. • ' •: : /. '"4- 



direction which our forces and activities should follow. If the whole 

 Nation can maintain its customary poise and view its complex tasks 

 in a calm spirit, much of our difficulty will disappear. In times of 

 great change, of rapid world movements, no little hysteria naturally 

 develops. One sitting at a Nation's capital, dealing with vast interests, 

 is likely to get the impression that there is more of it than actually 

 exists. This arises from the fact that in a democracy, with masses of 

 intelligent people, there are those who are always on the job of plan- 

 ning and of furnishing suggestions. This is the strength of democracy 

 and it is also one of the difficulties of democratic government. Many 

 proposals are made affecting every great national interest and under- 

 taking. In our particular field, since food has played such an im- 

 portant role in recent years, many views are laid before the public, 

 some of them from responsible individuals and organizations, some 

 of them from those of another sort; and alarms are sounded. Not a 

 few suggestions of world famine and of impossibility of supplying our 

 own and other peoples are offered. Apprehensions are aroused. 

 Waves of impressions and suggestions come into this office; and, 

 unless one keeps his balance, he is especially likely to develop the 

 feeling, as I have said, that all the people are hysterical. This, of 

 course, is not true. The great masses of our population are not 

 greatly excited. They have maintained their steadiness during the 

 period of stress through which we have passed and they will maintain 

 it for the future. 



ONLY THREE PERIODS AT ALL COMPARABLE. 



It is not singular that many people should be disturbed and appre- 

 hensive in times of great change; and, therefore, particularly at the 

 present time; for, obviously, we are in the midst of the greatest 

 changes the world has witnessed. It seems to me that there are only 

 three other periods in the world's history at all comparable with the 

 present in point of interest and in respect to the nature and extent 

 of changes and possibilities. The first is the breaking up of the 

 Greek civilization. It doubtless appeared to the people of the time 

 that they were witnessing the collapse, if not the destruction, of 

 civilization. The same, in general terms, may be said of the period 

 of the decline and fall of th e Roman Empire. We know now that those 

 periods were not periods of decay, but rather of the dispersion and 

 diffusion of the civilized agencies and forces of the world over larger 

 areas, affecting favorably many more millions of people. The third 

 is that which is marked by the dissolution of the medieval system 

 and the discovery of a new world, with all its consequences. 



