Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-02-08


 ment that the size of the supplies cap tured was unknown. then the word that what ever fight be found would not be used, huy kept as a reserve. Big Cities Suffering. It is, Of course. the big German cities that are suffering, and that are to suffer increasingly as the war con- tlnues. Lack of transportation facili- ties is an increasingly important fac tor.
 Germany, which before tho war had somewhat more than ample freight cars for it's own needs, now has to make the same number Of cars, ap- proxiInatelv. do for all of the Ger man empire, nearly all of Belgium. l northern France, all Poland, and g. big piece of Russia. in addition to Serbia, Montenegro and the biggest half of Rumania. Only relatively small number of cars captured in Belgiuf have been added to the German roll ing stock.
 As the war has gone on the condi- tion of this rolling stock has de- teriorated steadily, and scarcely any of 1t 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 everyday occurrences. The engines have now to draw such heavy loads that they are going 10 pieces faster than they used to.
 Feed and fodder conditions for Ger man livestock improved somewhat 1, rl, Ior ,,,,e bor E,,t " somewhat. The cattle are still thin 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 available supply of swine has never recovered from the original German mistake of 1914 and 1915, when millions of pigs were slaughter ed to save the food that they deyoured, only thereby reducing the supply of fat to a dangerous point. The Ger mans have never forgiven themselves for that short-s shtedness.
 The same in a measure holds true of
 
 in 1914, and solemn warnings went out not 10 plant so much land to sugar beets, and more to grain. The 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 saccharine now, and there isn't enough of that.
 Real Coffee Not Available.
 The coffee stretching" process be- gan last spring, and has continued so diligently that real coffee is an almost unattainable rarity, and the average coffee" that is available is so poor as to be undrinkable for the person used to real coffee. Substl- tutes 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 well assured of half a pound Of meat a, week. But nearly every ounce ol 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 no more butter riots or bread riots or meat fines. There is now 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 o1 food hv numher Government secret service agents have been busy fer. retting out cases Of eXtortlon ana overcharging, and heavy fines and i'm prisonments have been salutary IT their effect. Likewise the custom o1 boarding, which the Germans cal Transferring" after the animal "Ham ster" or grounding, has been dis courageG to 8 great extent by fine: and other punishments.
 During the final months of l9lt Germans of the wealthier class helped out their scanty larders with butter eggs. cheese and the like which they procured from convenient relatives whom they discovered ill Holland ant Denmark. Now that has been don' away with. From the first of Janu arv on the German government through it's Central Purchasing com many. will buy all the food in adjoln ing countries that those countries vii or may sell, and will distribute i equally in Germany.
 The plants of the DuPont PoWde company will be placed at the dis ....oI of tho oovornnoont in the even