The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1918-06-20
PEOPLE IN TOWN
TO HELP FARMER
Farm Labor Shortage Such That
Heroic Measures Are NeceS-
Sary to Save Crops.
CLUB COOPERATION IS NEED
Opportunity for City Men to Repay to
Nation a Part of Debt They Owe
the Farm-What Clarence
OusIey Has to Say.

Suppose you close your store next
Tuesday-lock it up and go away all
day-how much will you lose? Some
thing, certainly. But suppose, tomor-
row morning, you display placards
over every counter telling your Gus
toners that the store will not be open
Tuesday, that the entire sales force
is going to put in the day fighting for
the freedom of America, and ask them
to buy on Monday what they need
for Tuesday. How much would you
lose then, even if your competitor on
the next corner should keep open all
day and hustle for business? A little,
possibly. But don't you think it
would be bread upon the water, that
would return to you, and after not so
many days, at that? Don't. you be-
lieve that, for every customer of yours
who went to trade with your compet-
itor during the day you were closed,
three of his would com to trade with
you within the week.?
Must Fight in Burrows.
Urban people have got to do some
fighting for freedom in the burrows
this spring, summer and fall. They
have got to help the country win the
war by helping the farmer produce
food-which means that they will be
helping themselves most of all.
With the exception of a few min
ing and manufacturing centers, the
villages, towns and cities of 100000
or less are mainly dependent for their
success on the prosperity of the
farming communities around them.
They have good times or hard times
in proportion as the farming opera
lions in their trade territory succeed
or fail. In normal times, even, sensi-
BILE self-interest prompts the business
man to encourage and aid the farm
er. Now, in the stress of war, the
prompting to help the farmer comes
hardly less from good business judg-
ment than from patriotic impulse.
Here is the situation: The farmers
will need additional labor to help cul-
tivate and harvest the crops they have
planted. This situation cannot be met
by legislation. The task imposed
upon the Israelites by Pharaoh, to
make bricks without straw, was an
easy job compared with the task of
making labor by law. In large meas
IRE. the needed labor must come
from the people in towns whose busi-
ness does not have to be kept hum
ming every minute.
Men Who Were Farm Boys.
You know. a very large proportion
of business men have been farm boys.
Just make a mental canvass of the
men in your block or your building.
You remember when they came in
green from the country, sunburned
and hard as hickory. The fact that
they are now among the best bust
ness men in town does not prove that
they couldn't still do good teamwork.
Why, not so long ago, when Bill
Brown RI led in to get a few balls
of binder wine, and to put a little
extra money in the bank'an chaffed
you about the ease of your job and
how soft you were, you probably
boosted that you could still shock
wheat or walk between the plow
handles with the best of them. Of
course you could-and of course you
can. Maybe you can't hold it as long
as some of them, but you can do it
as well. All right. The time has
come for you to do it. You never