sponded promptly to every request made on them to cooperate in the execution of plans, but also liberally made available to the Department the services of many of their most efficient officers. Equally generous was the support of the great agricultural journals of the Union.

Very much assistance also was rendered by the National Agricultural Advisory Committee, created jointly by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Food Administrator for the purpose of securing the views of farmers and farm organizations, and of seeing that nothing was omitted to safeguard all legitimate interests. This body, as a whole and also through its subcommittees, studied the larger and more critical agricultural problems confronting the government, gave many valuable criticisms and highly useful suggestions, and assisted in the several communities in making known the plans and purposes of the Department. The Committee included, in addition to representative farmers, the heads of a number of the leading farm organizations. It was composed of former Governor Henry C. Stuart, of Virginia, a farmer and cattleman and member of the price-fixing committee of the War Industries Board; Oliver Wilson, of Illinois, farmer and master of the National Grange; C. S. Barrett, of Georgia, president of the Farmers' Educational and Coöperative Union; D. O. Mahoney, of Wisconsin, farmer and president of the American Society of Equity; Milo D. Campbell, of Michigan, president of the National Milk Producers' Federation; Eugene D. Funk, of Illinois, ex-president of the National Grain Association and president of the National Corn Association; N. H. Gentry, of Missouri, vice-president of the American Berkshire Association; Frank J. Hagenbarth, of Idaho, president of the National Wool

Growers' Association; Elbert S. Brigham, of Vermont, dairyman and Commissioner of Agriculture; W. L. Brown, of Kansas, wheat grower and member of the State Board of Agriculture; David R. Coker, of South Carolina, chairman of the State Council of Defence, producer of improved types of cotton; W. R. Dodson, of Louisiana, farmer and dean of the Louisiana College of Agriculture; Wesley G. Gordon, of Tennessee, demonstrator of better farming; John Grattan, of Colorado, agricultural editor and cattle feeder; J. N. Hagan, of North Dakota, general farmer and Commissioner of Agriculture and Labour; W. W. Harrah, of Oregon, wheat grower and director of the Farmers' Union Grain Agency of Pendleton; C. W. Hunt, of Iowa, general farmer; H. W. Jeffers, of New Jersey, dairyman, president of the Walker-Gordon Laboratory Co., and member of the State Board of Agriculture; Isaac Lincoln, of South Dakota, banker and farmer; David M. Massie, of Ohio, general farmer and successful business man; William F. Pratt, of New York, general farmer, agricultural representative on the Board of Trustees of Cornell University, and member of the State Farm and Markets Council; George C. Roeding, of California, fruit grower, nurseryman, and irrigation farmer, and president of the State Agricultural Society; Marion Sansom, of Texas, cattleman, live-stock merchant, and director of the Federal Reserve Bank at Dallas; and C. J. Tyson, of Pennsylvania, general farmer and former president of the Pennsylvania State Horticultural Association.

The efforts put forth by the farmers to secure increased production of plant foods can best be indicated in terms of planting operations. The size of the harvest may not be a measure of the labours of the farmers. Adverse weather

conditions and unusual ravages of insects and plant diseases may partly overcome and neutralize the most exceptional exertions. The farmer is in no small measure the slave of the elements.

The first year of our participation in the war witnessed the nation's record for acreage planted in the leading cereals and potatoes, 237,000,000 as compared with 210,000,000 in 1914, and for the five-year average, 19101914, an increase of 27,000,000 acres. It was 18,000,000 acres greater than that for 1916, by which time the stimulus of high prices had powerfully operated to bring about unusual exertions. In 1918, the acreage was further increased by a half million; and yet, by this time, hundreds of thousands of farm boys had been taken by the army and navy. In fact, when the draft began to operate, delegations of farmers came to see me to tell me that they were willing to respond to our requests for increased planting and to do anything they could to help win the war, but that they did not see how they could do so if their young men were taken into the army. They asked that I see General Crowder and beg him to let their boys stay at home. Of course, I declined. I told the delegations that General Crowder would not and should not do what they asked; that their boys would not be willing to have me do what was suggested; that they would not want it said that only the town and city boys were doing the fighting; that they themselves really did not want what they had come to ask; and that I was confident that they would go home, take up the slack, and do more than they were asked to do. I added that everybody would turn in and help them at critical times, and that we would organize men and women and boys and girls especially to

aid them during the planting and harvest seasons. They made no reply. They went home and did the job.

In spite of the fact that the climatic conditions were adverse in 1917, especially for wheat, and in 1918 for corn, the aggregate yield of leading cereals was larger in each year than in any preceding year in our history except 1915. It exceeded in 1917 the pre-war five-year average by 870,000,000 bushels and, in 1918, by 610,000,000.

Equally successful were the efforts to secure a larger number of meat animals and an ampler supply of dairy products and fats. The number of milch cows and other cattle and hogs in 1918 was 138,400,000 as compared with 115,000,000 in 1914, an increase of 23,400,000; and the increase over the pre-war five-year average was 18,400,000. The increase in the number of pounds of beef, pork, and mutton in 1918 over 1914 was 4,000,000,000 and, in the number of gallons of milk, 922,000,000. The total value of all crops in 1918 was $14,222,000,000 as against $6,112,000,000 for 1914 and $5,827,000,000 for the five-year average, 1910-1914; and the value of live stock on the farms was $8,284,000,000 as compared with $5,890,000,000 and $5,318,000,000. Armies, they say, fight on their stomachs. Our forces had no reason to fear that theirs would be empty.

CHAPTER XX

THE PRESIDENT GOES TO PARIS

The President Addresses Congress-Leaves for France-Taft's, Roosevelt's, and Lodge's Opinions on the League-The President's Manchester Speech

T

HE Cabinet met at the usual time, Tuesday, November 12th. It was the first meeting after the election, but there was no reference to the election. We had more momentous things to think about. There was much discussion of readjustment and its necessities and processes and of the course of change to a peace basis. The President read a document from a correspondent in Switzerland about conditions in Berlin. It stated that Bernstorff was back in Berlin, and also Ludendorff, that the latter looked very dejected, that he was on foot, as his automobile had been taken from him, and that he was apprehensive that he would be murdered, as many other German officers had been shot.

Two evenings later, I dined at the Argentine Ambassador's and saw the Swiss Minister and his wife. The latter had much to say to me about Bolshevist propaganda in Switzerland, its responsibility for the Swiss strike, and its dangers. I told her that I did not believe such crazy creatures could do much harm in Switzerland, that I had too much faith in the Swiss people and in Swiss democracy, and that Switzerland was farther along on the path of