Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 280, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1917 — Page 3

America's Wonderful Cotton Crop

* Government experimenters have found it has high food value for both man and beast :: A gold mine for the South, it has become one of this nation s most profitable “war brides”

YOU can eat cotton" has become the slogan of the forces engaged in enthroning still more firmly the,.South s chief agricultural product. The South has been thrilled with the vi'sion of a farm crop which cannot only clothe the world and provide the base for huge quantities of powerful explosives but can supply food as well. Everyone knows the important part cotton is playing in the making of the high explosives needed to win titanic battles on land and sea. In recent years an ever increasing number of important uses have been found for cottonseed and other waste. Cottonseed meal has been used for i years in the preparation of food for animals and jin the making of cooking compounds, but experiments made recently in Oklahoma and in other parts of the South have demonstrated that cottonseed meal when properly combined with other materials makes an acceptable flour, and can also serve as a substitute for meats, owing to its richness in protein. The hulls are now being used in preparing feed for live-stock, and are consumed in enormous quantities. Another by-product which is serving the country i well at this time is linters, the short lint removed ■ from the seed in the course of its preparation for eating purposes. Linters are almost pure cellulose, which is the base of one of the high explosives used in most of the armies and navies of the world. And pound for pound, cottonseed will provide as much lard as any hog, the seed from a bale of cotton yielding as much high-grade lard as five average hogs. The enormous increase in the demand for cotton, combined with conditions in America and other parts of the world which have reduced the available supply, assures the South a period of prosperity. When newspapers printed stories recently regarding the spectacular feat of cotton in climbing to 27 cents, the highest point since 1871, they gave but a hint of the prosperity which has been brought to the South *by its war bride.

Hotels Copy Army Meals

A few w’eeks ago the quartermaster general’s department, faithful to its complicated task of supplying everything from shoes to sugar to a rapidly forming army of more than one million men, telegraphed an appeal to 58 leading hotel proprietors throughout the. country asking the loan of 3,840 chefs and expert cooks to teach the science of gastronomies to the kitchens of our 16 new cantonments. Now, the “browned in the oven” old mess sergeants of our regular army cooking schools —of which four have flourished for many years—are willing and anxious to sit at the feet of the capable wizards whb’lavF'fed Fifth avenue"and Tremont street; but so great is. the faith of the mess sergeant in the “Manual for Army Cooks, Issue of 1916, that they pause reflectively in their scientifically arranged pantries and allow—quite unofficially—that maybe a few of those fancy chefs will go back to their hotels with one or two choice recipes well worth trying on the favored fellow who always gets by the plush rope and calls the head waiter by his first name. As a matter of fact, M. Panchard, famous chef of the Hotel McAlpin, New York, was “lent” a while back in order to gain sufficient knowledge of army cookery to Instruct National Guard kitchens in various New York armories. Panchard spent two days at Washington barracks, where he studied the cuisine, for enlisted men; he went back to New York with his observations, together with a copy of the month’s menu. The day of Civil war hardtack and Spanish war embalmed beef is “long gone.” Emergency rations, of course, the soldier must dnrry to tide him over bad situations where the enemy fire is hotter, than the bake ovens behind the line. But for feeding his armies in barrack and trench, Uncle Sam has become a domestic scientist who thinks in terms of nutritive values and a psychologist who realizes that the stomach’s digestive juices will not respond unless the palate telegraphs its

approval to the brain. In the months to come, when our American “rolling kitchens” are perched reasonabiy out of range on a scarred field somewhere in. France and our boys from home are emptying their plates of a generous helping of “El Rancho” stew, they, may lift their bullet-proof helmets to, the printed consoler, comforter and friend which has followed them to the trenches —the “Manual for Army Cooks,” issue of 1916. 1 > As a matter of history, the present volume of official recipes is about a dozen years old. It has been collected from many sources by many wise men adorned with uniforms and backed by general orders; but its choicest and best originated in the instinctive inimitable methods of Aunt Diana, who ’concocted her champion waffles by "jes’ tastin’.” In fact, a large majority of the good and fine points in Uncle Sam’s dally menu for his Sammiefe is due to an old commissary sergeant of Fort Riley. His name was Dunne, and he was one of those "born s to the griddle," who has the same advantage over the ordinary aspiranj kitchen honors that Kubelik had from birth over the little girl next door. He was not a man of education in the ordinary acceptance of the word, but he was a first-

