Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-03-28
EASTER STANDS AT THE PORTAL
OF REBORN NATURE.

EASTER STANDS AT THE PORTAL
OF REBORN NATURE.
From the clear eastern sky CLEANS
the banner of unfailing hope and the
deathless life" as Easter dawns over
the world The glorious day is about
to come and already we can feel its
invigoratilg influence summoning us
to joy and hope. who does not long
for their potent calm? Who is not
weary of the struggle with wrong,
hypocrisy, insincerity and injustice?"
And Hope is Casters first message to
us. This is the feast pre-eminent of
confident rejoicing; we feel its
soothing happiness all the more forci
bly, in contrast with the gloom and
sorrow of the preceding Lenten sea-
son.
What a happy coincidence that the
great Feast OF Easter should stand al
most at the very portal through
which reborn Nature passes to the
seasons OF promise and fulfllment;
that now when the rain washed earth
is fair with infant but triumphant
vegetation and the air is redolent of
joy at release from the stern inertia
of winter, we should celebrate the an
niversary OF the Resurrection.
The entrance OF life through death
seems to be Natures law. The giant
trees respond to the caresses of
breeze and shower, and break out with
budding shoots; grasses push their
tiny green blades through the sod;
ventursome flowers unfold their deli
cate beauty; the songsters who fed
at winters cold command have re-
turned; all Nature betokens that a
great awakening is taking place.
Let us then prepare with our need
of praise and love, to attune ourselves
to the spirit of a lauding grateful
universe.
GET THE MEN TO THE FARM.
The greatest question before the
American people today is "wherewith
shall we be fed?" We neglect to an
swer the question because we don't
have TO answer ii now. Some of us
won't even admit that 1t is a question.
It's n terrible thing, for people to
have to listen to Calamity Howler,
and read his dire prophecies, when
there are so many pleasant things to
do; but it's worse, much worse, to be
a calamity bowler; see calamity APP
preaching slowly but relentlessly and
feel that bowling is in vain.
Yet calamity is coming. We have
had a slight foretaste of it this winter.
We have had meatless days and pork
less days and wheatless days and
we've had to deprive poor Fido of the
daily Jumps of sugar he so graceful
ly poises on the end of his nose and
gobbles up on command, but what
we've had is nothing to what we will
have this time next year.
Short rations will be with us and in
stead of feeding Fido sugar we may be
appraising him with hungry and spec
ulative eyes. The question can be
stated in thirty words. We need more
food staples then we raised last year
and we're not going to raise nearly as
much as we raised last year because
the farmer can't get labor.
Does this sound like panic, like
fright, like a bogy man? Ask the
farmer. There are meetings all over
the country where men are agonizing
for help. Their planting time is upon
them. They haven't the men to plant
for them, besides why should they be
such fools as to plant what they can't
harvest? Would you start something
you couldn't finish-and lose money?
If you want more evidence, read the
papers. A great New York daily car
ried four columns of q front page ar
ticle Sunday, March 3rd. And if
you're not satisfied read the report of
the Secretary of Agriculture of the
United States, who admits this con-
dition and states that the Department
of Agriculture is doing what it can
TO cope with il and that he hopes
hopes. mind you-that the labor short
age will be met
Is this a question to be met with
hope? Is this a problem to be solved
with some city gardens, and few vol
unteer high school boys and girls TO
work on a few farms?
When war was declared with Ger
many, we called on every man be- |
tween 81 and 81 to be ready to fight |
to defend the national honor and de- |
fend our liberties. But this food |
question is a greater question than |
the war peril-The success or failure |
of the war depends on it. We must |
feed our allies and our army and navy |
or they'll have to quit cold; the BRAY |
est man alive can't fight if he's starv- |
ing. Our very lives depend on it.
Your life. Mine. The lives of all of |
us.
Consider the scientific way in which |
we went to war, and the unscientific !
way in which we go to work. We have |
met the war question fairly, to the |
best of our ability, and we're not meet