The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-31
THIS YEAR WILL
 DETERMINE WAR
 ASSERTS WILSON
(Continued from Page 1.)

gagged is the greatest that free men
 have ever undertaken. It is to pre- vent the life of the world from be- | | ing determined and the fortunes of l men everywhere affected by small | groups of military masters, who seek | their own interest and the selfish do-
 minion throughout the world of the | 1 governments they unhappily for the moment control. You will not need to ! | be convinced that itw as necessary 1 for us as a free people to take part in this war. It had raised its evil hand against us. The rulers of Ger many had sought to exercise their
 power in such a way as to put off our
 economic life so far as our inter-
 course with Europe was concerned, and to confine our people within the
 western hemisphere while they ac-
 complished purposes which would
 have permanently impaired and im-
 peded any process of our national life
 and have put the fortunes of America at the mercy of the imperial govern
 ment of Germany. This was no threat. It had become a reality.
 Their hand of violence had been laid
 upon our own people and our own l
 of justice, but of the well recognized
 and long standing covenants of inter
 national law and treaty. We are
 fighting, therefore, as fully for the lib
 erty and elf-government of the United States as if the war of our revolution had to be fought over again, and every man in every busi- ness in the United States must know | hxv 11i- !, fortune lies in the balance. Our na- tional life and our whole economic
 development will pass under the s1n- : ister influences of foreign control if we do not win. We must win, there fore, and we shall win. I need not ask you to pledge your lives and for , tunes with those of the rest of the nation to the accomplishment of that great end
 You will realize, as I think states men on both sides of the water real ize, that the eliminating crisis of the 7 7 struggle has come and that the achievements of this year on the one
 side or the other must determine the
 issue. It has turned out that the
 forces that fight for freedom, the 7 freedom of men all over the world as a well as our own, depend upon us in
 an extraordinary and unexpected de-
 gree for sustenance, for the supply c Of the materials by which men are
 to live and to fight and it will be v our glory when the war is over that s we have supplied those materials and if supplied them abundantly and it vii n be all the more glory because in sup
 plying them we have made our su- s preme effort and sacrifices
 0 ''In the field of agriculture we have It agencies and instrumenta1ities for. '- tunately, such as no other government o in the world can show. The depart l. ment of agriculture is undoubtedly 0 the greatest practical and scientific d agricultural organization in the world d xxx The banking legislation O 'r the last two or three years has givel F. the farmers access to the great lend
 able capital of the country and it ha. y become the duty both of the men il e charge of the federal reserve bank le ing system and of the farm loa1 r. banking system to see to it that tn -o farmers obtain the credit both shor 7r term and long term, to which they ar T. entitled, not only, but which it is i'm 1S peratvely necessary should be extend X ed to them if the present tasks of tn
 country are to be adequately per '- formed. Both by direct purchase o
 nitrates and by the establishment o
 plants to produce nitrates the gov
 ernment is doing it's utmost to assis - in the problem of fertilization. Tn
 department of agriculture and othe 1r agencies are actively assisting tn n- farmers to locate, safeguard and SC a+ cure at cost an adequate supply c 10 sound seed. The department ha
 s2, ,500,0oO available for this purpos in TOW and has asked the congress fo i'll $6, 6,OOO,00o more.>
 lv ''The labor problem is one of grea he difficulty and some of the best ager IT. cies of the nation are addressin en themselves to the task of solving i r. so far as it is possible to solve i ,le Farmers have not been exempte ny from the draft know they woul ly ed that they would not wish to | be put in class by themselves in this re
 spect. But the attention of the va IT. department has been very serious1 lot centered upon the task of interferin ut with the labor of the farms as lit er as possible and under the new dra en regulations I believe the farmers .ln the country will find their supply " labor is very much less serious IL drawn upon than it was under u oli first and initial draft, made befol ,@I ,o we had had our present full exper 70 ence in these perplexing matters. IT ,h supply of labor in all industries is ,1 matter we must look to and are lool
 ing to with diligent care.
 ba And let me say that the stimuls ,ar ton of the agencies I have enumel 15o ated has been responded to by u ,i, farmers in splendid fashion. I dal he say you are aware that the farmer ,o- of this country are as efficient as ar 1rt other farmers in the world. They ( ,ad not produce more per acre than u in farmers in Europe It is not nece of sary that they should do so. It wou ac- perhaps be bad economy for them ,an attempt it. But they do produce t in two to three or four times more p oiU man, per unit of labor and capits
 than the farmbers of any Europea
 country.
 "They are more alert and use mo
 labor saving devices than any oth
 farmers in the world. And their r
 sponse to the demands of the prese F emergency has been in every way T rnarkaple. Last cr14ng their plan ing exceeded 12.0c0,0Oo 2"res, t
 largest planting of any previous yes