The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1917-10-18
Maine Food Conservation Cam.
paign.

One hundred and fifty thousand food
substitution pledges! Every home in the
State of Maine visited A Statewide
campaign projected SO large in its scope
that the work to be accomplished is as
great as though census of the entire
State were to be taken in week!
Such is the program outlined for the
Food Pledge Campaign Week, October
21st to 18th inclusive. Similar campaigns
are to be conducted in every other State
of this country and it is planned to en-
roll 100, 900, 900 people in the great Ma
tional Food Conservation Army.
What is it all about?
Why so much fuss?
In every State thousands of people are
asking these questions while thousands
of others are preparing themselves to
furnish complete answer to the query.
The reasons why the Food Pledge Cam
paign has been projected upon such broad
lines are so simple and so plain that they
have been stated in the compass of a card
"a card that it is proposed to hang in
every home of the land-a card that is
the "war creed of the Kitchen" because,
so closely are the people in this country
linked to the world-war, that one of the
phases of the struggle must be fought out
in the American kitchen.
If soldiers are to fight they must be
be fed. For the past three years, one by
one, our allies across the sea have been
taking the men from the farm and from
the factory and sending them to the firing
line Each man sent to the firing line
meant one less who could be relied upon
to help produce the food that twill win
the war"
There are stores of wheat in Australia.
There is food in South America, but ships
are scarce. Time is vital factor The
voyage to Australia and to South America
takes too long. If the need of those who
fight for us across the sea are to be met,
the food that sustains those fighters must
come from LnlS country.
If the laborer is worthy of his hire,
surely the fighter is worthy of his food.
However, warns the United States Food
Administration, it is not every product that
can be sent across the sea. Corn will not
serve the need; our allies have never used
it as food; they have no mills to grind
it; turn it into meal in this country and it
would spoil before it could reach Eu-
ropean port. There are just four classes
OF products, the experts say, that we
must send to our allies if our duty to
them is to be discharged; they need meat,
wheat, sugar and dairy products. But,
say the experts, who have gathered the
figures, unless American consumption of
those food stuffs is reduced below the
normal consumption our reserve will not
be large enough to meet the need. And
so the problem becomes a simple one.
We can conserve our wheat by increas-
ing our consumption of other grains. We
can conserve our meat by makinga greater
demand upon the resources of the fish
market.
If the United States were an autocratic
country there would be no popular appeal
for the conservation of food There
would be an autocratic food control The
mailed fist would rule in the kitchen.
Imperial food DEGREES would be enforced
at the point of the bayonet. Food con-
troll is in the hands of the people them
selves, and it is to the people that the
Food Administration has appealed in the
Food Pledge Card Campaign.
The appeal in the Food Pledge Week
Campaign is that the homes of this coun-
try be enrolled as members of the United
States Food Administration. Broadly
speaking the United States Food Admin
istration includes every man, woman and
child in the United States, because food
control is in the hands of the people.
The Food Pledge Week Campaign, there
fore, resolves itself into an effort to Sc
cure as result of voluntary agreement
pledges insuring the general support for a
well defined program of food conserva-
ton. 1t represents an effort to induce as
many of the American homes as possible
to unite in a common policy.
Our wheat reserves can be conserved
if everybody helps. Our meat reserves
can be conserved if the whole public CO.
operates.