Edith Matilda Thomas (12 August 1854 – 13 September 1925 / Chatham Center / Ohio)

'There shall be no unwarranted manipulation of
the nation's food supply by those who handle it
on the way to the consumer.'—President Wilson.

Of all the wars that waste this world,
Where the life of man has bled,
This is the war I most abhor—
The theft of the people's bread!

They who hold back what the kind Earth gave
In the billowing fields of grain,
Are the cowardliest foe—for their secret blow
Strikes for their own base gain.

Arm of the law, reach forth in your might,
And the hidden stores unbind,
And defeat their power who, at this hour,
Wage dastardly war on their kind!