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Show THE WAR, THE FARM AND THE FARMER By Herbert Quick Member Federal Farm Loan Board The farmer everywhere loves peace. The American farmer espe-Sially espe-Sially loves peace. Since the dawn of aistory, the farmer has been the man ho suffered most from war. All that a possesses lies out of doors In plain dght and is spoil of war his house, his grain, his livestock. The flames that light the skies in the rear of every invading army are consuming the things that yesterday represented his life work, and the life labors of past generations of farmerB. , Everywhere the farmer is a warrior when war is the only thing which will toake and keep him tree. He cannot rally to the colors as quickly as can the dwellers in the cities, because It takes longer to send to the farms the :all to arms. It takes longer to call the farmers from the fields than the :lty dwellers from the shops. Many io not hear the first blast of the trumpet Others do not at first understand under-stand Its meaning because they have not had the time to talk the matter ver with their acquaintances. Instead of reading half a dozen extras a day, the farmer may read weekly papers Dnly. He must have more time in a sudden emergency to make up his mind. It is impossible to set the fanners of the United States on fire by means of any sudden spark of rumor. But when they do ignite, they burn with a slow, hot fine which nothing can put out. They are sometimes the last to beat up; but they stay hot In a long fight they are always found sturdily carrying the battle across No-Man's Land In the last grim struggle. The American farmer will give all that he baa and aQ that he la to win this great war against war. This war was at first hard to understand. under-stand. No armed foe had Invaded the United States. The night skies were not reddened by burning ricks and farm houses. No raiding parties robbed us of our cattle or horses. No saber-rattk'iB insulted our women. It seemed to many of us that we were not at war the thing was so far off. We did not realize what a giant war had become a monster with a thousand thou-sand arms that could reach across the seas and take from us three-fourths of everything we grew. But finally we saw that It was so. If the Imperial German government bad made and enforced an order that no American farmer should leave his (This Is the first of three articles. T own land, haul grain or drive stock to town, It would have done only a little more than It accomplished by its interdict against the freedom of the sea. What was the order against which we rebelled when we went Into In-to this war? Look at the condition of the American farmer in the latter part of 1914 and the first half of 1915 and see. When the war broke out, through surprise and panic we partially gave up for a while the use of the sea at a highway. And the farmers of America faced ruin. I know an Iowa farmter'who sold his 1914 crop of 25,-000 25,-000 bush-Is of wheat for seventy cents a bushel. Farmers In the south sold their cotton for half the fwt of producing pro-ducing It All this time those portions por-tions of the world whose ports were open were ready to pay almost any price for our products. When finally we set our ships In motion once more, prosperity returned to the farms. But it never returned for the farmers of those nations which remained cut off from ocean traffic. Take the case of Australia. There thre crops have remained unsold on the farms. No ships could be spared to make tho long voyafte to Australia. So In spite of the efforts of the Government Gov-ernment to save the farmer frora ruin, grain has rotted in the open. Millions of tons have been lost for lack of a market. Such conditions spell Irretrievable disaster. Such conditions would have prevailed in this country from the outbreak out-break of the war until now if our Government had not first resisted with every diplomatic weapon, and finally drawn the sword. Why did we draw the sword? To keep up the price of wheat and cotton, cot-ton, and to protect trade only? If someone should order you to remain on your farm, and not to use the pub-lie pub-lie highways, would your resistance be based only on the fear of loss in profits from failure to market your crops? By no means! You wouli fight to the last gasp! Not to make money, but to be free! When a man Is enslaved, all ht loses In money Is his wages. But the white man has never been able to accept ac-cept slavery. He has never yet been successfully enslaved. There rises up fn blm 84.Inst servitude a resentment so terrible that death always Is preferable. pref-erable. he second to be published next week.) |