The Holbrook news., 1918-07-19
FOOD AND WAR

terests-America Must Apply Every
 Resource to Meet Worlds Demand
 for Food-Labor Saving Machines
 and Man Power on the Farms Vital
 Factors in Economic crisls-Appeal
 for Government Action.
 Government action ensuring the farmers of America ample supplies of farm implements and competent farm labor Is virtually necessary to this country's future participation in the war, declare the manufacturers of farming tools and machinery in the United States. This action must be i'm mediate and radical, they say, or in 1918 the United States will fail to pro- duce foodstuffs necessary to feed the civil population of our allies and to keep the allied armies in fighting trim.
 This declaration Is made in a public statement by the National Implement and Vehicle Association, whose mem- bers manufacture most of the farming implements used in and exported from the United States. It is the Associa- tons answer to an anxious inquiry about reports of a prospective imple- ment shortage addressed to 1t in behalf of the country's farming interests by ex-Governor W. D. Hoard of Wiscon- sin, one of the leaders of American ag- riculture and publisher of Hoard's Dairyman. The statement, which Is signed by Charles S. Brantingham, Chairman of the Association's Execu- tive Committee, says:
 Unless prompt action is taken by the Government, our country will make the same mistakes that have result ed in compelling our allies to ap- peal to us to save them from famine. Unless we protect the production of labOr-saving farm machinery and the supply of skilled farm labor we, too, must soon face a shrinkage of food supplies.
 Without such action as is here sug- gested and urged, the farmers of the United States will not have enough machines or men in 1918 to meet the demands upon them.
 "We are now confronted by shortages of raw material and factory labor that will begin to be manifest in shortages of certain lines of farm machinery this fall and will result in serious shortages in many vital lines next year. Stocks on hand in important kinds of tools and machines are smaller than in nor nal years, because of earlier scarcity of factory labor and a rapidly tighten ing scarcity of all raw materials.
 Farmers have deferred during the last three years the replacing of old and badly worn tools and machines. Now, confronted by the practical cer- tainty that the war is to continue in- definitely, with attendant assurance of a heavy demand and high prices for all their products, and by an inevitable shortage of farm labor, they cannot put off longer replacements of worn out machines and the additions to equip ment necessary to increase acreage and production.
 Tt Is also essential in meeting the demand of the farmers for implements that there shall be preference in trans pOrtation for raw materials to the fac tories and for finished goods from the factories to the farms.
 "For the last ten years farm labor has been more and more difficult to secure, and now with an enormous in- crease in the demand for labor in mu- nitions factories, and the withdrawal of many young men from productive occupations, there is bound to be a shortage of farm labor such as this country has never known. In Kansas alone a vast number O. fertile acres on which the wheat crop failed will lie idle this summer, chiefly for lack of labor and partly through lack of ma chimes to replant to corn.
 "We regard 1t as vital to keep on the farms the men now there who know the business, especially the men trained in the use of labor-saving ma chinery. It would be wastefuf and foolish to let them go and afterward try to replace them with unskilled men.
 "We seek no advantage for our in- dustry over any other, but we realize and we want the public to realize that without this product and without suf- ficient labor the farmers of the United States cannot increase or even main- tain their production of foodstuffs next year. To avert the calamity that such a condition will surely produce, our in- dustry and the farming industry which 1t chiefly supports must be put upon the same preferred basis as the making of war munitions, even if other less vital industries suffer thereby for ma terials and men.
 ''These are the measures that we de- clare to be vital to the feeding of this nation and its allies next year:
 "1. That the manufacture of farm materials be given equal preference with the manufacture of war muni- tions as regards supplies of necessary raw materials.
 "2. That service to the country in farm machinery factories be consid- cred of equal importance with service in munition making plants, Govern ment or private.
 "3. That labor on the farms be con sidered as of equal importance with the production of war munitions.
 A. That the raw materials for farm ing machinery and the finished goods be given equal preference by the trans portation agencies of the country with munitions of war.