The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-18
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
TNFORMATION BUREAU
ny FREDERIC }. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. ID. C.
CAFE PATRIOTISM.
They Arc Conserving Not Only food
But Money.

Washington. d. c., Dec. 15.-Pa-
triotism in the cafes and restaurants
is reaching prodigious proportions. 1t
does not stop at meatless and wheat
less days. Indeed no. American eat
ing houses disdain such small sacri-
fices for their country. If food must
be conserved they believe in doing 1t
properly. In time of war, one oyster
is enough for an oyster pie; to be
thoroly patriotic, grape fruit should
-be no larger than a lemon; an order
of ice cream should resemble snow
flake. and string beans should be
served by the piece.
1t is quite understood by everybody,
of course, that the cafes and restau-
rants of the nation must take an &C
tive part in food conservation. Before
the war they represented the fourth
LARGEST industry in America-an in
dustry whose sole purpose was to sell
food Incredible quantities or 1000
are handled by the hotel cafes alone
which might easily lead to incredible
waste if carelessly used. Hence, when
cafes and restaurants are careful to
waste none of the products needed by
American and allied soldiers they are
performing a very necessary patriotic
duty.
But there are certain things the
American and allied soldiers do not
need-things that could not be ship
ped even if they did need them. For
example. the food commission does not
anticipate the shipment of any great
quantities of oysters, nor fish, nor
lettuce, nor oranges, nor turnips So
far as can be ascertained there is no
particular reason why the cafes should
be so extremely economical in the use
of these products; maybe they are so
from fore of habit. But tie fact re-
MAINS that diners-out are now some
times finding it necessary to order two
dishes of everything in order to get
to eat. 1t used to be that two
people could order one dish of turkey
or potatoes au gratin and make it do.
but now they order four.
Furthermore. this extraordinary
conservation on the part of the res
taurants and cafes has not brought
the prices down; on the contrary.
they have gone up. Conservation has
its rewards fo-'f the household con-
sumner, for his saving on food products
also save his pocketboOk. Rye bread is
cheaper than white bread; cheese is
cheaper than meat, rice is cheaper
than potatoes. If he voluntarily cuts
his own rations he also reduces his
own costs. Not so, the diner-out. He
pays just as much for rye bread as
he does for the other-more than he
did two years ago-and the price of a
few leaves of lettuce is just a little
more than what he used to pay for
whole head.
In the markets the prices of fresh
vegetables have not increased in the
same proportion that other commodi-
ties have. You can still buy lettuce
at 10 cents a bunch, beets and car
rots at cents a bunch. The cafes and
restaurants, buying from wholesale
uses, get then, for much less. But
you would never suspect it from the
prices on their menus.
Also, many first class cafes that
would never have been guilty of such
"a thing in the past now feel they have
a perfect right to be "out Of things.
Not long ago, a government clerk in
Washington, feeling the burden of an
enlarged pay envelope dropped into
one of the better cafes of the city. 1t
happened to be a wheatless day, and
the waiter informed him that they had
nothing left but nutbread. AS mat
ter OF necessity, the government clerk
somewhat irritated to find that it cost
fifteen cents extra. Since then, he has
let the better cafes alone.
This particular cafe happened to be
a very fashionable little place with
dainty japanese trimmings, vases of
ginghamed mattresses to match the
wall paper-the blue Bingham, not
the mattresses. Every afternoon the
fashionable ladies of the capital give
the parties here, at which time the
place becomes filled with a mass of
rich furs, plumes. velvets, perfume
and epauleted officers. Naturally the
prices are high, the tea good and the
food Indifferent. But it is always
crowded. for everybody's ambition is
to be seen where the best people" go.
On the other hand, a cafe farther
down the street. which serves much
better food but is not quite so preten-
tious, can hardly secure enough trade
to keep it going.
This instance is typical of the whole
country. Everywhere people are will
ing to pay more for a fashionable at
mosphere than they are for food.
What does it matter if the filet mig
non is only the size of marrow bone
if the person on ones left is the own
er of yacht and a cottage at New
port? Thus. while the household con-
sumner is actually struggling with the
high cost of living, the diner-out is
struggling with the cost of high liv-
ing which grows more expensive with
each week of the war.
This is not true of all diners-out.
of couse. Usually healthy appetite
will seek its own level, and wherever
, there is a demand for well-cooked
nourishing food at moderate prices an
establishment answering these require
ments grows up. Take New York. for
example. Nowhere may the diner-out
| be found in such copious numbers, and
( nowhere is the pursuit of the fash
| ionable quite SO conspicuous.
There are many cafes in New York
/ notably the French and Italian table
| d'hOtes, that serve excellent meals at
amazingly low prices. This is doubt
/ less because most of their patrons are
| foreigners, and foreigners are more
apt to pay for what they get-not for
what they look at. Then these cafes
are out of the fashionable district,
Far from the razzle-dazzle of Broad
way, they are disdained by most New
| Workers. who are not to be satisfied
! with mere bill of fare. Ask n New
] Worker what he bout