Weekly journal-miner., 1916-02-16
FOOD BAN NOT AS
 DRASTIC AS SUPPOSED
from Sundays Dailyl

VIENNA, Feb. 12.-Bread tickets and two ''meatless" days week sug- gest the verge of famine to the per son not familiar with life in the local ities where such precautionary meas ures are being applied. Vienna and the greater part of Austria are at present subject to the limitation in food which the bread ticket, wheat bread prohibition and meatless days imply. But the fact is that nobody is deprived of anything by these regu- lations. People eat as much as be- fore with the difference that some of the things they eat have been pres cribed.
 The bread ticket system allows every person three rations daily each of 70 grammes of rye bread. or 21O grammes, not quite half pound, for the day. The person feeling the need of more ferinaceous food can aug ment this apportionment by buying wheat cake and pastry in the restaur- ants and cafes, and, if still unsatis- fled after that, can have an unlimited quantity of "nockerlin' dumplings- for which the Austrian kitchen is justly famous, or he can order dog en portions of "schmarn", another Austrian dish of fame. At pinch the waiter may be bribed into in creasing the bread ration"
 IL may be asked what, under such conditions, Is the value of the bread ticket arrangement. The manager of a large Vienna restaurant supplied the answer: "The tread ticket prevents the waste of bread which formerly obtained" he said. 'yVe were in the habit of putting baskets with rolls and cut bread on the table. Many of our patrons would start 10 eat as many as four rolls and not finish single one The remainder had to be thrown into the swill barrel. Right now flour is too scarce to feed to pigs"
 A "meatless day. in Vienna and Austria is misnomcr. In fact it is merely 'beef-porkless" day, and not even that altogether Butchers and restaurants may on "meatless" or "fleischlose" days sell any kind of meat with the exception of fresh beef, veal and pork Pickled and preserv- ed beef, veal and pork may be sold, however, so may fresh mutton and lamb, every kind of poultry, fresh and preserved game and fish. It cannot be said that the "meatless" day works hardship on anybody. Fresh beef and pork can be bought the day be- fore for the "meatless" days.
 But what really has hit the Viennese hard is the lack of whipped cream, without which they formerly could not drink their coffee Now only plain or condensed milk may be had.
 Back of these slight deprivations lies the fact that the hundreds of thousands of farmers and farm lab orers now under arms cannot be both, 1 soldiers and food producers, at the same time. Though the older men, women and children have done their best to keep the crops growing, here and there with the questionable as sistance of Russian and Serb prison CTS of war, the result has not been equal to that of normal times. In ad- dition to this the army itself has drawn heavily on the country's meat and flour stores. Owing to their great bulk and relatively low food values. vegetables cannot be taken to the front to eech man in the proportion of vegetable meat and cereal food he ,ats when at home Another draw back is that vegetables spoil too quickly.
 This has resulted in the conSump- tion by the army of meat and cereal foods about thirty-five per cent great CT than what the same number ot mel would have required at home. Most of this represents bread, beef, and pork. and to counteract the in- creased need for these felt by the army. the population at home had to make slight sacrifices, hence the bread ticket, and the fresh beef, veal and porkless" days.