TIIE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
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to the war, and if I had an hour rather than ten minutes there are 
some things I would like to say. 
When we review the pages of history, we find that God’s 
originial plan for man’s government was a plan of democracy. 
There came a time when, to he like other peoples round about 
him, man overthrew the divine plan, demanding a king to rule 
over him, and the world has been in a turmoil over the question 
ever since. The present war, which to-day envelopes practically the 
world, is the natural outgrowth of two contending forces—of two 
distinct ideas of government: auotcrarcy on the one hand, with 
its despotic emporers and Kaisers—and democracy on the other, 
holding to the belief that all power is vested in the people. 
Between these systems of government there is and can be no 
common ground. The Imperial German government is truly rep- 
ative of that autocracy which believes in the divine right of 
Kaiser and kings, that the toiling masses are so many chatties to 
be exploited for the aggrandizement of the nobility, that might 
is the jiower which shall rule the world; while, on the other 
hand, the government of the United States, representing as it 
does the purest democracy on earth, contends that right is the 
law of God and must ultimately govern the world, that all men 
are created free and equal, therefore capable of governing their 
own affairs. To recognize that this is a contest between these 
ideas of government, we need only to look at the line-up. Ger¬ 
many, Austria, and Turkey, representing as they do the auto¬ 
cratic trio of the world, aiid England, France and the United States 
of America, representing world democracy. The facts are there 
is no longer room in the world for these two ideas of govern¬ 
ment. One of them must die. Students of history, with the eye 
of a prophet, have forseen the conflict which to-day rends the 
world, and when the smoke of battle has cleared 1 hope and 
believe that this controversy which has been a world menace for 
so long will have been settled, and that our victory purchased at 
so great a price will purge the world of autocratic government 
forever. Our advent into this war, then, is not only right and 
proper but it is the most natural, for we, of all peoples on earth, 
revere democracy, and under the slogan of that great and good 
man, our Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief, Woodrow 
Wilson, “we will fight until right is the law of the world,” until 
Prussian militarism is banished from this earth. But what is 
your part and mine in all this? 
More than three thousand years ago, upon the identical soil 
which to-day forms a part of the world’s battle ground, two 
armies were contending for supremacy. On the one hand we see 
as the Commander-in-Chief that master statesman, prophet, and 
friend of God, Moses with his Commanding General, Joshua, in 
charge. Arrayed against the armies of Israel in vastly superior 
numbers are the heathen forces of Amalek. As the hour of 
battle approaches, Moses goes out upon the mountain to com¬ 
mune with God, and in his hand he carries the staff which has 
played so important a part in his own life and in the life of the 
nation. As the battle is staged, this staff, verily the wand of God, 
is outstretched over the armies of Israel, and Moses breathes a 
prayer to God for victory. All day long the battle rages and, as 
the story goes, as long as Closes’ arms were outstretched the 
army of Israel won. Late in the day, out of sheer exhaustion, the 
hands of this old patriot dropped to his side. His power of en¬ 
durance had reached its limit, his hands remained impotent at 
his side. At this juncture there came upon the scene two men 
who, while not fitted for service on the battlefield, recognized 
that there was a part that each could render, a place where each 
could serve, and, standing one on one side and one on the other, 
Aaron and Hur “held up the hands of Moses until the going down 
of the sun,” and victory was won. 
I hope that each of you may, for the duration of the war, make 
money, may make more money than ever before in your life, but 
only that you may be able to contribute, through tax and through 
investment in war securities and war charities, every dollar you 
are able to earn and spare from a most frugal and economical 
living. 1 do not believe that any one of us has a moral right to 
pile up profits for ourselves as long as this war lasts, nor do I 
believe our leaders will allow it. The profits of business, great 
and small, should, and doubtless will be, taken in tax if not in¬ 
vested in government war securities, and this, beyond question, 
is the government’s plan. We should, with this purpose before 
us, by every honorable means, endeavor to make our business 
turn out profits, difficult as the proposition now seems. 
We should renounce and denounce all destructive criticism as 
a war measure, and for the duration of the war. IMost peoi)le 
are loyal, but ocasionally we run across a blatherskite who 
knows just how to run the nation’s affairs. He wants to tell yon. 
that while he is every whit American, he deplores the serious 
mistakes our leaders are making, etc., etc. I am a peaceable 
man, but when I run across one of these fellows, whether he 
addresses me or not, 1 just naturally “butt into him.” I tell you 
it is the basest egotism to indulge in criticism about a matter we 
can know little about, and it is criminal negligence to allow the 
un-American whom we occasionally meet, and who finds delight 
in denouncing our leaders, to indulge in enemy propaganda, even 
though that propaganda be idle talk. I care not who is Pres¬ 
ident, Secretary of State, War, or Navy, 1 am 100% American, 
and while this war lasts, by the help of God, I will hold up the 
hands of my leaders until the going down of the sun, until vic¬ 
tory is won. 
