John Sharp Williams to David Franklin Houston

I want this letter to introduce to your favorable consideration a claim that I want to make for Mr. Cliff Williams, of Meridian, Mississippi, a friend of mine and a man whom I have known for quite a long time.
We are about to enter into a great struggle. The conservation of the food resources of the United States will be eventually, if not immediately, the most important point in that struggle. There is no disguising the fact that even with Argentina to help us, we will have difficulty in feeding the populations and armies and navies of the entente powers, while we sufficiently feed ourselves. With Argentinna out,- and she is out just at this moment, and will remain out unless we can co-erce her to come in by stopping her coal supplies and agricultural implements and other things,- the task will be still greater.Mr. Williams, who is, by the way, no kin to me, although he bears the same name and I mention this fact parenthetically because I don't want you to think I am seeking any benefit for any member of my own family, has had a long record in Mississippi as a live, progressive business man, and a live, progressive leader of the way for Mississippians who want first to feed themselves at home, instead of devoting themselves to one crop and selling it like a gambling venture, hoping out of it to get enough at least to live on, and hoping more expectantly now and then to get rich.Mr. Williams has organized some 15 or 20 progressive leagues in Mississippi, has brought himself in contact directly with the farmers of the State upon the question of diversification of farming industries. He holds the other end of the string in connection with a great many things that you and I and the Government and the people of the United States want. He is not hunting money. He has been lucky enough to make enough of it, but he is seeking service and honour and would be very glad to put himself at the behest of the United States Government, in the great work which the Department of Agriculture must carry on for the conservation of the food resources of the United States. Of course, you know as well as I do that Mississippi ought to be able to raise hogs and cattle enough not only to feed herself, but seven states besides. She can do it, if the necessity ever presents itself and can begin to do it even before the necessity presents itself, upon the proper presentation of the approaching necessity.Mr. Williams present address is Meridian, Mississippi. Any communication addressed to him in my care will be forwarded quite directly. Meanwhile, of course, you and your agents will want to know something about him besides what I have said. That can be attained more quickly by having one of your confidential and reliable men talk to him so that he may tell what the Department wants and Mr. Williams can tell what instrumentalities he thinks he can work upon in order to get what the Department wants.Mr. Williams would offer his services to the Government in a military sense, but he is something like me. If whe went into the service he would probably be, on account of unadapability because of his age, more of a liability than an asset in a military sense, but those of us who watch and pray, you know, are pretty valuable to any cause, sometimes equally as valuable, as those who fight.
I am, with every expression of regard,
Very truly yours,

John Sharp Williams.