A NOBLE APPEAL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 288, 29 June 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

A NOBLE APPEAL.

'Amercan papers recently to hand contain the text of a noble and eloquent appeal addressed by President Wilson to the citizens of the United States, immediately following America's decision to enter the war. Recognising that the entrance of his beloved country into the grim and terrible war for democracy and human rights which has -shaken the world, creates so many problems of national life and action -tailing for immediate consideration and settlement, Mr Wilson lost no time in Addressing to his fellow-citizens wli.it lie modestly described as "a few words of earnest counsel and appeal." There -was, he said, not a single selfish eleTiwnt in the cause for which they were .fighting—the rights of mankind and -the future peace and security of the -world. And, ha added, "to do this -great thing worthily and successfully we must devote ourselves to the service without regard to profit or material advantage, and with an energy .an<i intelligence that will rise to the* kvel of the enterprise itself. We must -realise to the full how great the task is, and how many things, how many kinds and elements of capacity and ser. •vice and seif-sacrifice it involves." In particular, Mr Wilson stressed the need rfior specific service—

"These, then, are the things wo must do and do well, besides fighting —the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless. We must supply abundant food for ourselves and for our armies and our seamen •not only, but also for a large part of the nations with whom we have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose side we shall lie fighting. We must supply ships bv the hundreds out of our shipyards to carry to the other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will every day bo needed there, nnd abundant materials out of our fields and our mines and our factories with which not only to clothe and «quip our own forces on land and sea, ■l)ut also to clothe and support our •people fo? whom the gallant felloes under arms can no longer work, to help clothe and equip the armies with which we are co-operating in Europe, and to keep the looms and manufactories there in raw materials; coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea and in the furnaces of hundreds of factories across the sea; 6teel out of which to make arms and ammunition, both hero and there; rails for worn-out railways back of "the firing fronts; locomotives and rolling-stock to t«Ke the place of •those every day going to pieces: mules, horses, cattie for labour and for military service; everything with which the people of England and France and Italy and Russia have usually supplied themselves, but cannot now afford the men, the materials or the machinery to make."

"Mr. Wilson took it for granted that it must he evident to every thinking -man that the nation's industries, m farms, in shipyards, in the mines, in ihe factories, must be made more prolific and more efficient than ever, an J that they must be more economically ■vaanaged and better adapted to the ■ particular requirements of the great' task than ever they have been, and iii this connection he emphasised the fact that the men and the women who ■devote their thought and their energy -°Lo these things will l>o serving the uMintry and conducting the fight for "..■peace and freedom just as truly and -iust as effectively as the men on the ■nattlefields or in 'the trenches. He .Ed id:—

"The industrial forces of tho coun. try, men and women alike, will he a great- national, a great industrial service army —a notable and honoured host engaged in the service of the nation and the world, the efficient, friends and saviours of free men ■everywhere. Thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands of men otherwise liable to military service will of right and of necessity he excused from that service and assigned to the fundamental, sustaining work of the fields and factories and mines, and they will ho as much a part of the great patriotic forces of the nation as the men -under fire."

'ffhe supremo need of all the nations re. »peratin£~"in this great enterprise is nn abundance of supplies, and especially eft foodstuff-;. The world's fond reserves nre low. Recognising tlr's, the President especially appealed to the farmers tnd to all who work on the farms:

".Upon the farmers of this country, in larg,c measure, rests th? fate of the war and the fate of'the nations. May the nation not count upon thorn to omit no step that will increase "the production of their land, that will bring about .the most effectual cooperation in tne sale and distribution, of their food products? The time is short. It is of the most imperative* importtinco thai- everything possible be done, and done immediately, to make sure of large harvests. T call upon young men and old alike and upon the able bodied boys of the land to accept and art unon this dutv —to turn in hosts to the farms and make certain that no pains and no labour is Jacking in this great mat■"fcer. I particularly appeal to thj farmers of the South to plant ahnn- > .lant foodstuffs as well as cotton. They can show their patriotism in no l>ctier or more convincing wav than by resisting the great temptation of the present price of cotton, and helping, helping upon a great scale, to feed the nation and the people everywhere who are fighting for their iiliortios and for our own. The variety of their crops will be the visible measure of their comprehension of their nat:onal dutv. The Government of the United States and the Governments of the several States stand ready to <ooperate. They will dr. everything possible to assist farmers in scouring an adequate supply of so, n d, an adequate force of labourers when they are most needed at, harvestlime, and the means of expediting shipments of fertilisers and farm machinery, as well as the crops theincelvcs when harvested. The course of trad.' shall be as unhampered as it. is possible to make it. and there -hall bo no unwarranted manipulation or the nation's food supply by rliofso who handle it on its way to the consumer. This is our opportunity to demonstrate the efficiencv <f the irrc.it democracy, ind \\\< shall not fjill short of it!" ?s them not something in this cr.'pln\k and stining doclarati 'ii of admin's- ; '■>'.-v'o determination to foster pro- i

dnction and prevent exploitation from which, even now, the Government of this Dominion might learn a lesson 0 Equally forceful is the appeal to all other sections of the community:

"This, let mo say to the middlemen of every sort, whether they are handling our foodstuffs or our raw materials of manufacture, or the products of our mills and factories: Tho eyes of tho country will he especially upon you. This is your opportunity for signal service, efficient and disinterested. The country expects you, as it expects all others, to forego unusual profits, to organise end expedite shipments of supplies of e\ery kind, but especially or food, with an eye to the service you aie rendering, and in the spirit of those who enlist in the ranks, for their people, not for themselves. I shall confidently expect J" ou to deserve and win the confidence o» people of every sort and station. To the men who run the railways of the country, whether they he managers or operative employes, let nic say that the railways are the arteries of the nation's life, and that upon them rests the immense responsibility of seeing to it that those arteries suffer no obstruction of any kind, no inefficiency or slackened power. To the merchant let me suggest tho motto, "Small profits and quick service" ; and to the shipbuilder the thought that the life of the war depends upon him. The food \nd tho war supplies must be carried across the seas, no matter how many ships are sent to the bottom. Tho places of those which go down must be supplied, and supplied at once. To the"miner let me say that he stands where the farmer does: The work of tho world waits on him. If he slackens or fails, armies and statesmen are helpless. He also i senlis-.xl in the- great service army. The manufacturer does not need to bo told. T hope, tnat the nation looks to him to speed and perfect every process; and I want only to remind his employes that their service is absolutely indispensable, and is counted r.n by every man who loves his country and its' lilwrties. Let me suggest, also, that every en.-, who creates or cultivates a garden, helps—nnd help* greatly—to solve the problem of rho feeding of the nations; and that every housewife who practices strict economy puts herself in the r.i ins of those who serve tho nation. Tins is the time for America to correct her unnardonable fault of wastefilness and extravagance. Let every man and every woman assum? the duty of careful, 'provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dicta l e uf patriotism which no one can now expect ever to be excused or forg veil for ignoring."

President Wilson's eloquent statement of the reels of his nation and r» f the world in this hour of supreme crisis should stimulate not only Americans, but the citi7 f, ns of every AlhVd nation ar.d should remind all who need a reminder of the solemn dutv-; of a t : me so h as the world has never seen before.