HOW AMERICA, SAVES HER FOOD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 142, 5 March 1918, Page 6

HOW AMERICA, SAVES HER FOOD

GREAT PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN

TO WIN THE WAR AND CAN THE KAISER

(By G. Ivy Sanders, in the "Daily Mail.") New York City. To economise in the midst of plenty is undoubtedly expecting a great deal of human nature, and this renders more remarkable the fact that nearly every household in. the United States has voluntarily pledged itself "to join the Food Administration in the service of food conservatism." For while it may not be so surprising that the Government officials and dwellers in the large Eastern towns, where ovidences of war activity are many, appreciate the urgency of the Allies' demands for certain foods—particularly wheat, meat,' sugar, and fats—it certainly is astounding that tho realisation), should have spread as. it has. through the luxuriant Middle West to California (which is as far from New York as is New York from London), down through the sunny Sonth, and through tho Northern States. Yet throughout the whole of this gigantic continent of 48 States, each largely independent, food economy is widely preached and practised. Brightly coloured pledge-cards are to be seen in almost every window. I have seen tiiem hanging between tho curtains of many a wooden farm homestead lyinfc serene and secure in the midst of illimitable acres of wheatproducing land in Nebraska, Nevada, and Illinois; and I ,have seen tho white "Hoover button" [called after tho Food Controller] widely worn from Maine to Now Mexico and from the Atlantic to tho Pacific. '■ This national readiness, to sacrifice, is' a very real reflection of the seriousness with which America has entered tho war. The food economy organisation does not stop at any one medium of publicity. Every day some new method is devised. Mass meetings, lectures, cooking demonstrations are organised throughout the country. National food economy' forms tho subject of sermons in all the churches and chapels, or lectures in the public or council schools, and provides the plot for many a kinema film and play. • ■■ Tine innumerable posters winch cover every dead wall and fence and meet the eye at every street corner and outsido all public buildings, in every public railway carriage, street car, and orniubuu, are brief but to the point. Typical exhortations are:, "Food is ammunition—don t waste it! " , ,j- ~ "Save fuel and save the soldiers at the front!" # "To waste is treason! • Small cards are issued by tho my ion emphasising the need of the Allied countries and of the United States soldier and sailor in Europe, urging tho conservation of the required foods and suggesting substitutes which are practical. One of these simply reads:— The Soldiers Need People at Home Can use Wheat. Maize. Oats. Rye. Barley. Butter. Cottonseed oil. Lard. Peanut oil. 1 Maize oil. Dripping. Sugar Treacle. Honey. Syrups. ■ Beef.' ' Poultry. . Ham. Rabbits. . Mutton. Fish. Nuts. Eggs'. Cream cheeso. Beans. In almost every town two wheatless days and tjftfl meatless days a week are observed in* the hotels, restaurants, and homes. Sugar is served in all the hotels and restaurants as sparingly. as it is in tho home. White bread, it provided at all, is at an increased cost. At few fried dishes as possible arc cooked to save fats., Fresh vegetables, salads, and fruit are used extensively, and the supply lias increased enormously by tlie introduction of "war gardens," as they call the allotments of which there are over two million. If "Food will win the war,V as the sloean of the Food Administration reads, .then the United States will carry us far along the river of Victory.'