The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1925-09-15
Shortest Route to Barbarisn
Is Hunger.

Famine is a persistent topic i'll the
written history of every old country.
1t is said that mothers in China have
been known to offer their children in
exchange for food The shortest route
to barbarism is through hunger. A
steady depletion of soil fertility means
less and less food-and then famine
or migration. A large per cent of the
wars of history have been fought to
acquire new food producing lands.
In modern times a shortage of food
would mean the necessity of importa-
ton, but from where? America today
is the only important nation that pro-
duces enough food for all of its people
all of the time. The Old World inn
ports from the New World. We sell
our surplus to the world normally,
and give in times of famine in other
lands
The greatest problem of any nation
is to produce enough food for all of
its people Where there is ample food
there is peace and contentment, but
as soon as the consumption of food
equals production there is danger.
| Such an even balance between pro-
duction and consumption can easily
be upset either by further depletion
OF the soil or by increased population.
| Just as soon as the consumption of
food exceeds the production, unless
the shortage can be supplied by inn
portations, the only relief that can
come is from war, famine or pesti-
! lence. In a shortage OF food it is the
poor who suffer most. 1t is the great
mass of the American people who
must be considered in connection with
the whole problem.
Populous regions are usually coinci-
dent with rich soils. We look back
1000 years to the time of Christ, and
we find a land around the eastern
shores of the Mediterranean that sup
ported a relatively large population.
That land is now so far exhausted
that it supports today only about 10
per cent .of the population that it did
at the time of Christ. Nearly all the
older countries of the world have trav-
eled downward on the path of soil de-
pletion to famine and suffering, all be-
cause they have steadily exhausted the
fertility of their soil Famine and fer
tile lands do not occur together.
| 4 x
Our Soil Is Growing Less Fertile.
The great underlying wealth OF
America was the virgin fertility OF
her soil This was the marvel of the
early explorers and the settlers who
followed them. 1t is the reason for
the immense growth in our population
and the enormous increase in our
wealth and our power. But it is self
evident that our soil is not becoming
more fertile, but less fertile, as the
easily exhaustibe food elements are
steadily pumped out by growing
plants, and very little is put back to
take their place A soil that becomes
low in productive power does not yield
profitable returns, and thus we see
the rapidly increasing number OF
abandoned farms from the Atlantic
coast west. We shall see this same
pathetic result to an increasing degree
in a steady march westward across
! the American continent unless we do
our simply duty by ourselves and our
posterity.
My appeal is to the intelligence and
patriotism of the whole American peo-
pie to conserve and build up the fer
tility of our SOIL so that we now and
in the future may have food in abund-
ance, and so that the great power and
prestige and wealth of our people may
be maintained. 1t is a virile America
that is at stake, and | plead for my
country.