86 
THE NATIONAL NUESERYMAN 
A National Call to Service 
By J. B. Mayhew, Waxaliarliie, Texas, Before the Tennessee State Nurserymen’s 
Association, Nashville, Tennessee, January 29—February /. 
O UT of the depths of the great unknown today there 
comes a call so clear, so imperative, as if the 
voice of God were calling us to service. He 
must have a calloused soul who can pass through times 
like tliese and not hear a voice, whose call a man must 
answer or lose his soul. 
I have not the heart to speak to you today concerning 
your pecuniary interests, for this is an hour in the history 
of our beloved country when true men and women are 
most earnestly asking the question, where can 1 invest 
what I have and what I am in a way that will contribute 
the largest possible senice to my country. Today the 
question which most concerns us is not protits, is not i)ar- 
tisan politics and emoluments of oliice, is not self and 
seltish interests. The (luestion which concerns the vast 
majority of American citizens today is, where can I serve 
best. In a day we have been changed as in the twinkling 
of an eye. From a nation bordering on the materialistic, 
we are today the most altruistic people on earth. Why 
this change? A few months ago our beloved President 
led the people out upon the heights of Pisgah, and with 
prophetic finger pointed out the path of duty. He made 
this call so clear, so unselfish, so patriotic, that not only 
this nation hut the civilized world rallied to his standard. 
Men upon whose shoulders rested the largest enterprises 
of the nation caught the vision of a world in need, and 
like the prophet of old, cried, “Here am I, send me.” 
“Look at these thousands of men,” a recent writer cries, 
“every man with his hack to his home and his face tow- 
ward the flag, and meditate upon the increditahle, im¬ 
measurable, unimaginable power of patriotism.” The 
story of sacrifice of men and women in all walks of life 
in this hour of the nation’s need is unparalleled in the na¬ 
tion’s history, and makes us glad that we are Americans. 
For the first time in the lives of must of us, we see our 
beloved land, a land wdiich, for more than a hundred 
years, has been the haven of rest for the oppressed of 
every land, in a life and death struggle for those prin¬ 
ciples wdiich are dearer to us than life itself. And w^e are 
coming more and more to a realization of what this w ar 
moans—of the enormity of it. We are as children wak- 
(uied out of a pleasant sleeji, and when we are at last 
awake, when we see this thing in all of its hideousness, 
wo w ill stand appalled. 
In the fall of 1914, the w ise ones told us it was oidy a 
(luestion of a few months until the Inqierial German Gov¬ 
ernment would be starved into submission,—and that w as 
more than three years ago. Shut in from tlie outside 
world, it was only a question of a bwv months until her 
food supply would be exhausted. James W. Gerard, in 
his book, “My Four Years in Germany,” makes this as¬ 
tounding and, I judge, dependalile statement; “Tliere is 
far greater dangm- of starvation of the Allies than of 
starv'ation of the Germans. Every available inch of 
ground in Germany is cultivated, and cultivated by the 
old men and boys, the women, and the two million pris¬ 
oners of w ar. The arable lands of northern France and 
Rumania are being cultivated by the German army with 
an efficiency never before known in these countries, and 
most of that food will be added to the food supply of Ger¬ 
many. Certainly the people will suffer, but still more 
certainly this war wdll not be ended because of the star¬ 
vation of Germany.” I do not know how this statement 
from our Ambassador to Germany impresses you, but 
to me it is a call to service on the part of America in be¬ 
half of our Allies, such as should cause us to redouble 
our efforts in food production. 
We are not at war with the millions of cultured and 
refined German and Austrian peoples, we are in a life 
and death struggle with the most conscienceless, the most 
remorseless, the most ruthless, the most powerful war 
machine that the minds of men trained for a hundred 
years in war could invent; and because of their educa¬ 
tion, training, and preparedness, the odds are against us. 
In the face of this tremendous task, our plight of unpre¬ 
paredness a year ago was pitiable, and your duty and 
mine today is not to criticise but to remember that our 
business through all these years has not been in prepar¬ 
ing for war, but in following the avocations of peace. 
We are a people educated and trained in peace. I know 
I but speak the heart of this nation when I say we are a 
peace loving people, and that we are in this war because, 
and only because we are forced into it. If we did not 
desire above everything else peace, upon a basis of equity 
and justice which shall be lasting; if our hearts did not 
respond to the injustice, cruelty, and oppression of the 
people of Europe who, in their weakness, cry to the high 
heavens for succor; if we, as a nation, had considered our 
own selfish interests; perhaps it would have been possible 
for us to keep out of this world conflict. But we did not 
so reason, and I thank God for it. We heard the cry of 
the oppressed of Belgium, of France, and of all the rest, 
and under the leadership of that great and good man 
whom I verily believe God raised up for this hour of 
world-wide service, we have determined in behalf of 
world democracy, in behalf of honor at home and human¬ 
ity abroad, to take a hand in the mightiest conflict the 
gods of war ever staged upon earth. 
I say to you today, my friends, and I say it reverently, 
that in my humble opinion no holier cause could exist, 
and no loftier ideal could obtain, than that which prompts 
us today to give our sons and our resources on this sac¬ 
rificial altar; and when the history of this hour in the 
world’s affairs is written; when the passions of war shall 
have been supplanted by “peace on earth and good will 
toward mankind,” the sacrifice of this nation will be 
comparable only to the sacrifice God Almighty made for 
a world in need two thousand years ago. 
We are today in this war up to our very eyes, and we 
are in it to win, and win we will. Here and there you 
