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Show made a boast that you couldn't back up, did you? If your town falls down on this matter, the country will suffer a little. lit-tle. It will not suffer a great deal, because most of the towns are not going to fall down on it. But if your town falls down on this matter, your town will suffer more than a little. You know what happens to trade when the farmers all around are short on crops and have barely enough money to scrimp by with. Commercial Clubs Should Act. Take the matter up at the next meeting of the commercial club or board of trade. Or, better still, call a special meeting. You have influence enough to do It or have it done. Here is what Clarence Ousiey, assistant secretary of agriculture of the United States, says about it: "To render this assistance to the farmer and to the nation, the local commercial club or business men'i association should appoint a labor rep resentatlve or a small and active committee com-mittee on farm labor. This labor representative or committee should make a canvass of the business men, clerks and others in the town who have had farm experience and who are willing to close or leave thej? places of business on certain days or afternoons, or for lonfc periods, and go out on the neighboring farms to help. This labor representative tr committee should either get in touch with the farmers themselves or with an agent representing the farmers, such as the master of the Grange, the president of the union, the manager of the co-operative creamery or store, or the county agricultural agent, and ascertain just how many men each farmer can use to advantagi during good weather and particularly during certain rush periods in planting, cultivating, cul-tivating, or harvesting. With this information in-formation on the farm labor needs and the number of workers available, the committee can assign the men who have volunteered to help In this emergency to the various farms In the neighborhood." PEOPLE IN TOWN TO HELP FARMER Farm Labor Shortage Such That Heroic Measures Are Necessary Neces-sary to Save Crops. CLUB CO-OPERATION IS NEED Opportunity for City Men to Repay to Nation a Part of Debt They Owe the Farm What Clarence Ousiey Has to Say. Suppose you close your store next Tuesday lock it up and goaway all day how-much will you lose? Something, Some-thing, certainly. But suppose, tomorrow tomor-row morning, you display placards over every counter telling your customers cus-tomers that the store will not be open Tuesday, that the entire sales force Is going to put in the day fighting for the freedom of America, and ask theto to buy on Monday what they need for Tuesday. How much would you lose then, even if your competitor -on the next corner should keep open all day and hustle for business? A little, possibly. But don't you think it would be bread upon the water, that would return to you, and after not so many days, at that? Don't you believe be-lieve that, for every customer of yours who went to trade with your competitor compet-itor during the 'day you were closed, three of his would come to trade with you within the week? Must Fight in Furrows. Urban people have got to do some fighting for freedom in the furrows this spring, summer and fall. They have got to help the country win the war by helping the farmer produce food which means that they will be helping themselves most of all. With the exception of a few mining min-ing and manufacturing centers, the villages, towns and cities of 100,000 or less are mainly dependent for their success on -the prosperity of the farming communities around them. They have good times or hard times In proportion as the farming operations opera-tions in their trade territory succeed or fail.- In normal times, even, sensible sensi-ble self-interest prompts the business man to encourage and aid the' farmer. farm-er. Now, in the stress of war, the prompting to help the farmer comes hardly less from good business judgment judg-ment than from patriotic impulse. Here is the situation : The farmers will need additional labor to help cultivate cul-tivate and harvest the crops they have planted. This situation cannot be met by legislation. The task Imposed upon the Israelites by Pharaoh, to make bricks without straw, was an easy job compared with the task of making labor by law. In large measure, meas-ure, the needed labor must come from the people in towns whose business busi-ness does not have to be kept humming hum-ming every minute. Men Who Were Farm Boys. Tou know, a very large proportion of business men have been farm boys. Just make a mental canvass of the men in your block or your building. You remember when they came in green from the country, sunburned and hard as hickory. The fact that (hey are now among the best business busi-ness men In town does not prove that they couldn't still do good farmwork. Why, not so long ago, when Bill Krown rushed in to get a few balls of binder twine, and to put a little extra money in the bank and chaffed you ajjout the ease of your job and how soft you were, you probably boasted that you could still shock wheat or walk between the plow handles with the best' of them. Of roursp you could and of course you L-an. Maybe you can't hold it as long ns some of them, but you can do it as well. All right. The time has "ome for you to do it You never |