The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-11-29
PEACt FINDSAHUNGRY WORLD
CALLING ON FARMER FOR FOOD
A Stirring Address by Assistant Sec
retary of Agriculture Clarence
Ousley-Two Stories


for present supplies of food, for the
moment we conclude peace with the
central powers they will be in the mar
ket for our food, and they and half
the world around them are hungry af-
ter four years of privation.
Declaring that this situation and
the fact that 100000 men in France
hprdly could be demobilized in time
to restore normal farm labor condi-
tions for the next years planting and
cultivation, Clarence Ousley, assistant
secretary of agriculture, in an address
befor the New York Humanitarian
Sc ciety, November 5, said that city
people must help the farmers in even
larger numbers in 1919 to insure ade-
quate harvests Of food crops.
Mr. Ousley spoke of the heroism Of
the men and women on the farms; of
| their difficulties and sacrifices during
the last season, when larger crops
were produced in the face of serious
labor stringencies. He said that these
activities are not so likely to be main
tanned if there is peace next year
as they were under war patriotism this
year. Very soon, he warned, we shall
come to the basis of agricultural pro-
duction solely for the profit it offers.
Below we reprinting extracts from
the address delivered by Mr.. Ousley.
There are two stories, the first is the
most pathetic war story that has come
under our observation. If you can
read it without moist eyes You are
stoney hearted. The other-well,
read it:
"Not long ago heard war worker
relate this incident, which he had wit
messed in shell-torn France: A poor
peasant woman had returned to her
home village from which the German
despoilers had been expelled, and
found her cottage in ruins. She had
lost her husband and two sons in the
war, and her other two sons We're in
the army. Alone, but undaunted, she
set about the work of restoration and
her deft hands soon converted the
cellar into livable habitation. Then
her third son was sent back mortally
wounded and died in her arms. She
was burying this dear boy when she
received a message that her fourth
and last son was killed. She paused
but moment in her ministration to
The dead; her cheeks did not blanch
but flushed as a soldiers would in a
fierce charge; her lips did not culver
but were firmly set; no tears came to
her eyes, but they glistened with a
rev fervor of patriotism, as she
caught her breath and with uplifted
coutenance, in low and solemn tone,
as if recording an oath to high hea-
ven, she said: ''Vive la Francel"
"a few weeks ago l received a let
ter from the wife of farmer in New
York state asking advice about con-
templated transaction involving the
sale of her farm and the purchase of
another In order that I might un-
derstand the situation she described
in detail the manner of farming, the
equipment, and the intimate opera
tions. She is in the fullest sense a
a helpmeet to her husband She not
only performs the household tasks but
lends a hand in the field. In four
years she has rarely had breakfast
later than six o'clock, or supper earlier
than eight. The hours between are
her working day. Among other strik-
ing statements in her letter was this:
"July 2 / cut an acre and half of
peas and my husband pulled them
back, and July we had an eight and
one half pound boy. Since then I
have been tied to the house more or
less, but by getting the little neighbor
girl to tend baby cut twelve acres of
hay across the road on another farm
WHiiC my Hu0DdIlu was my
father draw in grain. He has to drive
four and one-half miles when he
changes work with him.
81 dare not say which of these two
women is the greater heroine-the one
suffering denial, bearing children. en-
during grief, toiling in field or fac
tory and home, but sustained by the
inspiration of immediate contact with
the greatest tragedy in human history;
the other far removed from the souni
OF sight of military spectacle, like
wise suffering denial, bearing chill
dren, but sustained by the unbroken
and unutterable instinct for sacrifice
and creation which is the unfailing
quality of her sex.
Compared with this the heroism of
the battlefield, whatever wounds it
may bring, even unto the death, is
but thrilling adventure, and other