Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-05-23
Ut THE IDLE MEN
Draft the Exempted Men In an Aqrl.
cultural Army-Put a Million
Men at the Disposal of
tho Farmer.
BY MARK SWAN,
of the ViQiiantes.

/
| We Americans like to consider our.
selves the most wide-awake people in
the world. Hustle is our middle name,
and we glory in it. When the word
American Is mentioned, in connection
with job, or an emergency, we con.
| jure up mental picture Of an alert
and determined individual, with the
fine frenzy of conflict flaming in his
eyes, rolling up his sleeves and doing
things. We revel in this conception Of
| ourselves. 1t is very complimentary
, and very comforting. There is one
slight flaw in the picture. 1t isn't true.
Naturally, when q spectacular op-
portunity arises, like the declaration
Of war last April, we do wake up and
do things. We buy bonds, and enlist,
and drill; we join defense leagues, and
knit, and make bandages, and all the
rest Of 1t-feverishly, sincerely-tak-
Ing great credit to ourselves, mean
while, for our unalloyed patriotism,
and forgetting, by the way, that all
the things we are doing. and mean to
do, should have been foreseen, and
done long ago, quietly, thoroughly, and
as matter Of course.
We Are Asleep.
We were warned over and over
again. But we were asleep. And we're
asleep now. We're facing the most tre-
mendous emergency that has ever con-
fronted us, the bald, cold fact that the
United States is not going to raise as
| much food as we raised last year, that
we are not going to raise nearly
enough to supply ourselves and our
allies with food we're sound
| asleep!
The lack Of result, when the widely
advertised and justly popular Mother
Hubbard sought bone for her dog,
is known to all readers Of juvenile his
tory, and goes to prove that the lady
lacked foresight. She had a food
problem, and she didn't meet it.
Like true descendants Of old Mother
Hubbard and Rip Van Wrinkle we
stand asleep at the switch. and ap-
parently we will never start to take
action until the cupboard is bare. Then
1t will be too late.
This year we have had heatless
days and wheatless days and meatless
days. Next year we will have eatless
days, but nobody seems to be unduly
distressed.
II German army were landing on
Long Island our inertia would vanish.
| We would stop discussing what's going
on in Russia, and worrying about
who's going to pitch for the Giants
we might even cut out the movies, or
the cabarets, for night or two. We'd
drill and shout and work and very
likely fight and die.
The situation confronting us is just
as serious, though not as dramatic, as
If Hindenburg were advancing on Bay
shore. Hunger is just as deadly an
enemy as the Hun.
| Best Asset and Weapon.
Food is our most important asset
and weapon. The only way we can
get food is to plant it, cultivate 1t and
harvest 1t. But the farmer claims he
can't get labor to do this work.
To any mind capable Of comprehend
ing the startling news that two and
two are four, 1t would seem that the
vital thing to do is to get labor to the
farmer, and get it to him quickly SO
he can plant his crops. II he doesn't
plant soon he can't plant at all.
Now we can't do this as individuals,
but we can get together and ask the
government to do it. Draft the ex-
empted men in an agricultural army.
Draft all the boys from eighteen to
twenty-one. not subject to military
service. Comb out the idle men. Put
q million men at the disposal Of the
farmer. 1t won't hurt any man to
work outdoors from March to Septem-
ber, and If now and then we find one
too proud to work, the chances are the
experience will do him good.
Will we see it in timer Will the
national alarm clock go off, and will
we realize that each one Of US must
take hold and help-or will we Join
that large and imposing band whose
philosophy of life may be briefly
summed up In the trenchant phrase,
"Let George do it,?
If we browse on, next winter we
will have an excellent chance for re-
pentance at leisure, while we dine on
snowballs q la Russo.