace.
 'The food and the war supplies must be carried across the seas no matter how many ships are sent to the bot tom, he says
 Specifically, tRe appeal is addressed to the farmers. the middlemen of every sort, those who run the railways! managers and operative employees in-
 
 CTS and shipyard workers the miners, and those who cultivate gardens En- phasis is laid upon the necessity of in creased production, and the farmers of the south are urged to raise abun- dant foodstuffs, as well as cotton.
 The appeal follows:
 My Fellow Countymen:
 ''The entrance of our own beloved country or.ivo war for democracy and human rights which has shaken the world creates so many problems of national life and ac- tion which calls for immediate con- sideration and settlement that I hope you will permit me to address to you few words of earnest counsel and appeal 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 ad- dressed ourselves. There is not a sim gle selfish element so far as can see, in the, cause we are fighting for. We are fighting for what we believe and wish to be the rights of mankind and for the future peace and security of the world: To do this great thing worthily and successfully we must devote ourselves to the service with out regard to profit or material ad- vantage and with an energy and intel hgence that will rise to the level of the enterprise 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 fighting-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 large part of the nations with whom we have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose sides we shall be fighting.
 We must supply ships by the hun dreds out of our shipyards to carry to the other side of the sea, subma- rines or no submarines, what will every day be needed there, and abun- dant materials out of our fields and our mines and our factories with which not only to clothe and equip our own forces on land and sea. but also to clothe and support our peo- pie. for whom the gallant fellows un- der arms can no longer work; to help clothe and equip the armies with Which we are cooperating in Europe, and to keep the looms and manufac- tories there in raw material: coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea. and in the furnaces of hundreds of factories across the sea; steel out of which to make arms and ammuni- tion both here and there; rails for wornout railways back of the fighting fronts; locomotives and rolling stock to take the place of those every day going to pieces; mules, horses, cattle for labor and for military service: everything with which the people of England and France and Italy and Russia have usually supplied them selves, but cannot now afford the men. the materials, or the machinery to make.
 "It is evident to every thinking man that our industries, on the farms. in the shipyards, in the mines, in the factories, must be made more prolific and more efficient than ever, and that they must be more economically man. aged and better adapted to the partic- u1ar requirements of our task than they have been; and what I want to say is that the men and women who devote their thought and energy to these things will be serving the coun- try and conducting the fight for peace and freedom just as truly and just as effectively as the men on the battle field or in the trenches. The indus trial forces of the country. men and women alike. will be great national, great international service army-a notable and honored host engaged in the service of the nation and the world, the efficient friends and saviors of free men everywhere Thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands, of men otherwise liable to military servic..