Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1917 — KEY TO SUCCESS HELD BY FARMER [ARTICLE]

KEY TO SUCCESS HELD BY FARMER

Gifford Pinchot Shows That War Cannot Be Won Unless Tillers of Soil Provide Food. Gifford Pinchot, high priest of conservation in the United States, submitted the fallowing letter of publicaltion to practically every newspaper in the country. After it has been read it will have to be admitted that Mr. Pinchot sums up the situation succinctly as fallows: ~~~ “In this great time, when every citizen must do his part, the President has made his chief appeal to the men who live on this land. He might in so doing, for the safety of the country is now in the hands of our farmers. What I mean is not entirely our safety and the safety of the Allies in the matter of food. I mean that the safety of the United States against foreign invasion hangs the decision of the farmers of the fortyeight states.

“The two great weapons in this war are arms and starvation. _ The war against German arms will be won or lost in Franch and the war of starvation will be won or lost in America. The Kaiser cannot whip the French and English navies while England has food. But it is still possible that the German submarines msay be able to keep food enough from reaching England to starve her into submission. “If the submarines win, the first item in the Kaiser’s peace terms will be the English fleet. With the English fleet in his possession the Kaiser will be master of the world. “What will happen to us then? Every mw who stops to think knows the answer. We shall have ' money, food, labor, land —everything that is desirable in the world exfeept the power to protect what we have. Experts estimate that it will take us nine months to get ready to meet a German army of even 150,000 men, with 'modern artillery. Under such circumstances, would the Germans treat us better 'than they have already treated Belgium and France ? “Even if the armies of our Allies should crush the Gen-man military power this summer, before the shortage of food can reach the point of want, the world would still need vast quantities- of American food. But if they do not, only one course can make us safe, and that is to grow enough food on our farms for ourselves and our Allies, and to put -ships enough on the sea to carry the food, in spite of submarines, to the men who are fighting our fight. “If the war lasts beyond this summer it will be the American farmer who will win or lose the war, who will - overcome- militarism and autocracy, or allow the to spread and control the worldi, ourselves included. “This is no fanciful picture, but sober fact. Many a man will make light of it, until he comes to think it over, but I venture to say that few will treat it light after careful thought. It is no more possible than the great war itself appeared to be, only a few days before it began. “It is tru ethat we can greatly increase the available supply of -grain now used in liquors, and by reducing household waste. But when these two things are done, and done thoroughly, there will not be enough. The final decision' will still rest in the hands of the men who raise our food iin the first place. . . “The clear duty of the nation is .to .guarantee' the fanners a fair price for their crops when grown, and a reasonable supply of labor at harvest. The. clear duty of the farmer is to raise enough food to win this war for Democracy against Kaiserdom. “No such responsibility has ever rested on any class of men since the world began as rests today on the farmers of America.”