The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-05-12
FARMERS
NV Fellow Countrymen:

The entrance OF our DeloVeu
country into the grim and terrible
war for democracy and human
rights which has shaken the world
creates 80 many problems Of nation
al life and action which calls for i'm
mediate consideration and settle
ment that l hope you will permit
me to address to you. a few words of
earnest counsel and appeal with re-
gard to them.
We are rapidly putting our navy
upon an effective war footing and
are about to create and equip a
great army, but these are the sim
plest parts of the great task to
which we have addressed ourselves.
There is not a single selfish ele-
ment, 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 secnr-
ity of the world. To do this great
thing worthily and successfully we
must devote ourselves to the ser
vice without regard to profit or ma
terial advantage and with an energy
and intelligence 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 Of elements of cap
acity and service and self-sacrifice
it involves. '1@-As-
These, then, are the things we
must do and do we'll, besides fight
ing,--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
for large part of the nations with
whom we have now made common
cause, in whose end by whose sides
we shall be fighting.
We must supply ships by the hun
dreds out Of our shipyards to carry
to the side Of the sea, submarines
or no submarines, what will every
day be needed there, and abundant
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 people 70,
whom the gallant ~ fellows unde,
arms. can longer work, to help clothe
and equip the armies with which W.
are cooperating in Europe, and ...te
keep the looms and manufacture.
there in raw material; coal to kee1
The fires going in ships at sea ane
in the furnaces Of hundreds of fac
fories across the sea; steel: out, Of
which to make arms and ammuni
ton both here and there; rails fol
worn-out railways batk of, the fight
ing fronts locomotives. and rollins
stock to take the place Of ! -thes,
every day going to pieces; mules
horses, cattle for labor and TO,
military service; everything. will
which the people Of England AM
France and Italy and Russia hav,
usually supplied themselves but can
not now afford the men, the mate
rails, or the machinery to make.
1t is evident to every thinking
man that our industries, on tn,
farms, in the shipyards, in tn,
mines, in the factories, must b.
made more prolific and more effici
ent than ever and that they mus
be more economically managed ant
better adapted to the particular re
quirements Of our task than the,
have been; and what l want to SAY
is that the men and the women VIII,
devote their thought and thei
energy to these things will be serv
ing the country and conducting tn,
fight for peace and freedom just a
truly and just as effectively as tn
men on the battlefield or in tn
trenches. The industrial forces 0
the country, men and women alike
will be great national, great in
ternational, Service Army no
table and honored host engaged il
the service of the nation and tn
world, the efficient friends and saw
iors Of free men everywhere. Thous
ands, nay, hundreds Of thousands
of men otherwise liable to militar,
service will of right and Of necessit,
b excused from that service and as
signed to the fundamental, sustain
ing work of the fields and factorie
ind mines, and they will be as nutl
ner: Of the great patriotic forces O.