The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-08
Up to Consumers to Help if They Expect to Get
 Any Relief PRAISES AGE-HERALD FOR ITS AID TO CAUSE Several Hundred Representative PeO- pie Greet Noted Woman at Re- ception Rendered Her Yes
 terday by Age-Herald

The message of crop diversification as one means of reducing the high cost of living was carried to several
 hundred prominent men and women of Birmingham yesterday afternoon by
 Mrs. G. H. Mathis. who spoke at the I Tutwiler hotel
 Mrs. Mathis appeared under the aus
 pices of The Age-Herald and the crowd
 that came to hear her speak bore silent tribute to her pulling power and that of the paper that presented her. She spoke for about an hour and held the attention of the audience every ! minute.
 Mrs Mathis was introduced by Frank Willis Barnett. associate editor Of The Age-Herald, as the Joan of Arc in the agricultural industry, and as the person who would lead the people of Alabama out of the wilderness. In opening her speech Mrs. Mathis
 made a plea for the cultivation of the thousands of acres of land that arc now lying idle in Alabama. MUST SHOW THE FARMERS eve must show the farmers that they can make living," she said. "We must make living conditions on the farm good for them and 50 prosperous that not only those who are there will want to remain, but those who have left will want to go back.
 "The high cost of living is going to be higher,'' she said, "unless we people of Alabama band together and go behind the producer and make a market for the crops he will raise. There are too many consumers in the state for the product yielded from the farm.o She stressed the point that no great forward agricultural movement was ever started by the farmers and that the consumers must start the move-
 ment. which would ultimately work for their good. She declared that the
 method of farming in Alabama was
 wrong and that the farmers should
 be encouraged to steer away from the one crop idea.
 You can't make one thing pay all
 the bills" she said. She declared that
 more than 100000 men have left Ala
 bama because they could not make a living here and that 1t would have
 been an easy proposition for them to not only make living, but to help feed the remainder of Alabama if they
 had only known the right system
 There ought not to be one single farm product imported into Alabama Mrs. Mathis said. "It is our business to get together and work together and show the farming people of Ala bama that as good products can be raised here as anywhere and those practically all the year round" Mrs. Mathis deplored the growing tendency among American people to run after amusement and diversion. She declared that the American people are the most wasteful on earth. She also referred to the efforts made from time to time to help foreign countries and made a plea for help among the people of Alabama.
 'YOu have heard the voice across the ocean calling" she said. "Have you heard the voice of your own people in Alabama:' She declared if the consumer would work with the producer in an effort toward $4O,0OO.OOO could be saved Alabama in less than 12 months, and said this had been demonstrated during the Alabama crop diversificatiOn campaign.
 "It seems strange that you have to go out and persuade the Ala bama farmer to grow his own land what he needs to feed him. self, hut 1t is quite true"