DO YOUR BIT FOR AMERICA 



291 



land and France and Italy and Russia 

 have usually supplied themselves, but can- 

 not now afford the men, the materials, or 

 the machinery to make. 



It is evident to every thinking man that 

 our industries — on the farms, in the ship- 

 yards, in the mines, in the factories — 

 must be made more prolific and more effi- 

 cient than ever, and that they must be 

 more economically managed and better 

 adapted to the particular requirements of 

 our task than they have been ; and what 

 I want to say is that the men and the 

 women who devote their thought and 

 their energy to these things will be serv- 

 ing the country and conducting the fight 

 for peace and freedom just as truly and 

 just as effectively as the men on the battle- 

 field or in the trenches. 



SOLDIERS B-EHIXD THE FIRING LIXE 



The industrial forces of the country, 

 men and women alike, will be a great 

 national, a great international, service 

 army — a notable and honored host en- 

 gaged in the service of the nation and the 

 world, the efficient friends and saviors of 

 free men everywhere. 



Thousands — nay, hundreds of thou- 

 sands — of men otherwise liable to mili- 

 tary service will of right and of necessity 

 be excused from that service and assigned 

 to the fundamental, sustaining work of 

 the fields and factories and mines, and 

 they will be as much part of the great 

 patriotic forces of the nation as the men 

 under fire. 



I take the liberty, therefore, of address- 

 ing this word to the' farmers of the coun- 

 try and to all who work on the farms : 

 The supreme need of our own nation and 

 of the nations with which we are coop- 

 erating is an abundance of supplies, and 

 especially of foodstuffs. 



The importance of an adequate food 

 supply, especially for the present year, is 

 superlative. Without abundant food, alike 

 for the armies and the peoples now at 

 war, the whole great enterprise upon 

 which we have embarked will break down 

 and fail. 



The world's food reserves are low. 

 Not only during the present emergency, 

 but for some time after peace shall have 

 come, both our own people and a large 



proportion of the people of Europe must 

 rely upon the harvests in America. 



WHERE THE EATE OE THE WAR RESTS 



Upon the farmers of this country, 

 therefore, in large measure rests the fate 

 of the war and the fate of the nations. 

 May the nation not count upon them to 

 omit no step that will increase the pro- 

 duction of their land or that will bring 

 about the most effectual cooperation in 

 the sale and distribution of their prod- 

 ucts ? 



The time is short. It is of the most 

 imperative importance that everything 

 possible be done, and done immediately, 

 to make sure of large harvests. 



I call upon young men and old alike 

 and upon the able-bodied boys of the land 

 to accept and act upon this duty — to turn 

 in hosts to the farms and make certain 

 that no pains and no labor is lacking in 

 this great matter. 



I particularly appeal to the farmers of 

 the South to plant abundant foodstuffs, 

 as well as cotton. They can show their 

 patriotism in no better or more convinc- 

 ing way than by resisting the great temp- 

 tation of the present price of cotton and 

 helping, helping upon a great scale, to 

 feed the nation and the peoples every- 

 where who are fighting for their liberties 

 and for our own. The variety of their 

 crops will be the visible measure of their 

 comprehension of their national dutv. 



The Government of the United States 

 and the governments of the several States 

 stand ready to cooperate. They will do 

 everything possible to assist farmers in 

 securing an adequate supply of seed, an 

 adequate force of laborers when they are 

 most needed, at harvest time, and the 

 means of expediting shipments of fer- 

 tilizers and farm machinery, as Avell as of 

 the crops themselves when harvested. 



a democracy's chaxce to make good 



The course of trade shall be as unham- 

 pered as it is possible to make it, and 

 there shall be no unwarranted manipula- 

 tion of the nation's food supply by those 

 who handle it on its way to the consumer. 

 This is our opportunity to demonstrate 

 the efficiency of a great democracy, and 

 we shall not fall short of it ! 



