Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1918 — DOUBLE THE CROP TO WIN THE WAR [ARTICLE]

DOUBLE THE CROP TO WIN THE WAR

Food Is How Arrenca's Most Important Asset and Weapon. COMB OUT IS DIE MEN Draft the Exempted lies in ait Agricultural Army Put a Million Men at the Disposal of the Farmer. By MARK SWAM. We Ameracans Eke to coaslder ourselves the most mii&f-awaJfce people In the world, Hustle is met mobile name, and we gioay in it. WVn the word American is mtsdaecjei. ta connection with a Join, or an «Eergency, we conjure up a anesoail pareusre of an alert ind determined SndhradnaJ. with the fine frenzy «f oeoit&ct gaming in his eyes, rolling up Ms rieeves and doing things. We revel an shits conception of ourselves. U; is very complimentary and very ewrafcrtiuig. There is one slight flaw in liie patinnre. It isn’t true. Naturally, whew a spectacular opportunity arises. Eke the declaration at war last April, we <6-> wake up and do things. We bay koeds. and enlist, and drill; we Joa® -defease leagues, and knit, and make bandages, and all the of it —fevwfcftHy. sincerely—taking great credit to ourselves, meanwhile. fra- «ur utatfj-xyed patriotism, and forgetting, by lie- way. that all the things we me and mean to do, should have lees* foreseen, and done long ago., gusetriy. thoroughly, and as a matter of esunsfe We Are Asleep. '' We were waraedl over mmd over again. But we were arfeepx And we’re asleep now. We’re facing the most tremendous emergency that has ever confronted us. the iaMl eoßd fact that the United States is *>«t p ’uzz to raise as much fo<>d as we raisei last year, that we are not gc£mg to raise nearly enough to sipg4y cnrftrfves and our iillies with foed —mad we’re sound asleep! The lack of re-sit. whew the widely advertised and justly popular Mother Hubbard sought a koe for her dog, is known to iwrihHrs of jcsvenile history, and goes to pnone that the Lady lacked foresight. 3*&ie fe-td a food problem, and sbe isieet It. Like true otf oid Mother Hubbard and Kip- Taw Wfnkfe we stand asleep at the switch, and apjiarently we will sever start to take action until the ctgAndnl is hare. Then it will be too late. ' This year we have had heatiess | days and wheatless -Sty* and meatless j days. Next year w* wtH have cat less j days, but nobody seems to he urn inly j distressed. I If a German ansy were landing on ! Long Island our inertia would vanish. , We would iflasrwsHiag miaig’s. going ion in Russia, and ; worrying about | who’s going to jetch fiw the Giants— I we evea cart oat the Maries, or the cabarets. f« i night or two. We'd drill and shout and work and very litrrly figtif awfl iKr The fdraatkei -eccfreatiug us is Just as serious, though wot as dramatic, as if HintotorgtwreaifidM 1 Bayshore. Hunger is jat as deadly ,-sa enemy as the Ham. Food is or »at Important asd and mxpon. The ®cEy way we can get food is to phaat it. cultivate It and harvest it. But the tarfctr » aims he can’t get labor to do this work. To any mind ojoifc rs comprehendiDg the startling aews that two and two are #?mr. it wuaM seem thaT the vital thing to do is to get labor to the farmer, and ges it to kiaa gubSJy so he can plant has ere®**- If he doestt plant soon be east fOtat at aIL Mow we emt 4a flb as istfvfduals

but we can get together and ask the government to do it. Draft the exempted men In an agricultural army. Draft all the boys from eighteen to twenty-one, not subject to military service. Comb out the idle men. Put a million men at the disposal of the farmer. It won’t hurt any man to work outdoors from March to September, and if now and then we find one too prond to work, the chances are the experience will do him good. Will we seq It in time? Will the national alarm clock go off; and will we realize -that each one of us must take hold and help—or will we join that large and imposing band whose philosophy of life may be briefly summed up in the trenchant phrase, “Let George do it”? If we dtowse on, next winter we will have an excellent chance for repentance at leisure, while we dine OD snowballs a la Russe.