The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1917-05-04
PRESIDENT APPEALS TO
PATRIOTISM OF CITIZENS
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Russia have usually supplied them
selves but cannot now afford the men,
the materials, or the machinery to
make.
It is evident to every thinking man
that our industries, on the farms, in the
shipyards, in 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 to the particular require
ments of our task than they have been;
and what I 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 effective
as the men on 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 honored host
engaged in the service of the nation
and the world, the efficient friends are
saviors OF free men 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 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 as the
men under fire.
I 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
we are cooperating is an abundance OF
supplies, and especially of food stuffs.
The importance of an adequate food
supply, especially for the present year,
is superlative. Without abundant food,
alike for the armies and the peoples
now at war, the whole great enterprise
upon which we 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 rely upon
the harvests in America. Upon the
farmers of this country, therefore, in
large measure, rests the fate of the war
and the fate of the nations. May the
nation not count upon them to omit no
step that will increase the production
OF their land or that will bring about
the most effectual cooperation in the
sale and distribution of their products2
The time is short. 1t is Of the most
imperative importance that everything
possible be done and done Immediately
to make sure of large harvests. I call
upon young men and old alike and up
on the able bodied boys of the land to
accept and act upon this duty,-to
turn in hosts to the farms and make
certain that no pains and no labor is
lacking in this great matter.
I particularly appeal to the farmers
of the South to plant abundant food
stuffs as we'll as cotton. They can
show their patriotism in no better or
more convincing way than by resisting
the great temptation of the present
price of cotton and helping, upUu a
great scale. to feed the nation and the
peoples everywhere who are fighting
for their liberties and for our own. The
variety of their crops will be the visible
measure OF their comprehension Of
duty.
The Government OF the United
States and the governments OF the
several States stand ready to cooperate.
They will do everything possible to
assist farmers in securing an adequate
supply of seed, an adequate force Of
laborers when they are most needed,
at harvest time, and the means OF
expediting shipments Of fertilizers and
farm machinery, as we'll as OF the crops
themselves when harvested. The
course of trade shall be as unhampered
as it is possible to make it and there
shall be no unwarranted manipulation