32 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



War's De- the war is going to be a short one ; but nobody knows. It may 



mands Upon (j^ag along for years. Therefore, let us have two programs' — 

 ou an ^^^^^ ^^^ immediate and emergency program, what we can do 

 this week, this month, this year; and the other a permanent 

 program of national development that will go steadily ahead 

 during all the years to come. I left Washington ten days ago ; 

 stopping at Atlanta, Memphis, Little Rock, Shreveport, and 

 today at New Orleans. I have been talking to the people at 

 each of these places about agricultural preparedness, or about 

 food preparedness. I have told the people of the South that the 

 Federal Government is expecting the South this year to do some- 

 thing very novel to the South. It means a great change in 

 the methods of the South. The Federal Governmeht is expecting 

 the South this year to feed herself, and for two reasons : First 

 of all, because if the South does not feed herself the South 

 will go hungry before the year is out. We are not asking very 

 much of the South. We would have a perfect right to ask the 

 South not only to feed herself, but to contribute her quota toward 

 feeding the soldiers in the field, and also toward feeding our 

 Allies in the trenches of Europe; but we are not asking that; 

 we are not asking the maximum — we are asking the minimum ; 

 and we confidently expect the South to respond in full measure 

 to what we ask of her. 



When the war was started in Europe most of the countries 

 there thought war was conducted by armies, and that all they 

 had to do to win was to get a lot of men together, train them to 

 shoot and send them to the trenches. England was the slowest, 

 but finally she got together the cream of her young manhood, 

 the most self-sacrificing, the most patriotic, the best men of 

 England's England, and they went over to France and Flanders and were 



Early Mis- mowed down as with a scythe, because England forgot that men 

 takes can't fight successfully against superior armamient, that courage 



does not take the place of cannon ; and so, for month after 

 month, the English soldiers stayed in the trenches and were 

 shot to pieces because Germany had cannon which shot two 

 or three miles farther than theirs did. Then England set to 

 work to get guns, and she found she had pounds of powder where 

 she ought to have had tons. She then set to work and created 

 munition factories on such a scale that today they manufacture 

 more arms and munitions in a day than they used to manufacture 

 in a year. Then they found something else was wrong. The 