Almost everyone recalls the slump in • cotton which followed the opening of the war and how, with cotton selling as low*as five and seven cents a pound, the South arose as one man in an organized “Buy-a-bale-of-cotton” campaign which enabled the cotton producers to tide their industry over the financial doldrums which resulted from the chaos of war. The manner in which cotton rebounded from this low mark makes it one of the huskiest war brides in America, with the possible exception of the munitions and allied industries. When cotton had reached 18 cents last year there were certain optimists who were predicting 25-cent cotton, and they did not have to wait long for that miracle to come to pass. When King Cotton passed the 27-cent mark recently it marked the highest level of prices since the days immediately following the close of the Civil war, when *" Southern planters were able to obtain almost any price they asked for their cotton. It is believed that this prosperity will continue long after peace is restored. Until the world’s greatly depleted supply of cotton is replenished at least there should be no material change in the situation. The latest available estimates as to this year’s crop show an increase of approximately

class army cook. On* scraps of wrapping paper or old bills he kept a copy of every recipe he had ever tried. These were edited by Colonel Holbrook, then in command at Fort Riley, and published in a little book called “Methods of Handling Army Rations,” which was developed into the “Manual for Army Cooks” the textbook in the army schools for cooks and bakers started In 1900 by General Sharpe, now quartermaster general. There is a legend to the effect that there are several . amusing miislcal diatribes against the army food, but questioning of officers and men at the Washington Barracks school does not reveal them. One sergeant —one of the three “noncoms” in line for their commissions—said that when the food was bad the men “got the growl” and wouldn’t sing at all, and when It was good they\ “felt fine and sang, the prettiest songs they knew.” It is rather heartening to think that the men can have the same food in the field as they ao in barracks. This is accomplished by the bakeries, which are portable, easily taken down and set up, and by the very remarkable “rolling kitchens,” which cook a meal as the army marches, having lunch or supper ready when the order comes to pitch camp. All of these kitchens have stoves for burning oil and also arrangements for the. use of coal or wood. One model, of which the government has ordered a great many, has tiyo double boilers, where oatmeal, for Instance, may be. cooked #s the big stove on wheels trails on supply wagon or struck. Also there are direct heat boilers where coffee may be made, or one of the many delicious, stews, the familiar Irish, the savory “El Rancho” (containing everything eatable on a ranch), or the very delectable American stew, Invented on the Mexican border and the first favorite at Sammies’ table. a. ■' There is also an oven where a roast may be brought to a turn, and, as a surprise tQ you, a big, smooth plate where flapjacks come to life. One kitchen will feed 200 men, a war-strength company, and It will need thfree men to operate it. Trailing each kitchen Is a tireless cooker with four large compartments. These are very Convenient In that the tin receptacles fit either the stovo or the tireless department and can be transferred without the bother of emptying of food from one vessel to another.

Tbere are now' four regular schools for army cooks —at Fort Sam Houston, Tex.; Fort Riley, Kan.; Monterey, Cal., and Washington barracks. The cantonments increased these schools manyfold. It takes about four* months of rigorous instruction to make a first-class army cook, but under the intensive method the cantonment cooks will bd educated in half this time. There are many very delicious and exceedingly efficient recipes in the “Manual for Army Cooks, and Uncle Sam gives his boys all three of their excellent meals for an average of 40 cents a day. If the economy of 40 cents a kitchen could be brought Into all American homes we would hear little of food conservation, for the utilization of every edible molecule is nothing short of marvelous, as is the system of accounting for every ingredient that comes out of the storeroom. —Wal» lace Irwin in Louisville Courier-Journal. 1

V THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

COTTON COMPRESS

cotton acreage would have resulted in an even more serious predicament for the cotton planters during the summer season. Another reason for the decline in production has been the strong pressure brought to bear upon the South to practice diversified farming. This has resulted in some states in a considerable decrease in the cotton acreage in order that more corn, wheat, oats, hay and other food crops might be grown, though these conditions are more or less local. |The government is engaged in a campaign to interest the South in feeding Itself, and many thousands of farmers who planted cotton almost exclusively have embarked in diversified farming in the last two years. The idea back of the diversified farming movement in the South is to make cotton the moneymaking crop, and to utilize corn and other staple farm crops to pay the expenses of operating the farm and to enable the South to produce enough foodstuffs to feed itself. Thus,'a tenant farmer who has 40 acres in cotton would, provided he practiced diversified farming successfully, make from $2,500 to $5,000 a year, all kom the sale of his cotton. This would be net profit, but would not, of course, include the increased value given the land through the enrichment of the soil by the crop-rotation plan. The average tenant farmer who practices crop rotation well can double his cotton production within two or three years, it has been demonstrated.

This gives food for speculation as to the possibility which would follow the general adoption of crop diversification throughout the South. The average tenant farmer can grow barely more than one bale of cotton to the acre, though with proper farming and. fertilization he can Increase this yield to three bales an acre, according to farniirig experts. However, not all of the Southern cotton fields are soil Impoverished and It would be doing the better-class cotton planter an injustice to say that by proper farming he could double or triple his cotton crop. Of the 35,000,000" acres planted in cotton this year, a large percentage of the acreage could be so increased in fertility as to double the yield by 1919, provided crop rotation was followed out along the most modern lines. With better farming the South will thus be able to make its 35,000,000 acres or more do the work of from 45,000,000 to 50,000,000 acres under the old plan. Any Important reduction in acreage, therefore, is not to be looked upon with alarm for there is certain to be a consequent increase In production, barring unforeseen weather calamities. To this increased production must be added the millions of dollars added to the wealth of the South by the other\farm products grown In increased quantities. K ' The slogan, "The South Must Feed Itself,” is the outgrowth of this campaign for crop rotation as practiced In the North and West. The realization of this dream would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the wealth of the

South alone, for almost all of the states will become producers instead of consumers. . Despite the enviable climate and the good soil possessed by Alabama there are many counties which spend one million dollars or more each year in importing outside foodstuffs. With the practice of diversified farming it will be possible for every county In the state to export as much corn and other farm crops as it now Imports. Some observers have taken the view, especially since the entry of the United States into the war has resulted In" increased activity in the diversified farming campaign, that a serious blow is intended at King Cotton, but such is not the case. The whole idea of the campaign is not to uproot the chief Southern crops for the Northern crops, but to rotate such crops as have soilenriching values, so as to enable the Southern soil to produce even greater cotton crops. Because of its revolutionary character, the diversified farming campaign has not made much progress except In Alabama, Georgia and neighboring states, which have been adding tens of milliops of dollars I to the value of their farm products each year in recent years. When the war sent corn and wheat to skyhigh prices along with cotton, it proved much easier to enlist the sympathies of the Southern farmer, and many thousands of fanners 1 are making more money growing ’high-priced corn and wheat thap they did in growing cotton. This is due chiefly to the relief given the soil by crop rotation, and sueh.conditiAns will be even more common next season, when the qoii rebuilding process adopted byvnature is given time to get well underway. Impetus has alone been given crop diversification by the shortage of The most of these crops reqtilre less labor than cotton and ban be tended more efficiently than cotton.

