Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 173, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1918 — WHAT SNIPS MEAN TO FARMER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHAT SNIPS MEAN TO FARMER

MGreat Merchant Fleets ®jcW|am Is Building Will Access to W orld Good Prices for PiGucfsfzK.

By GUSTAVUS MYERS.

Noted Historian and Research Writer.

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ITH a probable bumper crop of at least 900,000,000 bushels of bread grains expected from our farms this year, the American farmer is showing what his contribution is to the war for human freedom. Remote as he may be from

the actual scene of conflict, he knows that he Is a big part of the world battle line. Upon his productive efforts largely depend the supplying of the allied armed forces and populations with food. To the appeal, “Food will win the war,” the American farmer has responded with splendid results. But of course that appeal has its qualifications. One proviso is that food will go a long way toward Insuring victory, if. ,we have plenty of ships to convey it where it is needed. Greftt fleets of ships ""have been or are being created by the United States shipping board. They are being produced at a record pace. But to carry out our vast necessary shipping program with the fullest adequacy it is vital that the earnest interest of every part of our great country should be unceasingly enlisted. Far away from the seaboard as many of our farms are, they are joined with the ocean to a degree they never were before. The ships 'supplement the plow and the harvester. Day and night the farmer has been thinking of how he could make his land more productive. It is a subject that never leaves him. The ihdicalions are that so well has he thought it out that this year’s crop of winter wheat alone will be 154.000,000 bushels more than last year’s, large as that was. And this is only one part of the immense crops coming from American farms. True, there is always the gamble of weather conditions and the menace of insect depredations. But the present, promise is a high production from our farms. Of itself this fact does not Alarm the Huns. They know "that our big food supply is of no " danger to them if we cannot get it across. But .what does fill them with dread and foreboding is the knowledge thaf we are rapidly .getting together the ships that will transport it over the ocean to feed our troops and those of the allies .and" the peoples of the countties banded to, defeat Hun aggression. What will further make the Huns quake is the fact that»our millions of farmers are as determined to support the program for vast fleets of ships as they are set upon raising vast crops.. The Hun submarine murder campaign was . undertaken with the express view of starving out certain countries, and terrorizing the rest. It aimed at destroying the ships that could' •carty our supplies to Europe. It didn’t succeed any more in that design than in theeffort to pre- -#• • ■ \ * *•" " ’ ~ p - ’ey

vent the landing of large forces in France. But by its foul methods of warfare it has already sunk many millions of tons of ships. Not only has that world loss to be more than made up, but we have to provide a large further tonnage to keep on sending our soldiers abroad and supplying them adequately. We have the unprecedented job of not only feeding our own army but other armies and other populations also. But the ships required for those purposes are z only a part of what we need. Later on those ships will be necessary in bringing back our victorious soldiers from Europe. But at present and for some time to come the movement is one of full ships to .Europe and fairly empty ones back. The United States is now the great reservoir from which supplies must be drawn/ The enormous gain in our exports shows how other nations are increasingly looking to us to sustain them. Although our exports may Occasionally decline, still on the whole there is every probability of their increasing, not only during—the war but after the war. Large areas of Europe are depopulated and devastated. Many of the rich wheatgrowing sections Including almost all of the win-ter-wheat producing areas of Russia, are in the Germans’ possession. Conditions in Russia are chaotic. The western European allies produced in 1917 aboiit 222.000.000 bushels less than the annual pre-war average. There was a great drop also in the wheat production of other European countries. Argentina, Australia and India are producing good crops. But there is no shipping to move it properly. While the war is on there is a big enough demand from our allies in Europe for materials of all kinds. We have coal, steel, oil. cotton. lumber, rails, locomotives and a great quantity’ of other' products. After the war when the job of rehabilitating Europe is put through. thedemand upon this country for raw and manufactured material of all kinds will be enormous. \\ e shall also have; .Jo. replenish the depleted herds of. Europe cattle. Durs, in fact, will be the task'’oLSupplying most of the world. So it is clear that besides the millions of tons of shipping urgently needed for the army and navy, we shall need a great permanent merchant marine. In 1914 only l $166,000,000 of the more than $2,000,000,000 of our exports was carried in American vessels. Even now a great part of the cargo and passepger ships we are using are seized enemy vessels or requisitioned or chartered allied or neutral vessels. Not only on the Atlantic but on all oceans we must have an abundance of American ships. Since the opening of the Panama canal, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have been linked by the short route. - .

Ships have to be used for Imports as well as exports. Last year we Imported $2,659,000,000 worth of merchandise. We need ample ships on the Pacific to serve China, Japan, the Philippines,

Russia and Australia. All of these countries as well as Central and South America, have materials or products which we need just as they need ours. Australia recently had a surplus stated to be 300,000,000 bushels of wheat and another big surplus in process of gathering. There was enough, in fact, to feed England and France for a year. But it was of no practical use to the allies: There were no vessels to be~spared for the long haul which takes eight or ten weeks from Australia to England. Last year there was a surplus in Java of 1,000.000 tons of sugar which other parts of the world needing badly could not get z because of lack of ships. Great heaps of coffee were spoiling on the East Indian wharves. There was. no shipping to move it to other countries. Pyrites, which was badly needed here, could not be brought from Spain because of the want of ships. These are but a few examples of what a ship famine means. Besides the many millions of tons of shipping needed for the purposes already described, there is also the pressing necessity for multiplying rhe number of ships, tugs and barges for domestic coastwise, lake and inland waterway transportation. These are of the most vital imporf'tanee to the farmer. ( Our inland, lake and coast waterways can be used to transport vast quantities of wheat and other products, and freight of all kinds can be sent back' on the return trip. This transportation will be cheaper to the farmer and greatly tends to relieve railway congestion. In less than a year’s time the accomplishments of the United States shipping board have beeff on an unprecedented scale. Where in .1917 there were only 61 shipyard plants in the United States, there are now 158, and more are beimr constantly established. The United States slipping board has given out contracts for 8,183,000 deadweight tons of ships, and has already put in service 831,111 deadweight tons of new shipping. This in addition to 2.073,826 deadweight tons of neutral and allied _ships under charter, German and Austrian ships' seized, Dutch ships requisitioned. It is launching new ships rapidly, and is beginning to make provision for tugs and barges for inland and coastwise water traffic. From the small number of 44.926 men employed in American shipyards on April 1, 1917, the-force of shipbuilders in our yards has now increased to 300,000. With this progress American farmers can look forward to the certainty of a great merchant marine, built in American shipyards and carrying their products the world over now and" after the war. _ _ _ • '