Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-06-29
AN OPEN LETTER TO
A. A. COUNTY WOMEN
What The Organized Anne Arundel
County Women Must Do To Win
This War

Anne Arunuel SOuhtss OaiFS - -.
mt vice chairman in charge OF thrii1
work in Prince Georges County says.
..The food situation in the United
States grows more and more serious
each day. You have no doubt reao oA
the enormous quantity of corn ana po-
tatoes rotting in the middle West pc
cause Of lack of transportation facll-
ties We are reaching a critical point
in our food supply.
I'VE must produce more 1000 per
acres and per man TO feed our boys III
the cantonments and the trenches 10
feed our men in the factories mahilie
big guns, TO feed the women OF 'ne
cities in factories, munition plants anu
homes. TO send to our men in enemy
prisons. 10 offset losses by SUI
ma ines. fires. and the malicious ms
chief Of enemies at home and abroad,
m overcome the adverse conditions Oh
nature This we must do for ourselves
-selfshness alone demands so much
I'VE must feed our allies-human-
itv demands this, our safety deIhaIus
this. even again our own seliish inter
est demands it, for, II our aiiles arc
conquered the battles will rage on our
own soil our children viii feel the
steel of the Huns, our women may
suffer worse than death. our men VIII
fall in ever and increasing NUMBERS
and the war will be prolonged IN
dafnitely. But we will win, we must
win over the autocratic power in the
end-be the sacrifice what it may.
1.-The army fights on its belly, said
NAPOLEON. They must have food
...The infantry gains with little loss
when there has been adequate pre-
marathon by the artillery-we must
have plenty of big guns says Medlll
mccormack. Men and women making
guns and munitions can not be III the
fields growing crops. They must De
fed and we must feed them-an addl-
tional burden to fall on fewer labor
ers.
.sThe submarine. has not yet been
conquered and will inflict heavy dam
age on our shipping. Tons and tons
of our carefully grown, carefully con-
served food will go to the bottom OF
the seas. This, too, must be replaced.
And what assurance have we of the
continuance of the beneficence of ma
ture? An unreasonable frost, reduc-
ed rainfall, scorching wind and in
some places there is heavy food
loss This, too, must be met.
Food is of vital Importance to us.
1t must be produced in greater and
greater quantities. Our home gar
dens must be increased in number and
productiveness, our farms must be
made to yield more food for our fam
lilies. Each one should strive to raise
almost all of the food used in his
house in order to relieve the rail-
roads of the burden of transporta-
ton This must be done even if la
Dor is scarce, even if the women of
our country must work in the fields as
our French and English sisters are
now doing. Food will win the war
we are told.
But can we produce enough food?
Can this be accomplished by increased
production with fewer laborers, by in
creased acreage with its attendant re-
sponsibilities and demands? No. We
must save our food. We must stop
waste in every way, we must use only
what is necessary to sustain life, keep
up physical efficiency and preserve our
children in the best of health and de-
velopment to be able to meet the re-.
sponsibilities that are bound to be
theirs.
Wheat, meat, fats, and sugar we
are asked to save We must substi-
tute other foods for these whenever
we can. Maybe we do not like vic
tory bread. Neither do our soldiers
like hot shell and cold steel, muddy
trenches, sleepless nights, wounds and
death. Do they hold back? Do they
complain? Ask those who have been
at the front and seen them. Ask
their officers if they have difficulty in
restraining them. Our soldiers go out
to meet discomfort and danger Shall
we wait until told what to do and
grumble at the little that has been
asked of us.
We have made no sacrifices yet
We must sacrifice more and more in
the next few months. We have had
more than enough to eat, to keep us
clothed, and even to keep us warm
We have suffered q say suffered, al
though it is too strong a term some
inconvenience in that some of us have
shivered a little in our bedrooms, but
we have had fire to cook with and
lights to read by and warm place to
sit in one room at least.
What may be coming to us no one
can tell. We must be ready to be cold
if freedom needs the fuel, to be hun
CRY if freedom needs the food-to
freeze even to starve if only right tri-
umphs over might. Who wants to
live in world ruled by brute force.
Not l. Better to starve. to freeze, to
die if by so doing we can bring truth
and justice triumphantly into their
own.
But why freeze, starve, die, when
a little more foresight, little more
energy. a great deal more intelligent
use of what we now have and can pro-
duce. with the elimination of all
waste viii keep us in health and yigor
and accomplish more for justice-than
of deaths. The way has been
noinfod ont RI ne many fi1nac ron