The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1917-04-20

of the United States:
Ny Fellow Countrymen: ~
The entrance of our own beloved country into
the grim and terrible war for democracy and
human rights which has shaken the world creates
so many problems of national life and action
which call for immediate consideration and settle
ment that / hope you will permit me to address
TO you few words of earnest counsel and appeal
with regard to them.
We are rapidly putting our navy upon an eiiec-
tive war footing and about 10 create and
equip 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. TO do
this great thing worthily and successfully we
must devote ourselves to the service without re-
gard to profit or material advantage and with
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 and elements Of capacity
and service and self-sacrfce it involves
These, then, are the things must do and
do well besides fighting g-the things without
which mere fighting would be fruitleSs
We must supply abundant food for ourselves
and for our armies and seamen not only; but
also, for a large part of the nations with whom
we have now made common cause, in whose sup
port and by whose sides we shall be fighting
We must supply snlps by the hundreds out
OF our shlpyards carry TO The other 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 cothe and equip our own forces
on land and but also TO clOthe and support
our people for whom the gallant fellows under
arms longer work; to help clothe and
equip the armies with which are cooperating
IN Europe and TO keep the looms and manufac
tories there IN materials: coal to keep the
fires going In ships at sea and IN the furnaces of
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"rghting fronts: locomotives and rolling stock
to take the place of those every day gong to
pieces mules horses, cattle for labor and for
military service everything with which the
people Of England and France and Italy and Rus
sia have usually supplied themselves but cannot
now afford the men, the materials or the machin-
cry to make.
1t is evident to every thinking man that our
industries, the farms, IN the shipyards III the
mines in the factories, must be made more prolific
and more efficient than ever and that they must
be more economically managed and better adapted
they have been: and what | want to say is that
the men and the women who devote their thought
and their energy to these things will be serving
the country and conducting the fight for peace
and freedom just as truly and just as effectively
as the men the battlefield or in the trenches
The industrial forces of the country, men and
women alike, will be great national, great
international service army-a notable and hon
ored host engaged in the service of the nation and
the world, the efficient friends and saviors of
free man everywhere. Thousands, nay, hundreds
of thousands of men otherwise liable to military
service will, of right and of necessity be excused
from that service and assipned 70 the fundamental
sustaining work of the fields and factories and
mines, and they will be much part OF the great
patriotic forces of the nation the men under fire.
/ take the liberty therefore, of addressing
this word to the farmers of the country and TO
all who work on the farms. The supreme need
of our own nation and Of the nations with which
cooperating is an abundance Of supplies
and especially Of foodstuffs
The Importance Of an adequate food supply,
especially for the present year, is superlatiye.
Without abundant food, alike for the armies and
the peoples now at war, the whole great enter
prise upon which have embarked will break
down and fail The worlds food reserves are low.
Not only during the present emergency but for
some time after peace shall have come both our
own people and large proportion Of the people
of Europe must ref'upon the harveSts in America.
Upon the farmers of this country, therefore,
in large measure rests the fate OF the and the
fate of the nations. May the nation not coz S1t
upon them to omit no step that will increase the