Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-05-28
America Must BE Fed

America Must SG FED
I ABOR must go back TO the farm.
- Organized or unorganized, skilled or
unskiled shirt-sleeyed or whi,e-collared,
labor must do its rightful share in produc-
ing the food necessary to save this country
from reign Of high prices, compared with
which those prevailing now would seem
modest, or, worse, from actual famine.
If labor will return to the soil willingly,
as patriotic duty. and serve there until
the crisis has been passed. it will give cause
for national thanksgiving; if not willingly,
then way must be found to force its re-
turn. Otherwise, disaster awaits, and any
disaster to America will have its reflex in
additional disturbance and renewed suffer-
ing in the rest of the world. To avert
calamity, American farms must be made 10
yield. and il the productive labor cannot
be supplied they will remain barron That
labor must be found. At this season OF
the year every hour counts, and in two
weeks it may be too late Then the ever
lasting damage will have been done and
nothing will remain but to pay the Penalty
in food shortage and high prices for the
national profigacy and lack OF sound bust
ness judgment.
Labor must return to the farm now. not
as solution of the permanent rural prob
lem over which political economists cudgel
their brains, but as remedy for dcs-
pcrate situation. Solution of permanently
populating the farms may wait and aca-
demic plans for lending attractiveness to
country communities may he laid aside
What is wanted now is results. Three
months of labor now in seeding, harvest
ing and distribution will assure this coun-
try of being fed and of having surplus
for others in need 1t will do moro toward
putting the United States back on a nor
NAL business basis than all the finely spun
theories Of all the governments regulatory
boards.
This is not overdrawn, nor is 1t unduly
pessimistic. 1t is u fair statement of fncts
as they exist. Hundreds of thousands Of
fertile acres are untitled today because
there are no laborers to till them, or given
laborers their wage demands are so ex-
cessive that the farmers cannot meet them
without counting bankruptcy Through the
repeated demands of organized labor, to-
gcther with the imitation caused by war
conditions, the cities are filed with men
drawing wages that once would have seemed
fabulous, and the farms are deserted
Where once farm labor was sought now
it is contemptuously turned aside The
ordinary wage Garner would rather draw
his SIS or $40 a day in town and be in debt
at tho end of the week than to take an
honest return for an honest days work on
the farm and have a bank account 1t Is
the madness Of money.
Desperate conditions demand desperate
remedies There is no sign that labor will
go TO the farms voluntarily. Therefore, it
must be forced TO go. A way has been
pointed out and, while drastic il is the
only practical solution that has been Of
fercd. Stop all public works and nones-
sential Industries. Deprive labor OF It's
high wages from unnecessary sources, and
no lnh IN Ard
starvc. Some may prefer starvation in the
cities to honest work in the soil, but enough
VIII lind their way back to the farms to
meet the present emergency. To those who
VIII not work, let the wartime laws against
idlers be applied. They have not been re-
pealed. II may seem a hardship to stop
road building, even for a brief period but
OF what use will good roads be if the
farmers have nothing to haul over them?
Public buildings can wait awhile-bettcr
eramped quarters with food than palaces
with hunger. Contract work along scores
OF nonessential lines will not suffer if its
labor Is turned for time into the fields
where one man with pillow now Is worth
100 later on. In fact, most contract work
would gain by delay, since all elements of
construction neutrality-suspicious., ma
teral. labor--are Unfortunately expensive
and uncertain.
1t is a time for the nations serious
thought for its immediate future time
Tor the laying aside of personal or public
ambitions, a time to consider only the pub
nc welfare. II will require craftsmanship
OF high order and the closest sort OF CO.
operation on the part of Federal, State and
city governments 10 bring about the i'm
mediate curtailment or nonessential labor
necessary TO effect results but it would be
the height Of business folly to proceed along
present lines blind TO what NAV await.
The farmer answered the nations PRAYER
Tor bumper crops when ii was at war; let
every loyal citizen help him now that the
nation may not go unfed while at peace.