We should, by every means at our disposal, contribute to the 
production of food. Our business represents the highest type of 
agriculture, therefore we may, without serious loss or incon¬ 
venience, divert at least a part of our capital to the production 
of annual food crops, and no service, not even that on the battle 
front, is of greater importance at this hour. Our own army, the 
armies of our allies, and a large part of the neutral peoples of 
the world, must be fed, and if we fail in this service our armies 
will fail, and many peoples of the neutral nations will virtually 
starve. Never before in all the world has so gigantic, so Hercu¬ 
lean a task been presented to a people as that which comes to us 
in the cir for bread from across the seas to-day, and we must not 
fail. We must produce the maximum in those staples most eco¬ 
nomical for export, we must consume tlie “substitute” and save 
the staples for our men who are fighting the battle of civilization. 
And now, in conclusion, may I speak of one other thing, and 
the most important of all, even though my time is up. 1 offer no 
apology in speaking of this other service we may render, for 
surely during recent days a new precedent has been given us by 
those highest in esteem of the world to-day. There is certainly 
no disposition on my part to “preach” at you to-day,- and 1 am 
sure that you who know me best know that there is nothing of 
cant in what I say, but I feel impressed to speak as 1 do. The 
world to-day is in the remaking, my friends, and each of us must, 
if we do a man’s part, assume our responsibility. Business, so¬ 
ciety, politics, religion will not be the same again because of this 
baptism of blood. America has just begun to pay her toll in the 
lives of the fairest and bravest young men who ever w’ent to war. 
As yet we do not fully understand, but we will understand, and 
when we do we will come into closer fellowship with God in 
prayer, and in life, and this is the service we must yet render. In 
1914 when the thundering armies of Germany were battling at 
the very gates of Paris, when seemingly nothing stood in the way 
of the “triumphant German hosts” occupying the capital of sunny 
France, there was a halt, followed by a retreat, which up to this 
good hour has not been explained by military critics. On this 
occasion it is said that Lord Roberts was talking wjth Lord Kitch¬ 
ener when the telegram announcing the unlooked for German 
retreat was handed in. Lord Roberts exclaimed, “Only God 
Almighty could have done this,” and 1-ord Kitchener replied, 
“Somebody must have been praying.” On May 7th, in London, a 
special intercession service was held, and,- commenting on the 
matter from the point of view of national influence, a writer of 
international fame has assembled the view point of some of the 
leading statesmen and generals of England and France. Under 
the caption, “Victory Depends on Prayer,” the following extract 
from the pen of General Sir W. Robertson is worth remembering. 
“It is only when the whole empire unites in prayer as well as in 
work that we can look forward with confidence to a successful 
conclusion of this tragic war and to a just and righteous peace.” 
This writer makes the further statement that Generals Haig and 
Beatty of the English army are men of devout prayerful life, and 
that when General Foch, Commander-in-Chief of the allied armies 
of the world, was interviewed on the subject of prayer, he said, 
“we shall be saved by prayer and it will not be the first time in 
this deadly struggle.” 
On the 13th of May of this year, a certain news item occupied 
a prominent place on the front page of every daily news-paper 
in the United States, and, as far as I know, nothing like it has 
ever happened before. The United States Congress, through 
resolution, petitioning the President to issue a proclamation 
calling the people of the nation to observe Thursday, May 30th, 
as a day of humiliation, of prayer, and of fasting, is, to my mind, 
most significant. You were impressed as was 1, with the Presi¬ 
dent’s proclamation in answer to the resolution adopted by Con¬ 
gress, and with the acceptance of it all by the people of our na¬ 
tion. Suppose tliat here and there was one whose spiritual life 
was so calloused as to render him immune to the uplifting in¬ 
fluences of a day dedicated to God in prayer, but most of us, 1 
think, entered into the spirit of the occasion and joined our great 
President in the prayer that we might be found worthy of God’s 
will being worked out through us. I do not know how all this 
impresses you, but to me it is a source of genuine thankfulness 
that first in our own nation are men at the helm of the Ship of 
