The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1917-04-13
Friday, April 18th, 1917
eight OR WORK." SAYS Mr..
GRAIN.

That there must be no shirkers
while the Nation is in a state OF
war was emphasized by Robert
Crane, Chairman of the Exten-
sion Committee of the State
Board of Agriculture, and a
large land owner in Charles
County, in a statement to extern
sion workers Tuesday. Mr.. Grain
said, ITO meet the demand for
food here and abroad, believe
there should be an immediate
survey made in every State of
the untitled land available for
crop production. In Maryland
this survey should be made by
the authorities of the State Col
lege Of Agriculture cooperating
with the Council for National
Defense. Each county should
be surveyed at once so that we
may know the amount of I'M
titled land available and what
crops it is suited to produce. In
time of war we cannot allow any
good crop-producing lands to lie
idle. This information should be
reported to our State College of
Agriculture as promptly as pos
sible. through its field agents
and workers, as a matter of first
Importance to the State. This
will enable the Council for
National Defense to take i'm
mediate steps for tilling this land
and producing the needed crops.
Food production in Germany is
limited by the area available.
In this country we have thous-
ands of acres lying idle, more
good farming land unused than
all the land in Germany put to-
gether. AS soon as the survey
of these lands is completed, the
State and Federal Governments
should make them produce. The
strong arm of the Government
should be used to provide the
necessary labor to till these lands.
There must be no bread lines in
the cities this winter. Every
able bodied man must fight or
work. I would have the Govern
ment put a tag on every man.
Mark him either Fighter" or
worker. We should know
that every man is doing a service
Tor his country. 1.-The is already
a worker Of any kind, banker or
bootblack, mark him. Have him
recorded as worker. If a man
is a loafer, any or all Of the time
in the city or in the country, find
out what he can do. If he can
fight, enlist him. If he can't
fight, tag him as a worker and
put him to work. If he consum-
es food he must produce food or
else fight. We must have no
idlers to feed. Iwould make our
slogan FIGHT OR WORK."
This plan will give US the need
ed labor to work the untitled
lands and provide against short
age of labor in the harvest sea-
son. When the country boy
volunteers, as he will certainly
do, there will be some to take
his place on the farm. He will
know, too, that no idlers in the
city or country will have to be
fed without working while he is
IN the army service. The men
OF the country have been our
backbone in time of war in the
past. They will be the backbone
OF our fighting machine now, but
we do not want them fighting
unless every other able-bodied
man is fighting with them or
working to feed them, and the
dependents they have left at
nome. No man should be left in
the city who is not usefully en-
ployed. If he can't fight, he can
learn to pillow, grub and pitch
hay, as we'll as the country man
can learn to shoulder and fire a
gun. Neither should an idle
man be left in the country while
there is land to work or crops to
harvest. Put him to work.
When the crops on these un-
titled lands are harvested they
should be supplied direct to the
army and navy, or offered to
the consumer at a living price.
There should be only one buying
and selling. In war time we
must have no waste of food or
delay in supplying it, where it is
needed, at the least possible cost.
We must see to it that our army
is fed and our workers are fed.
There is no room for profit or
speculation between the producer
and the consumer. Every man
must be enlisted as a fighter or
worker. This must be done if
we are to maintain production
and feed our people. All until
ed farm lands must be put under
cultivation. The needed crops
must be titled and harvested.
Every man must work or fghtw