Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 146, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1918 — HELP FARMERS HOLD THE LINE [ARTICLE]

HELP FARMERS HOLD THE LINE

Town Men Called as Patriotic Duty to Assist With the Crops. CAN’T WIN WITHOUT FOOD Can't Produce Sufficient Food Unless High School Boys and Town Volunteers Are Used to Utmost in Every Community. (Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) If one part of the western front fails to hold, no matter at what cost, when the command has been issued that no ground must be given, the freedom of the world, your freedom, your family’s security, are imperiled. If one state fails to hold its part of the line back home —fails to produce Its part of the' food crops needed for war purposes—the strength of the battle front is weakened. And as it is weakened your home becomes less secure. That is the personal meaning of the situation. The gravest period of human history may be described in terms of a popular American expression—and practice. Civilization endures or declines, fredom flourishes or fails, just as that line on the western front “delivers the goods,” just as the production line back home “delivers the goods,” just as you “deliver the goods.” Will You Deliver? The western line is making delivery. What about your state, your county, your town—you? It is necessary in every county and community for emergency farm labor needs this summer and fall to be supplied by emergency workers from the towns of that county and community as far as possible. Which means that you—a town man of past farm experience—are called, as a patriotic duty, to work on nearby farms this summer and fall at such intervals and for such periods as local conditions may Which means that you—a farmer — must make the best of this emergency help as a patriotic duty. We can’t win the war without food; we can’t pro-i duce food without 1 farm labor; we can’t have sufficient farm labor this year unless high school boys and town volunteers are used to the utmost in every community, Idlers forced to go to work, every community’s entire energy turned to farm work during the “peaks” of cultivation and harvest. Some town people have had this attitude : “Oh, ft is hard work on farms, and the pay is smaller than I earn in town. Why should I lay off from my town job even for a short time and do farm work? Why can’t some one else do it? One person doesn’t amount to much. So what does it matter whether I do any farm work In this county or lot?”

Of course, if you were the only person in all the United States to have a “let-the-other-fellow-do-it” viewpoint It would make no difference. But suppose the other fellow feels the same way. All it would amount to, if that sort of thing continued, would merely be-rour losing the war. That is the Importance of your part. Some farmers have had this attitude: “Oh, it is hard to make crops with haphazard help—boys and town volunteers. Why can’t some other farmers use that sort of help? One farm doesn’t amount to much. What does it matter whether I keep up my production by using this emergency labor or not?” As in the case of the town man, it would be a trivial thing If you were the only one. But the other farmer may conclude he Is safe in “laying down on the job" since you are going tojdo your part. A continuance of that would merely mean —our losing the war. That is the importance of your part. The only course that la safe and certain is for every town person of farm experience to go to work on farms in tils community, when and where he is needed during the heavy periods this summer and fall; for every farmer to

use all the help of this kind that he needs and can secure. Duty Is the Word. It will be more dr less inconvenient in each Instance. It will be more or less of a hardship to each party. The war Is chock-full of inconveniences and hardships. The trenches are not places of ease and comfort and financial reward, and the fighters have not fared forth upon joy rides and pleasure parties. They charge into hell, not because it is.a pleasant thing to do, but because it is their duty so to do under the grim circumstances of war. The town man must go to the farm for precisely the same reason. The farmer must accept him for precisely the same reason. It is a little enough thing for either of them to do by comparison with the things the men at the front are doing. lit isn’t a work to be left to the other state; it must be done in your state. It isn’t a work to be left to the other

county and the other town; It must b« done In your county and your town. It isn’t a work to be done by the other fellow—it must be done by you.