200,000 bales over the crop of hist year, but this is 4,500.000 bales less than the recordbreaking crop of three years ago. Two new conditions in American agricultural life are responsible in the main for the failure of this year’s cotton crop to meet or even pass the record of 1914. Perhaps the one felt more commonly throughout the South has been the acute shortage of labor, due to the fact that many thousands of negroes have been enticed North into the munitions plants and factories by the lure of higher wages. It is obvious that any general attempt to increase the

REAL WAR ISSUES SHOULD BE KNOWN

Success Depends Upon Realization of Vital Interests That Are at Stake. NEED LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS ' People Can Maintain Enthusiasm Through Patriotic Leagues In Each Locality, Says James 'W M. Beck. By JAMES M. BECK, Author of "The Evidence in the Case.* Some weeks ago it was my privilege to make a trip to the middle West at the Invitation of patriotic societies in Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, and. St. Paul. In each of these cities I addressed large and representative meetings on the issues of the war. Four of these cities had an exceptionally large population of foreign birth or immediate ancestry, that of Cleveland alone aggregating, as I was informed, 75 per cent of its whole population.

As one who from the beginning of the war earnestly advocated the participation of the United States in the world war in defense of the basic rights of civilization, I naturally looked with great Interest to the nature of the response which I might receive from audiences gathered, In most cases by public invitation, to hear a discussion of these Issues. If there is any apathy in the middle West, these audiences gave no Indication of it. So far as my experience and observation in those cities justifies any opinion—and I appreciate how dangerous such generalizations are —I found a loyal and ungrudging intention on the part of all classes of American citizens to support their country and Its president In this most righteous war. It was especially gratifying to see how the best of the American youth had arisen with vigor and enthusiasm to President Wilson’s inspiring call to arms.

Much to Be Done. Nevertheless there is much to be done if the interest is to be maintained and America is to play a large and noble part in the greatest of all wars. There are many ways of developing this interest, but I know of none that is so well adapted to” its object as the plan proposed by Dr. Ellery C. Stowell, the dlstingi ished historian of Columbia college, who some months ago commenced to develop a patriotic service league in his own congressional district. The principal object of this league was to give the civilian an opportunity to support at home the work of his soldiers in the field, and the results which followed Doctor Stowell’s movement in his own congressional district (the nineteenth of New York) were so gratifying that a similar local organization was commenced in the seventeenth district, and the organization has already made an excellent beginning.

It seems very desirable that in every congressional district there should be such a patriotic service league, composed of its best citizens, who will unite to promote the objects of the war, to secure enlistments, to interest the masses in America’s vital stake in the war, to combat sedition, to increase subscriptions to governmental loans and the Red Cross, and In all other possible ways t 6 support the armies of America in the field. War in its actual operations has become a matter of mechanics, chemistry, and industrial organization, but fundamentally It remains, as it has always been, a question of psychology. No nation ever conducted a great war to a successful conclusion unless its heart was in it For this reason a very serious work remains to be done in this country, and that Is to interest the American people, as individuals, in the causes and Issues of this titanic contest and its supreme importance to the future of the United States.

Not All United in 76. A somewliat similar condition existed when our Republic was founded. The great problem was to interest the people of the colonies in the struggle. That struggle has become such an epic that we are apt to think that all Americans had equal zeal in defending the constitutional rights of the colonies. The fa'ct unfortunately was to the contrary. John Adams, long after the revolution had been brought to a successful 'conclusion, estimated that at the beginning of the struggle one-third of the colonists wanted Independence, about one-third were very much opposed to it, and about one-third were in a state of opportunist expectancy, waiting t© see on which side the balance would fall. While Adams was something of a chronic faultfinder and may have exaggerated, yet at the beginning of the revolution our people were no more of one mind than they are The great patriots of the revolution, men like Jefferson and Washington and Franklin, fohned what they called “Committees of Correspondence” in every different locality and thus they coordinated the ’work of different localities the crisis developed, there passed from community to community, through these committees of correspondence, the intelligence as to what was expected and what would be re-

