Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1917 — ARMS AND STARVATION [ARTICLE]

ARMS AND STARVATION

(By Gifford Pinchot) I In this great time, when every citizen must do his part, the President has made his chief appeal to the men who live on the land. He is right in doing so, for the safety of our country just now is in the i hands of our farmers. What I mean is not merely our safety and the safety of our allies in the matter of food. 14 I mean that the safety, of the United States against foreign invasion hangs on the decision of the farmers of the forty-eight states. The two great weapons in this war are arms and. starvation. The war against German arms will be i won or lost in France- —the war • against starvation will be won or lost in America. The kaiser cannot whip the French and English armies and the English navy while England has food. But it is still possible that the German submarines may be able to keep food enough from reaching England to starve her into submission. i If the submarines win, the first item in the kaiser’s terms of peace will be the English fleet. With the English fleet in his possession, - the kaiser will be master of the world, j What will happen to us then? Every man who stops to think knows the answer. We bhall have money, food, labor, land —everything that is desirable in the world except 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 German 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 food enough on our farms for ourselves and our allies, and to put ships enough on the sea to carry the food, in spite of the 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 them to spread and control the world, 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 lightly after careful thought. It is no mere impossible than the great war itself appeared to be only a few days before it began. It is true that we can greatly increase the available food supply out of grain now used in making liquors, and by reducing household waste. But when these two things are done, and done thoroughly, they will not be enough.- The final decision will still rest in the hands of the men who raise our food in the first place. The clear duty of the nation is to guarantee the farmers a fair price for their trops when grown and a reasonable supply of labor at harvest. The clear duty of the farmer is to raise food enough to win this war for democracy against kaiserism. ~ '• No such responsibility has ever rested on any class of —men since the world .began as rests today on the farmers of America. 8