While insisting that the fate of the war, the fate
of nations, rests in large measure on the farmers of the United States, Mr. Wilson lays stress on the great opportunity afforded to middlemen of every sort. The Government were resolved that the course of trade should be as unhampered as possible ; and the country ex- pected the middlemen, as it expected all others, to forgo unusual profits, and to organize and expedite the shipment of supplies of every kind, but espeCially food, in a spirit of disinterested efficiency. He addresses a similar appeal to all railwaymen and miners, and suggests as a motto to the merchant " Small profits and quick service," and to the shipbuilder the thought that life and the war depend upon him. " Food and war supplies must be carried across the sea no matter how many ships are sent to the bottom. The places of those that go down must be supplied, and supplied at once." The President points out that every one who •cultivates a garden, every housewife who practises strict economy, is helping to solve the great problem of feeding the nations. Finally, after begging:all editors, publishers, and advertising agencies to give the widest publicity to his appeal, and suggesting that clergymen might support it from their pulpits, the. President concludes with the words : " The supreme test of the nation has come, and we must all speak, act, and serve together." That is a nobly conceived and nobly worded message worthy of the mighty nation in whose name it is sent forth, and worthy of the successor of Washington and Lincoln. President Wilson speaks to the whole world, an& in that majestic, unaffected style which best suits great causes and great actions.
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