© Keystone View Co. 



THRESHING OATS IN ILLINOIS 



Cooperating with the Food Administration are thousands of retail stores located in every 

 part of America. They display cards in their show-windows bearing food-conservation pic- 

 tures and slogans. One which is being widely used shows four jars containing corn meal, 

 rye flour, oatmeal, and barley and under them the words, "Eat more corn meal, rye flour, 

 oatmeal, and barley — save the wheat for the fighters." 



from our commercial community. We 

 wish to stamp our commercial community 

 with the stamp of service in public inter- 

 est. Compared with the sacrifice of our 

 sons and brothers, it is but little to ask. 

 And it is a service which, if given now, 

 will not be without interest returns for 

 the future. This interest in a thousand- 

 fold will come in two directions. 



THE LOOMING SHADOWS OP SOCIALISM 



If we receive this support, we will have 

 demonstrated the falsity of radical claims 

 as to the necessity of socializing our in- 

 dustries. If we fail we will have given 

 impulse to these demands and ground for 

 their complaints. 



One looming shadow of this war is its 

 drift toward socialism, for with the gi- 

 gantic sacrifice of life the world is de 

 manding a sacrifice of property, and we 

 will surely drift to that rocky coast unless 

 we can prove the economic soundness and 



willingness to public service of our com- 

 mercial institutions. 



It is worth while examining the de- 

 velopments in Russia from this point of 

 view. Here no practical or effective form 

 of commercial regulation or distribution 

 was undertaken. In consequence of spec- 

 ulation, profiteering, and the failure in 

 commerce to serve public interest, the 

 condition of the industrial classes became 

 so intolerable as to steam the hotbed of 

 revolution. 



Justifiable as this revolution may have 

 been and as great a cause of liberty as 

 may result, no one can deny that the 

 whole trend of this revolution has been 

 socialistic, and the latest phase is a de- 

 velopment into practical socialism. This 

 strain in the revolution, I am convinced 

 from much experience in Russia, was 

 the reaction from failure of the govern- 

 ment and the commercial classes to meet 

 their public duty. 



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