Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-01-07
OUR PROBLEM
(By DR.. Ray Lyman Wilbur, President
Stanford University

1t is surprising how few Of u
Americans have grasped the signifi-
canoe Of the fact that in Australia, a
country that has contributed mate
rally to this a there is, as the
result of at least two harvests, piled
up a very large quantity Of cheap and
practically government-owned wheat,
much of 1t in the open air, where it
can not be adequately protected from
various kinds of, damage. Yet we
have had an unprecedented call upon
our wheat supply in this country and
In Canada resulting in a great in
the European nations absolutely re-
CURED wheat for the ~sustenance of
their people. The answer to this ap-
parent anomaly is that it takes three
times as long for a ship to so to Aus
tralia for food as it does to go to
Canada or the United States, and the
world has not the shipping available
for the long hauls because of the sub
marine and the exigencies of
war.
Oil and other food stocks are also
piled upon h Asiatic and African
coasts awaiting shipment. while we
are using food fats in our soap be-
cause we cannot get at these stores.
The most pressing problem before
the United States and the nations en-
gagged with it in the war against the
H~ohenzollern dynasty is to supply
o and ships and thus defeat the
German submarine attack upon the
left flank of the western front.
The western front simply must be
maintained and must eventually be
pushed forward by Americans. or
there will be no final conclusion to the
great catastrophe.
Many Of u people do not seem to
realize that we have entered into the
great struggle Of %autocracy versus de-
mocracy. n that President Wilson
has said that we cannot conclude a
peace with any but a constituted rep
resentative Of the German people.
That means that we must defeat, and
absolutely defeat the most powerful
war lord in all history, who has at his
command the most wonderful war
machine that has ever been devised.
We can not defeat him with a pound
ing of drums or waving of flags or
with any form of national hysteria.
We can only do it by concerted action
in food saving, shipbuilding, munitions
making, and soldier training. The
sooner we settle down to this terrible
task the sooner it will BE over. Every
day that we delay in our grasp of our
responsibilities means the loss of so
many hundred or so many thousand
of our own boys, who will have to go
to the trenches for that much longer
period OF time. If we can r%esolutely
and successfully meet this problem in
the next IL months, it is probably that
we can by hat time see what its
conclusion is likely to be.
At the present time no man can say
what will be the outcome. Germany
now occupies the position of a victor.
We dare not let her remain SO. Every
ounce of energy that we car put into
the fight we must use, whether it be
in the production of food, in the sup
preston Of German propaganda, in
the building of airships. in sustaining
u embargo. or in carrying on Dur
productive forms Of industrial and
agricultural life In the best way pos
sible. Until we begin as a people to
individually take a personal interest
in every phase of the war, and until
tho most interesting thing to every
American when he rises in the NOR.
ming is what happened Of the western
front the day before we are not only
in danger. but in grim and seriou,
danger, that autocratic forms Of gov
eminent will replace those in which
we now take such pride and salts
faction.