quired, and as a result, when General Gage marched upon Lexington and Concord, 16,000 minute men mobilized at the gates of Boston within 48 hours, an amazing fact, when one thinks of the limited population at that time. It was the work of the committees of correspondence. The committees organized eaOh locality, appealing to the man at his home, and thus a patriotic sentiment was developed which made of this country a great and independent pation. And so powerfully did this Impress Itself upon the master mind of Thomas Jefferson that when he was dying on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence he seemed again to remember those days of stress and trial at the beginning of the revolution, and was heard to cry in his delirium excitedly, “Warn the .committees; warn the committees I” People Must Know Issues. We will not make full progress In this war until we can bring home to the people to their very hearthstones, that not only is this as vital a contest as any that America -was ever engaged in, but that is one that affects the happiness, prosperity, and the honor of the American people. Remember the fine lines of the noblest hymn ever written for any nation in the hour of battle—l mean Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic, and nothing in any literature has a more martial movement than that most stirring of all battle hymns:

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. He Is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat, Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet. Our God Is marching on. Is our soul swift to answer our country’s call? Are our feet jubilant to enter into this contest? If not, then the nation is in peril. This war will not be a matter of months, and sooner or later the mere patriotic submission to a political action of a government will spend Its force. A people must have a definite enthusiasm If it Is to give the best blood of its youth to any. cause. You will not find that spirit until you reach the Individual American and teach him that he has a vital and personal interest in this particular war. Rule of Force Must Go. Our people must be brought to realize vitally and practically that this war involves the sacred principle of righteousness in international affairs, the rule of reason in the commonwealth of nations, and that unless this be vindicated by a peace with victory, all talk of the pacification of humanity, whether by The Hague tribunal or paper treaties or leagues of peace or In any other way you please, is all rainbow phantasy and moonshine. Unless there can be first established the great principle of right and reason the principle of law dominating sovereign nations, a liberal civilization will perish from the earth. When Germany and Austria attempted to crush Serbia without rhyme or reason, without opportunity for discussion, Great Britain, France, and Russia said, "Let us reason about it,” and Germany said “No!” “Then give us a little time.” “No!” "Then let us have a conference.” "No!” "Then let us have arbitration.” “No!” “Let us have mediation.” “No!” "Let us discuss it in any way you please, by any expedient you may select; you can have Belgrade and occupy It as a hostage, but for God’s sake do not spill the best blood of the world needlessly. Germany and Austria said, “No! You will do our will or you will have a universal war!” If that principle of force as the ultima ratio is to prevail, the world will go back centuries, even to the cave dwellers; because, if you go back even twenty centuries, the law of Rome had at least something of justice and of the obligates of law in its maintenance of the world’s peace; whereas in this case you have a brutal and primitive negation of any principle of right or wrong, you have simple the assertion that might, and might alone, shall govern the affairs of men.

Most Sacred Cause. There never was a more sacred cause fought for since the world began than that for which France and Great Britain and their allies have hitherto so freely given the best blood of their youth. I do not want to live in this world if this world is to be dominated by brutal force. Whatever optimism I might have had three months ago I have not Im? the same measure now. I think the Issue of this titanic conflict is very doubtful. It is a life-and-death grapple between the two great powers of right and might; but I want to say advisedly and deliberately that if I saw clearly that the cause bf the allies was going down to defeat, that we were to be involved in that defeat, that we were to suffer its grievous and burdensome penalties, I would yet thank God that the United States went into the war and fell and suffered with the righteous rather than it should remain neutral and profit by other people’s sufferings. I have no regret that we entered into this war. There was only one thing for- a proud and selfrespecting nation to do;, and I rejoice that America, with all her many dlsad* vantages With respect to her heterogeneous population, its diversified—geographically speaking—conditions, has had the soul to accept her share of the burdens of'« distracted civilization. To recur to my thesis, let a patriotic service league, under whatever name, be formed in every district, and then let the cry be, “Warn the committees,” for now, as in the past. “Eternal vigilance la the price of liberty."