78 City Homes on Country Lanes 



soil. Men rushed for the shipyards to work for $10 

 a day. While they were inspired by the depredations 

 of the German submarines, they also obtained substan- 

 tial material reward for their own pockets. When 

 these same men got up an hour earlier to cultivate their 

 gardens, and came home from the shipyard to labor 

 with the hoe until dark, they were working for some- 

 thing higher than dollars, in response to a finer im- 

 pulse than the desire for gain. 



They were preserving their families and their coun- 

 try against the peril of possible famine. They were 

 exerting their initiative and creative faculties, and they 

 found that the process yielded a great sense of satis- 

 faction. They were adventuring upon the lost field 

 of individual independence, and while they did not 

 go far in that direction, they yet went far enough to 

 catch a fleeting glimpse of the promised land. They 

 demonstrated their aptitude for the thing. And that 

 was a comfort. If they had once known how, they 

 discovered that they had not forgotten. If they had 

 never known how, they discovered that they could 

 learn. And that was a joy. 



This brings us to another hopeful aspect of the 

 matter: Of the 5,250,000 families who enlisted as war 

 gardeners, something like 3,000,000 really did not 

 know how to do it, or at least how to do it the best way. 

 To my mind, this is one of the most valuable lessons 

 of the experience — the teachability of our people; the 

 willingness to learn; their eagerness to respond to dis- 

 interested leadership. For, be it known, not less than 

 3,000,000 of these families entered into direct com- 

 munication with the National War Garden Commission 



