The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1917-04-19
SUPREME TEST OF COUNTRY
HAS COME AND ALL MUST
SPEAK, ACT AND SERVE
TOGETHER.
YOUNG AND OLD URGED
TO WORK TO RAISE FOOD
Must Supply Foodstuffs Not Only for
Ourselves But for Nations With
Whom We Have Made Com
mon Cause-Resources Must
Be Made Prolific.

Washington, April Is. = President
Wilson has issued the following per-
sonal appeal to the people of the Unit
ed States:
Text of Address.
"My Fellow CONFERENCE.-THE en-
trance of our own beloved country in
to the grim, terrible war for democ-
racy and human rights which has shak-
en- the world, creates so many prob
lens of national life and action which
call for immediate consideration and
settlement that l hope you will permit
me to address to you a few words of
earnest counsel and appeal with regard
to them.
Armament a Simple Task.
1--WE are rapidly putting our navy
on an effective war footing and are
about to create and equip a great
army, but these are the simplest parts
Of the great task to which we have
addressed ourselves. There is not a
single 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.
These then are the things we must
do and do well, besides f~ighting-the
things without which mere fighting
would be fruitless:
I'VE must not only supply abun-
dant food for ourselves and for our
armies and our seamen but also for a
large part of the nations with whom
we have now made common cause, in
whose support and by whose sides we
shall be fighting.
1--WE must supply ships by the hun
ireds out of our %shipyards to carry to
the other side of the sea, submarines
or no submarines, what will every day
be needed there and abundant ma
terials out of u fields and IL mines
and u factories with which not only
to clothe and equip our own forces on
land and sea but also to clothe and
support our people for whom the gal
liant fellows under arms can no longer
work, to help clothe and equip the
armies with which we are cooperating
in Europe to keep the looms and man
ufactories there in raw material; coal
to keep the fires going on ships at sea
and in the furnaces in hundreds of
factories across the sea; steel out of
which to make arms and ammunition
both here and there; rails for worn
out 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.
More Efficiency Needed.
1T is evident to every thinking man
that our industries, in farms, in ship
yards, in the mines. in the factories.
must be made more prolific and more
efficient than w and that they must
be more economically managed and
better adapted to the particular re-
quirements of our task than they have
been; and what l want to say is that
the men and the women who devote
their thought and their 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 a great national,
a great international reserve army
a notable and nonored 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 service
will of right and of necessity be e
cused from that service and assigned
to the fundamental, sustaining work of
the fields and factories and mines,
and they will be as much part of the
| great patriotic forces OF the nation al
the men under fire.
Addresses the Farmers.
81 take the liberty therefore of ad-
dressing this word to the farmers of
the country and to all who work on
the farms. The supreme need of our