88 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
(*aii he scn'e best. If he is worth more on the farm, the 
nursery, in the orchard or greenhouse, than at the front, 
it would be poor statesmanship to send him to the front, 
and so the government determines. I think this, in its 
last analysis, is going to prove the wisest, the most salu¬ 
tary policy. It is just as patriotic to stay on the job at 
home and, with armed implements of husbandry, do our 
l)it there, as it is, armed with a gun, to go to the front, and 
just as necessary. Every industry here represented is 
the employer of labor, and the world has long ago deter¬ 
mined that he who contributes to the needs of labor is a 
public benefactor. A vast majority of the men and wo¬ 
men of the land belong to the laboring class and, for 
reasons that we need not mention, are ineligible to army 
service. In your organization and mine they are an asset 
—in the army they would prove a liability. For this rea¬ 
son industrial fires of the nation must be kept burning. 
Labor must be fed and clothed, and to do this your organi¬ 
zation and mine must be kept going. The present condi¬ 
tions force upon each of us who manage a business a 
patriotic duty as clear cut and imperative as ever came 
to us. The increased cost of maintaining your business 
will be met by your directors, but the increased cost of 
living for your employees is a matter that vitally effects 
society, and is one of the most serious questions which 
confront this nation. Someone is continually rising up 
to proclaim that labor is loyal to the government. Why 
is it necessary to repeat over and over that labor is loyal? 
No one finds it necessary to proclaim from the housetops 
that this or that or the other organization is loyal. I’ll 
tell you why. There is an unrest among labor which is 
growing more and more ominous as the days come and 
go, all the proclamations of leaders of labor organizations 
notwithstanding, and there is a reason. The increased 
cost of living is proving a burden heavier than labor can 
bear uncomplainingly, and I again say that this is a ques¬ 
tion that vitally concerns each of us. 
In preparation of this part of my address I sought facts 
from dealers in staples in food and clothing, and the con¬ 
clusions reached are that it costs the laborer today 100% 
more to supply his family with food, and 50% more for 
clothing, than it did in 1915. The increase in the laborer’s 
wage has not kept pace with the increased cost of living, 
and seemingly, the end is not yet. In the “Country Gentle¬ 
man” of December 8, under the caption, “How Far a Dol¬ 
lar Goes,” a page of photographic illustrations is given to 
this question, the facts being brought out by comparison 
before the war and now, and the subject treated is well 
worth our consideration. But why am I speaking to you 
of this, and how does it concern yoi\? What I am trying 
to say is that inasmuch as we are employers of labor, any 
serious disarrangement of our industrial affairs, any in¬ 
terference with regular hours of labor, will cause untold 
suffering. It is almost imposible for the average laborer 
to meet current bills for bis family with regular work. 
It he is out of employment a day or two during the week, 
or if there is sickness or death in the home, society must 
coine to his relief or his loved ones suffer. Therefore, 
aside Irom any selfish considerations, loyalty to country 
demands that during these trying days we keep the shop 
open; that we keep the job alive, if for no other reason 
than that labor may find food and raiment. But life is 
not all industrial, and there is another side to this ques¬ 
tion that I desire to speak of, and that is. 
Our P.4TRI0TIC Service Socially 
The most beautiful thing in all life is a disposition to 
help, to cheer and to comfort, and certainly we do not 
have to go far these day to find not one such opportunity, 
but many. Millions of bomns all over tbis land are sad 
today because a son has gone out to fight for you and me. 
To that father and mother one thought transcends all 
others, that perchance “our boy will not come back, and 
if he does, what will this experience have done for him.” 
I think of nothing more patriotic, I think of no service 
more nohle, than a service of love and sympathy in word 
and deed to this father and mother who are sacrificing 
their very life’s blood upon the altar of their country. 
Perchance this one called to the colors has been a bread¬ 
winner. Let/us see that in that home left desolate no need 
which we can supply, whether that need be love or bread, 
be unsupplied. iVnother service we may render, and 
what a joyful service it should be, is to establish a line of 
communication with some boy in the camp or at the front. 
You may not think he cares particularly whether the 
folks at home are thinking about him, but he does, and 
telling him so will help him and you. Send him the 
periodicals after you have read them. A one cent stamp 
carries the magazine to some soldier boy, and everyone 
of them are “our boys,” so it makes little difference where 
it lands or into whose hands it falls. 
Furthermore, we are vitally interested as a nation, not 
only that our men return, but we are just as much inter¬ 
ested in how they return. Will they come back to us mor¬ 
ally fit? Will they come back to us in that sublime tiling 
we call faith, faith in God and man? I tell you, my 
friends, that the line of communication should, if possible, 
be maintained. In line with the thought, the ladies of my 
church, under the leadership of my good wife, sent a 
Christmas box to each man who had gone out from this 
congregation, and I am impressed, and you will be, with 
a message which came from one young man, “It is a 
jileasure to fight for those who love us.” This is not idle 
sentimentality I am speaking to you, but is founded upon 
the truest philosophy the world has ever known. Neither 
is it a new teaching I bring you. Two thousand years ago 
there lived the greatest Teacher the world has ever 
known, and being asked the direct question, what is 
man’s loftiest ideal, he unhesitatingly declared, “that ye 
love one another.” I, then, am not ashamed to stand be¬ 
fore a twentieth century audience and declare that a call 
to sendee today is most fittingly answered in the com¬ 
mandment I have just repeated. 
Need of the Hour—Leaders 
A leader is never a slacker. There has never been an 
hour in the history ot the world, nor wdll there ever be, 
w hen men mentally and morally fit w ere not needed to 
lead the timid and fearful to higher ground, and certainly 
this is true in a peculiar w^ay of the present. “Keep the 
home fires burning,” represents sufficient patriotism to 
supply the hundred million Americans whose call to ser¬ 
vice will be in helping to solve the everyday affairs at 
home. President Wilson’s call to seixice is a selective 
draft of every man, woman and child in America. We 
aie engaged in the mghtiesl conflict the world has ever 
