The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 35 



haven't a garden larger than this platform — it will be valuable 

 not only for the food it will produce but for what it typifies. 

 This flag that I wear on my breast is not big, but it represents 

 everything dearest in life to every man, woman and child under 

 its folds, and when you have put in one little bit of a garden, 

 it stands as the symbol of the fact that you stand ready to do 

 your bit for your country in this great national crisis. 



And then the planters and farmers of the South; some of 

 them have gone cotton crazy ; because they are getting 22 cents 

 a pound for cotton they can only see cotton. Up in Kentucky 

 and Virginia and other states they are raising tobacco. It may 

 be all right to chew tobacco, but it isn't going to feed you if you 

 have to chew tobacco and spit cotton in the wintertime. And 

 then our transportation systems — they already have been repeat- 

 edly congested in times of peace ; and during the coming months 

 they will be weighed down with an ever increasing military re- 

 sponsibility. If they are congested, you can't get food through "5(,„^;i ]fj^gi 

 from the North ; and then, if the South has failed to raise her ffaise Her 

 own foodstuffs, she will go hungry. So, if there are any Own Food or 

 cotton planters here today, or if you know any cotton plant- Go Hungry" 

 ers, take this message to them from their Government : Any man 

 who is a loyal American citizen is going to do his share toward 

 raising the food crops of his region during the next season, and 

 any man not ready to do that is not worthy to be protected by 

 the flag of our common country. (Applause.) We are sending 

 our boys to the front. They are going up there, perhaps, to be 

 shot to pieces. We are here urging them to be brave and 

 patriotic, and yet some of us may lag behind and fail to do the 

 little thing we are asked to do — to make the small sacrifice we 

 are asked to make. I know it is not easy to take a lot of tenants 

 trained to raise cotton and have them raise corn, or soy beans, 

 or sweet potatoes. I am a landlord myself. But this is not a 

 Sunday-school picnic. This is war; and we are not asking you "War iVo Sun- 

 alone to do these things — we are asking every American citizen ^^^.^j^^^^ 

 to take up the most difficult task and do it gladly for his country. 

 If we will do that, if we will get that spirit into the emergency 

 work of the next few months, then this larger, more permanent 

 work of development of agricultural, live stock and forestry 

 resources of the South in due time will go forward with giant 

 strides. We need the right spirit in this work. If everybody 

 becomes imbued with that spirit then the future development 

 of the South's resources will be magical. 



Picnic" 



