Conservation of Food

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

an economic problem which first became the object of serious consideration by governments during the World War. The axiom that "every army fights on its stomach" was suddenly found to be as true of the nations at war as a whole. Two important causes were behind this increased significance of the food supplies of the civil populations of the belligerent countries. First of all, the tremendous increase in transportation facilities between the countries during the past half century had made the peoples of those countries more mutually dependent on each other, because of the ease with which the products of labor could be exchanged, and more especially foodstuffs. Whereas in earlier times each country was more or less economically self-sufficient, they now depended on each other for certain food products, in some cases almost completely. As an instance, England was dependent on foreign importations for almost all her food supplies. To supplies. To a lesser extent, this was also true of Germany. The war, naturally, by severing commercial relations between the two sets of belligerents, and making it extremely difficult between the countries that were allied together, forced each country back into a position of being again dependent on its own food resources. Another reason for the need of food conservation was the number of countries involved in warfare, and the great percentage of the laboring population which must be drawn into the military establishments. In no previous war had there been such a drain on the laboring population for fighting purposes, and never before had this drain been so universal throughout practically all of the civilized world. This seriously hampered the production of food, even in countries which had large sources of food supply within their own boundaries. Such was especially the case in Germany and Hungary, possessed of large areas of grain producing lands, but where each was compelled compelled to draft its peasants into their respective armies. Germany was the first to feel the pressure, for, though she had the wheat fields of Hungary behind her, the demands for transportation of men and military supplies made on the railroads seriously hampered the transportation of foodstuffs. Having anticipated this situation, however, the German Government had made full preparations, and at once systematized her food conservation policy from the very beginning, with such a high degree of scientific efficiency that it is probable that the German civil population did not suffer from scarcity so soon as did those of belligerents more favorably situated. An Imperial Food Control Board was at once established, which took over all the food stored in the country and assumed the responsibility of distribution, regardless of the purchasing power of the units of the population. Heads of families, of all classes, were supplied with food rationing cards, by means of which they were enabled to receive only so much food as was necessary for physical maintenance. A national food inventory was kept by the Imperial Board, with the same accuracy with which the quar termasters' department of an army keeps a record of its food supplies, and when the stores decreased, the rations were diminished in proportion. Thus, the German population was often hungry, but there was no famine. This same system was installed in Austria and Hungary, but was not administered with the same high degree of efficiency, with the result that the civil populations of those countries, especially in the larger cities, suffered more severely. In France and England, whose gove ernments and populations were more taken by surprise by the war, such elaborate preparations had not been worked out. At a later period the rationing system was partially applied, in certain commodities, but both these countries were more fortunate in that they were able, throughout the whole course of the war, to draw food supplies from neutral countries, especially from Canada, the United States and the South American countries, this supply being only limited by transportation facilities. When the United States entered the war, in 1917, food conservation also became a very serious administrative problem in this country, though for a different reason. There was no fear of a scarcity of home supply, so far as the domestic population was concerned, even though several millions of young men were drafted for the army, most of them from the rural districts. But the moment the country decided to engage in hostilities on the side of the Entente, the Government at once assumed the responsibility of supplying the European Allies with the food they so sorely needed, and to do so immediately there was begun a tremendous fleet of cargo vessels. In the words of President Wilson, as uttered in his proclamation in January, 1918, there was needed "a more intensive effort on the part of our people to save food, in order that we may supply our associates in the war with the sustenance vitally necessary to them in these days of privation and stress." On Aug. 10, 1917, Congress passed the Food Control Act, authorizing the President to assume control of the production and distribution of food products during the full period of the war; to commandeer stores; to license export, manufacturing, etc.; to suppress "profiteering"; and even to buy directly from the producers and sell to the consumers certain food commodities, including coal. Herbert C. Hoover was appointed head of the new Food Administration, to enforce the provisions of the Food Control Act. He immediately announced that he would bend all his efforts to the elimination of private speculation in food, and that there would be a strict supervision of the private export of food stuffs. He would also prepare a detailed program for the elimination of waste and food conservation which the people would be asked to put into practice voluntarily. On Aug. 14 President Wilson issued a proclamation requiring all persons engaged in the wheat and rye trades to apply for licenses. Exception was made of those operating mills producing less than one hundred barrels of flour and farmers' co-operative sales associations. September 11th was set as the day on which all licenses must be applied for. At the same time Mr. Hoover appointed a special commission, on which were represented the producers, middlemen, and consumers, to determine a fair price for the 1917 crop of wheat. Fifty million dollars was appropriated for the purchase of the bulk of the wheat crop, so that the producers would be assured of a certain maximum price and the consumers of a minimum retail price. Next, all dealers were required to apply for licenses, including such retailers as did a business of over $100,000 a year. Meanwhile the program of the Food Administration to insure economy was proclaimed and became effective on Jan. 28, 1918. To reduce the consumption of wheat by a third, as was proposed, retailers were compelled to sell flour on what was called the fifty-fifty plan; for every pound of flour sold they must sell a pound of some other cereal. Bakers were compelled to bake what was called the victory loaf: bread in which the flour of other cereals was mixed with that of wheat. The people were urged to observe wheatless Mondays and Wednesdays. By March, 1918, retailers were made to restrict their sales of wheat products to one and one-half pounds per person per week. Victory bread now included 25 per cent. of non-wheat flours. Meatless Tuesdays and porkless Saturdays were also proclaimed. In March, 1918, these two restrictive days were 1918 rescinded, but in the following June housewives were requested to limit their purchases of beef to one and one-fourth pounds weekly. Restaurants could serve roast beef and beefsteak only one day a week, and boiled beef on two days a week. The consumption of poultry products, and especially eggs, was urged, and for a while, from February to April, the traders in freshly killed fowl were not required to carry licenses. Meanwhile the shortage of sugar had become extremely acute and in August a sugar institute rationing program was instituted, which allowed each person only two pounds of sugar a month. Exception was made in the case of housewives who wished to can fruits and berries, which was strongly urged, and they could procure extra amounts of sugar by special license. By September, when it became obvious that a good crop of cereals was insured, the restrictions on flour were raised so far as consumers were concerned, but President Wilson issued a proclamation forbidding their use in the production of spirituous liquors, a measure which was later fortified and amplified by special Federal legislation, to endure until demobilization. After the signing of the armistice one after another of the various restrictions were removed, and high prices took the place of scarcity. By the measures taken by the Food Administration it was an nounced that between July and November the sugar distribution had been economized to the extent of 775,000 tons. On June 30, 1919, the administration of the Food Controller came to an end, and competition was again fully restored, except in the case of sugar, which was continued on into 1920.