The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1918-07-05

ton for the gigantic struggle in which
it was engaged, was the passage OF
tsle food and fuel law.
as history so wildly reminds us,
III all great wars where hundreds OF
thousands of men are drawn from
productive occupations to engage in
! destructive occupation food becomes
scarce and the strictest frugality must
be practiced in its use. This has been
the experience of every nation ever
engaged in war.
In times OF peace manv great cor
poratlons grew TIP over night. These
corporations formed themselves into
trusts and the combined strength of
them all was nearly equal to the
strength of the government that gave
them birth.
AS soon as this war came upon our
allies as well as to our own country
| these combinations and trusts i'm
me dlately began the cornering OF the
food supply OF the nation and profit
eerlng was rampant throughout the
land. The food upon the table Of the
ordinary American citizen was almost
beyond price and the great govern
ment OF the United States stepped in
and took these unconscionable profit
GERS by the nape OF the neck and
shook them loose from their unjust
prohts and unJustiliable control OF
The toodstuifs OF the nation.
Can we imagine what flour and su-
car and the ordinary commodities
that go upon the average American
citizens table would cost TODAY had
not the government of the United
States enacted the food conservation
law: The rich would have become
Danic-strlcken and unlimited amounts
OF TODD would have been purchased
ana 1t would have been impossible
tor the poor to have obtained the
hcGessarles OF life at any price.
axe the fuel law. Much complaint
was registered against the Monday
closing order issued by the fuel adj
mlnistrator. What was the fuel Sit
uation on the day this order was is
sued: Lying in port from Norfolk.
Virginia, to Boston. were 15S ships
laden to the gunwales with food and
munitions and supplies for our bows
over yonder, with an Insufficient
amount of coal in their bunkers to
keep the machinery from freezing.
much less carrying these we'll laden
vessels with the necessary supplies
to our boys in the trenches.
w hat red-blooded American citizen,
what patriotic woman in this land re-
grets for an instant that this order
was issued, that this inconvenience
was sustained by reason of such an
order?
The next and one of the most nee
cssary steps in the war program O..
our country was the taking over of
the railroads. Congestion by reason
OF encouragement and inefficiency
existed from one end of this land
to the other. The people of the great
cities, as we'll as the farmers and the
manufacturing industries throughout
the country could not secure proper
transportation facilities to carry their
farm products and their manufactured
products to market. The ports of the
nation were almost inextricably con-
gested, When ships arrived in port
it was almost impossible to get the
cargo to the wharf. This was brought
about through :ncompetency and a
lack of unihcat;on of the great rail-
way systems of the country.
This measure | declare to you was
absolutely necessary for a proper and
efficient conduct of the war
The next important measure neces-
sary for the successful conduct of the
war was the espionage act