34 



The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



Food and 

 More Food 

 the Cry from 

 Abroad 



The South's 

 Duty to the 

 Nation 



trenches and the greatest quantities of munitions and of financial 

 resources available, but by the combination of nations that is 

 able to feed itself the longest. Just at this juncture we got into 

 the war. We have not enough soldiers to count materially. Our 

 national army and our militia will not be large enough for a long 

 time to turn the tide of battle on any one of half a dozen battle 

 fronts. You will remember that when Rumania went into the 

 war she had 750,000 soldiers, but instead of helping her allies 

 her entrance strengthened her opponents. It is millions of men 

 that count. 



We will probably send a division over there on the firing line 

 in France just to show that we are present in the flesh as well 

 as in the spirit, just to plant the Stars and Stripes beside the 

 flags of our Allies ; just to show that this country has not for- 

 gotten the time when Lafayette and Rochambeau came to 

 America to help us (applause) ; that will be done largely for its 

 moral effect. The chief things we can do during the next six 

 months will be to finance and feed the troops of the Allies. We 

 have untold wealth. This country is wealthier than all the com- 

 bined nations on the continent of Europe. So we can finance our 

 Allies for years to come. But that is not the most immediate 

 need. They now need food, more food and still more food, be- 

 cause every country in Europe has been tightening its belt now 

 for some time ; and if the submarine warfare had succeeded Eng- 

 land would have been brought to her knees within three months. 



The South produces much food, but she imports from the 

 North and West nearly half a billion dollars worth of food and 

 foodstuffs every year in excess of the fruits, vegetables, cotton 

 seed products, etc., which she exports to the North. When we 

 ask you to produce your own food and feed yourself we are 

 only asking you to release that much food and foodstuffs with 

 which to feed our soldiers in the field and bur Allies in the 

 trenches. Is the South going to respond to this call? If she 

 doesn't, it is the first call of duty the South ever ignored. 

 (Applause.) 



Now that means individual sacrifice. This means that every 

 man, woman and child in the South, without a single exception, 

 has a duty to perform; the children to put. in gardens — I don't 

 mean flower gardens, I mean vegetable gardens that will produce 

 food for you during the summer months and enable you to can 

 and dry and put aside food for the winter months. If you 



