The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-04

ration is to be "stretched' with barley linstead of potato flour to the conse- | quent diminishing of the beer produc-
 tion. An almost negligible supply of
 coffee and a very slender amount of tea.
 On the credit side of the ledger stand
 the vegetables that were raised in great
 quantities during the past summer, and
 that with German thoughtfuiness and 1 system have been dried in great quanu-
 ties, and will be available for the win
 ter. Likewise there are great quantities ' of marmelade, or near-marmelade, which ! have been stored up as a substitute for butter. The substitute is very poor, but l better than nothing.
 l The average German will insist that Rumania stands on the credit side of | the ledger, too, and that it is a big | item. But it is extremely probable that l the amount of food found in Rumania is | far smaller than had been anticipated. 1 Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria, all also have claim on whatever there may be. Though Germany is running | the military situation in Rumania, Ger many is very far away. Her authorities have known for weeks that there was l little to expect from Rumana, and have tried to break the evil news gently. First came the announcement that the size of the supplies captured was unknown l then the word that whatever might be 1 found would not be used but kept as reserve.
 | It is, of course, the big German cities that are suffering, and that are going to suffer increasingly as the war con tinues. Lack of transportation facilities is an increasingly important factor. Germany, which before the war had | somewhat more than ample freight cars for it's own needs, now has to make the same number of cars, approximately, do for all of the German empire. nearly all of Belgium, northern France, all Poland, and a big piece of Russia, in addition to Servia Montenegro and the biggest half of Rumania. Only relatively small rumber of cars captured in Belgium have been added to the German rolling stock. As the war has gone on the condl- tion of this rolling stock has deterlor- ated steadily, and scarcely any of + has been replaced. A shortage of oils has not allowed the proper care of what cars there are, hot boxes on both passenger and freight cars are every day occurrences. The engines have now to draw such heavy loads that they are going to pieces faster than they used to-
 Feed and fodder conditions for Ger man livestock improved somewhat through last years harvests, but only somewhat. The cattle are still thJn and scraggly. The milch cattle give less than ever and there is little milk that can be spared for cheese. The cattle when slaughtered give less meat than they used to and so horse meat has had to be resorted to in a degree that is unprecedented.
 The avilable supply of swine has never recovered from the original Ger man mistake of 1914 and 1915, when millions of pigs were slaughtered to save the food that they devoured only thereby reducing the supply of fat to a dangerous point. The Germans have never forgiven themselves for that short-sightedness.
 The same in measure holds true of sugar There had been an oversupply in 1914, and solemn warnings went out not to plant so much land to sugar beets, and more to grain. The peas antry followed the advice too literally and Germany awoke to find that she had hardly more than enough sugar for purposes other than food. So the big cities are in part living on sac charine now, and there isn't enough of that
 The coffee stretching" process be- gan last spring and has continued so diligently that real coffee is an a1 most unattainable rarity, and the av- craze ''coffee" that is available is so poor as to be undrinkable for the per son used to real coffee. Substitutes such as chicory. herbs, mixtures of all kinds have taken coffee's place.
 The most perfect organization and system in the world has stepped in and so regulated food affairs that every adult in the empire is pretty a week. But nearly every ounce of that half pound is lean meat. The fat rarely reaches the purchaser, for 1t is jealously hoarded by the government.
 System likewise has provided that there shall be ffo more butter riots, or bread riots or meat lines. There is now a so-called Customers list" whereby each resident of any large city Is registered with one dairy store and one baker, and one butcher. The customer has a number and on stated days may purchase his or her quota of food by number. Government se- cret service agents have been busy ferreting out cases of extortion and overcharging and heavy fines and inn prisonments have been salutary in their effect. Likewise the custom of hoarding. which the Germans call transferring" after the animal ham ster." or grounfIhog, has been discour aged to great extent by fines and other punishments.
 During the final months of 1916 Germans of the wealther class helped out their scanty ladders with butter. eggs. cheese and the like, which they procured from convenient relatives" whom they discovered in Holland and Denmark. Now that has been done away with. From the first of January on the German government, through it's Central Purchasing company, will buy all the food in adjoining foreign countries that those countries will or may sell and will distribute it equably in Germany.
 0ur Vnlnerahle Cnast line