Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-04-24
Europe Needs
Food More Than
Il Needs Men

Chicago. April 16-America should
mobilize for the production of food as
we'll as for fighting, declared Eugene
Davenport, Dean of the University of
Illinois College Of Agriculture in a
statement which he has issued defining
a plan Of the University to organize a
Civil Military Service to be composed
OF men disqualified for military service
at the front and of boys, to work on
farms rented by the government.
To show the necessity for enlistment
In this service, Dean Davenport assert
ed that there is not enough labor left
upon the land to produce what Amer
:ca should consume and that unless this
farm labor is increased. the food supply
will drop to level that may easily
prove disastrous"
In his statement, Dean Davenport
said:
For generations food has been so
abundant that it has often been actual
ly cheaper to waste than to save. But
conditions have suddenly changed-over
night as It were-and we are having
food riots not only in hungry Europe,
not only in congested New York. but in
Chicago. the very heart Of the greatest
food producing region in the world
These riots are attributed to high prc-
es, hut high prices mean something.
They do not come Of themselves. nor
when there Is an abundance of food
Therefore, when the police are called
out to put down the riots. it is we'll that
statesmen and those in authority in
quiie into the causes, particularly now
as we enter the greatest struggle in all
history.
People do not generally know that a
real shortage Of food exists. They dc
not know that the last two years have
been lean years upon the land, and that
as matters stand today, unless the com
ing season should be extremely eXcep-
tional, serious situation would con-
front us. When the food supply of Eu-
rope was cut down by the war, they
the Allies at least-could look to i'm
portation, but no such prospect is held
out to America. We are at the end of
the line. and if we fail that ends it.
People generally do not realize the
extent to which labor has beeen desert
ing the land for the last half dozen
years and erecting conditions of en-
the food supply, for the farmer cannot
operate his farm on the eight hour
plan nor according to Union rules. BY
the use Of large and still larger ma
chinery. the farmer has done the best
he could to make good the loss. He has
worked his boys early and late and still
he cannot work his acres for high
yields. Some lands are being aban-
dOned and turned into cheap pastur-
age. The writer has seen crops plowed
under. while he knows of harvests I'M
gathered because labor could not be
had for the gathering. No wonder the
farmer works twelve to sixteen hours a
day. and no wonder a considerable
number are forced back into the self
sufficient system with no hope Of work
ing the land to the best advantage
LAS we go into the greatest war Of all
time, and as our mind is on enlistment
for service at the front let every
American citizen Understandable re-
alize what it means If he can-that
there is not now enough labor left upon
the land to produce what we ourselves
should then consume. What then of
Western Europe. whose fields are dew
astated? Shall we then be driven to
importation? Very we'll. from whom
shall we import? and what? Argentina
has already placed an embargo upon
wheat The Canadian yield must de-
cline. for many a man that ran q tract
or on the plains Of Alberta and Saskat-
chewan two years ago is now but a
bundle Of bones on the battlefield of
France.
"Shali we then limit the food supply
Of the people" How then can we ex-
pect to win. for energy and power come
only from food. A hungry people never
has been and never can be a victorious
people. besides it would require more
men to enforce a restricted diet than 1t
wcxld to produce enough to turn n
scarcity into an abundance.
america has acres enough if reason
ably we'll worked to feed both herself
and western Europe. Here lies her
strength in the present struggle, II only
she Is wise enough to know 1t before
Grnrnnesf m