The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-27
ENGLAND ENFORCING
 ECONOMY IN FOOD IN SUCCESSF u WAY
Essential Rations Are DOled Out at Source to Retail CTS Under Govern
 ment Control

London. May 15.-Teaching the ne- cessity of food economy has been one of the hardest tasks of the Engllsh government in wartime as it Will pc the hardest task of the American gov ernment. England. like America has been the land of cheap and plentIul food. The whole world has contri- buted to her larder and the average Englishman and still less the average Englishwoma are unable to visual ize the possibility of famine.
 Food has always been ready in shops when one had money to buy it, at any rate as far as the memory of the pres ent genera tion runs. and the warnings that before long it might not be there fell on deaf ears Appeals for vol untary rationing met with only par ;ial success, for the reason that the ordinary housewife seeing the shops full of food, even at increased prices could not really believe that there was a shortage.
 Germany's example has made Eng land hesitate about undertaking com pulsory rationing. The bread ticket system there has beon a conspicuous failure. Even a population so used to governmental control as the Germans resented it and evaded it by fraud and in every other way possible. It has been felt here too. that the cost of the army of officials needed to carry any rationing system into effect would more than offset any economy that might be effected
 system of rationing at the source, however, has been devised and has met with considerable success. It was first applied to sugar. of which there Is a serious world shortage. The gov ernment took control of the import of sugar and became the only wholesale dealer in the country. Grocers were rationed on the basis of their former trade in sugar and were thus forced to ration their customers. There was some grumbling and some bungling at first, but on the whole the scheme worked well. Everybody got the sugar he absolutely needed, although not all the sugar he wanted and no one was forced to go without. A similar scheme has now been undertaken with regard to bread. The govern ment has just announced that it has taken over all the flour mills in the country and as it already controls the wheat and other grain imports it will be able to regulate in the same rough and ready way the supply of bread. The bakers will be rationed with re- gard to flour and will have to ra- tion their customers. The government, too, will be able from time to time to increase the proportion of other grains than wheat used in the na- tional flour and to keep absolute con trol of all the milling processes with view to the greatest possible econ- omy.
 One of the interesting features of the wheat shortage in England is the growth in the use of maize as Indian corn is called here Corn bread is becoming quite popular in England and all the womens papers contain recipes for baking corn biscuits, johnny cake and all the other corn delicacies dear to the heart of the southern housewife. Some difficulty IS experienced in London in obtaining the proper quality of corn meal, but 1t can be obtained from a few Amer ican stores and on more than one oc- casion recently they have been sold out. Now however, English millers are waking up to the demand and be- ginning to turn out a very passabIe imitation of southern corn meal.
 There is no doubt that in one re- spect at least the government meas ures have brought about a reduction in the consumption of bread. At first the war bread. made from flour con taining a slightly higher percentage of the wheat berry. was extremely palatable and the effect was shown in temporarily increased consumption. With the gradual addition of barley, maize, rye and other grains it has become darker in color and less pal atable and the consumption has fallen off. Another cause of decreased con sumption is the regulation forbidding g the sale of bread before it is "A hours old.
 So far there is no shortage of meat The consumption of this staple has fallen off considerably and there is a large supply in the country as well as plenty of live stock. In fact the gov ernment at the moment is appealing to the well to do to eat more meat and leave the bread for the poor.