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Show THANKSGIVING I Oedka4ed To America's 1 aym?!?Si7hzyve Producing; moD fok freedom! i .. . ': , . . : ". .. In i ' - - i - v II H ' . , 't I .... . I I f - ' V " ' , i f - ( : x r i i ' fn:- ; ' r. ' ' . 1 I: . . f V I CLAUDE R. WICKARD I Thanksgiving Harvest Message By Claude R. Wickard Secretary of Agricultural It Is an honor and a privilege to join with fellow Americans In thanksgiving for the year's rich harvests, and rededicatlon to the work which lies ahead for American farm families. We have had much to be thankful thank-ful for in the year that ls ending. We have great need for faith and courage in the year that will follow. We are thankful for our brave fighting men. We are thankful for brave allies. We are thankful foe our opportunity to feed the men who are fighting our battles out In the front lines on land and sea and In the air. We owe them a debt we never can fully pay. It is the privilege, as well, for the farm families of our whole Nation Na-tion to fight for freedom, usln.j food as a weapon. It Ls one of the most powerful weapons in the who!? great armory of modern war. Farmers Farm-ers have used it this year on i scale never seen before. We farmers are especially thankful thank-ful that thus far we have been able to produce so much. This iruiy nas been a wonueruu year more food, more ho.'s, milk, and eggs, more of nearly every other product than our farmland ever produced In the past. Farmers can look back with satisfaction on what they have accomplished. ac-complished. Warehouses and granaries gran-aries would not be filled now unless un-less farmers had worked this sea-ion sea-ion from sunup till after sundown. The women and girls of farm families fam-ilies have done men's work in the .ields and with livestock after their work in the home was done. Farm people have done their Juty as Americans. But farmers know that the full credit for this year's great production does not belong to them alone. This year's harvests, for all of the toil that went into their making, never would have been possible If we had not been blessed with favorable weather in nearly every part of the country, t Modern science has taken us a s long way from our beginning, but f fanners still live close to the ele- 1 mental forces. They know the power pow-er of wind, sun and rain, Just as did the farmers who tilled fields and kept flocks in Bibical times. Farm people have not forgotten that in time of trouble, strength can come from the spirit as well as from material things. This, then, is indeed a time for thoughtful gratitude. Think of what has been done in your own county toward producing produc-ing Food for Freedom and then project that line of thought ovet the entire nation. Farmers in most of our 3,000 other agricultural counties coun-ties either passed their goals or came close to them. Then one can grasp the really heroic .size and slenlf it ance of this year's Food for Freedom harvest. Truly, at tlvs season, we have much to be thankful for. All of the Nation's farmers are united In gratitude for the blessings of the past year, for the abundance of the harvest. They are firm, too, In the resolve never to let up in the oat-tle oat-tle of production. The road ahead for farmers Is long and difficult, but it ls the only road that leads to victory. |