I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South to plant abundant
foodstuffs as well as cotton. They can show their patriotism in no
better or more convincing way than by resisting the great temptation of
the present price of cotton and helping, helping upon a large scale, to
feed the nation and the peoples everywhere who are fighting for their
liberties and for our own. The variety of their crops will be the
visible measure of their comprehension of their national duty.
The response was amazing in its enthusiastic and general compliance. No
autocracy issuing a ukase could have been obeyed so explicitly. Not only
did the various classes of workers and individuals observe the
President's suggestions to the letter, but they yielded up individual
right after right in order that the war work of the government might be
expedited. Extraordinary powers and functions were granted by the people
through Congress, and it was not until peace was declared that these
rights and powers returned to the people.
These governmental activities ceased functioning after the war:
Food administration;
Fuel administration;
Espionage act;
War trade board;
Alien property custodian (with extension of time for certain duties);
Agricultural stimulation;
Housing construction (except for shipbuilders);
Control of telegraphs and telephones;
Export control.
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