The Washington herald., 1916-11-02
Seen and Heard by George Miner.

New York, Nov. 1.-The National Special Aid
Society is the very newest form of preparedness.
This is eminently and exclusively woman's out
ht. Mrs. William Alexander is the president of it,
and among the other well-known women who are
officers or on the general committee are Mrs.
Theodore Roosevelt, Mrs. Orne Wilson, Mrs.
George Jay Could Mrs. Paul Morton, Mrs. Charles
NJ. Oelrchs, Mrs. John A. Logan, jr. Mrs. James
Brown Potter and Mrs William Rockefeller.
The scheme of the association is to organize and
train the women of America for the efficient nation
al service that it is their privilege and duty per-
form in times Of peace we'll as in times of ma
tonal disaster and to contribute to preparedness in
its broadest meaning, through all practical activi
tics open to women. That is what the circular an
nouncing the object of the society sets forth. 1t
also says that the society is permanent and nom
PARTISAN and that it is the duty of every American
woman nowaday to aid in establishing higher stand
ards of patriotism and national efficiency.
This imposing list of names and the rather
large order implied in the circular lured me to find
was interesting and surprising. I expected to learn
that number of people with rather impossible
ideas were forming society to keep themselves
busy than anything else and l didn't really
expect to find that there was much practical bene-
fit likely to be derived from it.
What found was that these ladies are earnest
ly setting about in large way to mitigate as far
as possible many of the difficulties and shortcom-
ings of prcsent-day life in this country. For in
stance they believe that economizing in food is
at the present time important step in prepared
ness | don't mean that they propose we should all
cat less or not eat as WELL but that food should not
be wasted and should be bought and handled
properly.
For instance, l learned that lamb chops are
the most expensive meat in the world; that lamb
chops really at the present time cost $I35 pound.
Rvery knows that a lamb chop there is
a very small portion of edible food, and pound
OF that small portion costs at the present market
rate $I35 This the society announces is a prohi-
bitive price and only monaircs can afford to eat
lamb chops.
Also learned that cheap meats are by no means
the most economical, for the simple reason that
generally money is spent on sauces and dress
ings to make them palatablc than would pay for
higher grade of meat
Skim milk had always looked upon as some
thing that was thrown away or fed to pigs in the
farmyards 1t that was quite wrong about
skim milk. 1t is really very valuable commodity
and shouldn't turn up noses at it. 1t has
almost as much food value as the original milk be-
fore the cream is taken out. 1t after all
that the cream is only the fat of the milk and by
no means its most valuable asset The society rec
ommcnds that the people stop buying cream-just
buy regular milk and take off their own and
then use the skim milk for all sorts of cooking
purposes There is law in the State, I believe,
that prohibits the sale of skim milk and we all
know that an extraordinarily large amount Of
cream is sold in New York Now the question
arises-What becomes of the milk after the cream
has been taken from it? | also learned that even
with milk at the increased price for which it is
now sold here being cents quart, it is about
the cheapest food there is. In fact, it would be a
very cheap food even at IS cents quart.
The laboratory Investigations of the society on
the food question included some experiments with
asparagus. Bunches of three different priced aspa-
ragus were sccured-one at IS cents, another at
25 and another at IS cents bunch-and it dis
covered the 35-ccnt asparagus yielded more food
value and was really cheaper than the less expen-
Sive.
Among the other things which the society pro-
poses to encourage is the utilization Of scraps and
the furthcrance OF scientific gardening These are
doubtless mighty good things and to my mind these
women are setting about feature OF preparedness
that is we'll worth paying some attention to.