BACK UP THE CANNON 

 BY USE OF THE CANNER 



By CHARLES LATHROP PACK, President 



National War Garden Commission 



WE stand with our backs to the 

 wall." That call to the civ- 

 ilized world, made by Gen- 

 eral Haig in the spring of 1918, has 

 brought and still must bring answer 

 from the women. Only by their co- 

 operation has it been possible for that 

 call to be answered, for no nation can 

 do a great work unless the women of 

 that nation put their influence into 

 the job. 



We were forced into a war which 

 was something more than a war to 

 decide policies or mark boundaries 

 a war involving the most sacred 

 questions with which men and 

 women have to deal the sanctity of 

 womanhood, the sacredness of child- 

 hood and the right to live in free- 

 dom. We could not yield these rights 

 while we had the strength to defend 

 them. 



In the emergency created by this 

 war the question of food goes hand 

 in hand with thrift. Our position 

 has been no less closely involved in 

 the conflict than that of Europe. In 

 proof of this let me call attention 

 to the plan the enemy had for us. I 

 quote from a book called "War," by 

 Klaus Wagner, published in 1916 in 

 Berlin. On page 165 the author says: 



"Not only North America, but the 

 whole of America must become a bul- 

 wark of German Kultur, perhaps the 

 strongest fortress of the Germanic 

 races. That is every one's hope who 

 frees himself from his own local Eu- 

 ropean pride and who places race 

 feeling above his love for home." 



Mark that well his race feeling 

 above his love for home; and then let 

 me quote one of the thousands of let- 

 ters received by the National War 



Garden Commission. Here it is, from 

 a boy: 



"I have decided to help win the 

 war by having a war garden, and I 

 have just read your notice that any 

 one can have a free garden book. 

 Please send it to me. My father 

 joined the army in 1915 and was 

 killed in 1916. -Harvey Cameron, 

 New Glasgow, Nova Scotia." 



That boy is typical of the boys and 

 men of many nations who have been 

 fighting against the common enemy. 

 If they could look the job in the face 

 that way, what can we do? Our boys 

 have been giving their lives toward 

 the achievement of victory. Every 

 mile of reclaimed territory in devas- 

 tated France and Belgium adds hun- 

 dreds of hungry mouths to be fed. 

 With France and Belgium liberated 

 many more people have become de- 

 pendent on this country's food sup- 

 ply. In victory we must feed not 

 only more millions abroad but also 

 care for our own people at home and 

 our soldiers until they return. Peace 

 cannot mean an increase of the 

 world's grain supply for another year 

 at least, and it will take several years 

 of bountiful crops to refill the empty 

 bins and granaries of the world. 



Victory, therefore, must necessarily 

 bring a large increase in our obliga- 

 tion. We must not only produce 

 food as close to the kitchen door as 

 possible, but we must save a vast vol- 

 ume of this food for winter use. To 

 save it we must can it, dry it, or other- 

 wise prepare to have it in readiness 

 for the months of non-production. 

 Canning and drying, therefore, are as 

 imperative to-day as if the war were 

 just beginning. 



