Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1917-04-11
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!. PATRIOTISM j.
!. IN TWO FIELDS. i.
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(Greenville Piedmont.)

nave been deaf with that W1lliul
deafness. For many, many years the
gospel of "hog and hominy" has been
preached to them. But most Of them
have turned deaf ear to it. They
have preferred growing cotton, be-
cause it could be readily converted
into money. 1t is true that the far
mer here, there and yonder, who,
regardless Of the price cotton was
bringing, has always raised enough
food and feedstuff to supply his
needs has prospered more than his
neighbor, who depended on cotton to
buy the food and feedstuffs he need
ed, but this unanswerable object les
son has been ignored.
The South does not feed itself.
This was unwise in past years. 1t
was poor business. But, If there be
no change this year it will be a
crime-a crime against the nation as
we'll as against this section.
This country is going into war, a
world-war, the greatest world-war
this sad old earth has ever known.
And 1t now looks as if the outcome
of that war will be determined by the
food supplies of the combinations Of
powers engaged therein.
Germany recognized this fact be-
fore any other nation involved in the
world war. From the beginning, it
eXerted every effort to increase it's
production Of food and feedstuffs and
to prevent any waste thereof. 1t
went on the ration basis practically
at the very outset. The people Of
Germany are not eating near as
much AS they were before the war,
but the result does not seem to have
been any lessening of the fighting
| qualities Of the German soldier nor
of the productive energies of the CIV
ilian population.
But for this prescience, the entente
blockade, which shut off imports into
! Germany and her allies, would have
starved them and ended the war be-
| fore now.
Recognizing as fully as the entente
| the value Of hunger as an ally, the
Germans Instituted the submarine
campaign to cut Off supplies from
| entente nations. What little has
been allowed to seep through the
censors' offices shows that this sub
marine campaign has been frightfully
effective. IS
The United States Is going to the
rescue Of the entente. This country
has about as many men as Germany
and Austria-Hungary had together
at the beginning of the world-war.
Its wealth Is infinitely greater than
the combined wealth of those EN-
,pires. It's natural resources infinitely
surpass theirs. But this country has
no surplus OF food and the whole
world seems to be in the same condi-
tion. Money can do much, but 1t
cannot buy what does not exist. AM
mnnition can do much, but it cannot
win victories for armies or peoples
who have not enough food to sustain
life.
The entente nations lack money.
This country can supply it. If they
lack ammunition, our resources for
producing 1t are unlimited. They do
not lack men, but If they should, we
can supply millions Of soldiers to be-
come cannon fodder But, they
do lack food and this country can
give them no greater help than by
.mobilizing its farming so as. to supply
that lack while assuring plenty for
ourselves. This may sound prosaic,
but 1t Is true, nevertheless. The man
who raises surplus Of food will be
doing his share toward winning the
war just as the man who follows the
Stars and Stripes into battle on land
and sea.
And that brings us back to the
South. This section has not been
feeding itself. 1t is conservatively es-
timated that the South sends six hun
dred million dollars annually to the
West to buy food and feedstuffs that
it could easily raise at home did it
devote a little less attention to cot
ton. But the Sotuh must have its
smokehouscs and graneries at home
and not In the West If it Is to be fed
and not hamper this country in the
world war. All that the West can
raise will be needed to feed our
armies and help feed our allies. If
two million men are put under arms