The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1917-10-01
MOST URGENT NEED
IN NORTH CAROLINA
CITIZENS MUST SEE THAT PRE-
VENTABLE FIRES ARE REDUC-
ED TO MINIMUM.
ABUNDANT HARVEST READY
Every Farmer, Farm Wife, Girl, Boy
and Employee on Farm Must See
That No Food Crops Are Destroyed
BY Fire.

Recent reports from sections OF
North Carolina telling of alleged up
risings against the selective draft,
when sifted down proved to be purely
unproven rumors or cases of protest
made by persons thoroughly ignorant
of the law providing for the selective
draft. It is unfortunate that the re-
port should have gone out to newspa-
pers throughout the nation leaving the
impression that there might be an
organized protest or protest of any
proportion from North Carolina against
a condition such as the country now
faces. North Carolina is fortunate in
being more than 80 per cent. Ameri-
can. Recent war census figures show
that less than one per cent OF the
population of the state is foreign
born. The people Of North Carolina
will be found always ready to support
the powers that have charge of the
conduct of the war that has been
thrust upon America.
In some parts of the country serious
complications have arisen with indus
t11dA SONAo1AoLAS VI 6oAAAeAIAoA0. OCS%SO
and county officials and in some in
stances troops have had to be called
to cope with the situation. In the
Dakotas army officers have been warn
ed of an organized plot to destroy
great crops of grain as it is harvested
and stored. Throughout various parts
of the country have come reports of
arrests of supposed German spies or
pro-German agitators. But none of
this sort of activity has been reported
in North Carolina so far.
There remains but one enemy of the
people of North Carolina and that
enemy by proper effort is the easiest
of them all to cope with It is care
lessness. Abundant crops are now
ready to harvest or have already been
harvested. The urgent need in North
Carolina is what may be termed a
burning need. It is that every
farmer, every farm wife, every farm
employee, every boy and every girl on
every farm in the state should use
every care to see that these food crops
and this cotton is protected against the
danger of destruction by fire.
North Carolinians have little to fear
from alien enemies or their sympa-
thizers because there are few il any
here. Incendiary fires are few and
those that occur are the outgrowth of
personal enmity and not the acts of
enemy agents. It is incumbent upon
Pifiznn fn no ,foh IL
fires are reduced to minimum. Every
ounce of food destroyed or unnecesari.
ly consumed is an ounce of treason
ignorantly or Intentionally committed.
The fact that insurance is carried
| and that the value Of the burned food
stuffs may be collected in money does
| not even tend to mitigate the loss.
When foodstuffs burn in time like
this money will not replace it. Every
| ounce of foodstuffs produced is needed
| somewhere while thousands are sui.
fering from the lack of sufficient food.
! The duty which so plainly faces North
| Carolina is the duty to guard against
themselves. A little care and the
practice Of ordinary precaution against
the destruction by fire of crops in
barns and warehouses will conserve
the foodstuffs that the promised boun.
tiful crops will yield. 1t is the duty
of each to see that carelessness does
not permit their destruction. If North
Carolina crops are destroyed in barns
or in storage it will not be by the
hand of an alien enemy or an cratic
pacifist for there are none of this class
roaming this section. Nor will it be
IAN act of Providence" but the inevi-
table result of purely human negli