The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1917-12-13
WILL AMERICAN PEG
PILE CHANGE HABITS?

PILE CHANGE HABITS?
Dr.. Wilbur in an address at
the conference of Food Admin
istrators in Washington, Nov.
18th, said in part:
"The Food Conservation move
ment IS the most important
thing for democracy in the world
today because we must realize
that we may lose this war be-
fore we are fairly in it simply on
the basis of the food shortage
of the world. With the ship
ping shortage and the food
shortage no one can foresee
whether we are going to get
through and still be at war next
summer. You can't sit down and
demonstrate it. You have got
to realize that practically the
only food that we can send
and we know it has got to go to
the Allies-is the food that we
can't eat, and the only way to
save that food is not to eat it.
The only effect you can get to
bring that about is a mental,
psychological effect. You can't
seize the food away from the
people. You have got to con-
troll action through the minds of
the people and you have got to
get at them in every possible
way.
You ask a hundred million
people to change within the
course of a few months, their
eating habits and you demand
something that is absolutely vi
tai, but it is the most difficult
thing you could ask of a people
and you have got to make it
work, and you have a wonderful
machine set up with which to do
it. If you begin to play on the
great instrument that has been
erected and only play the tune of
prices, that is the only note you
will get back, and if you ever
get this Food Administration so
it is entirely dependent upon
prices for it's success it is a fail
ure; it is on the rocks. You have
to make it something else. You
have to play a different tune, the
tune of service, the tune of pa
triotism, or we are going to lose
the war; that is all there is to
it from point of view.
"You must appeal through
new avenues? Primarily, they
are the school, the church, the
fraternal and patriotic orders,
the labor unions, the CONNER.
cial travellers, and so on. The
most progressive Individual in
the United States today is the
American child. The first to
buy Liberty bonds are the Amer
lean boy and American girl in
every community. They sense
the thing before their parents
do and they have sensed this
food conservation before their
parents have. They are making
the parents behave themselves
in many homes because they
have grasped it. You have to
get at the school and keep at the
school all the way through. That
means that you have to get at
the teachers. You have to also
get at~the church and the Sum-
day School and the preacher.
I'm the states you have to
keep in touch with the teachers,
the preachers, the WRITER'S
those people who guide public
sentiment, and you have to get
the persons in your state that
have ideas and get them infect
ed with the idea OF the Food ADJ
ministration and food conserva-
ton so that they will infect 9TH
er people.
"Above all you must keep in
touch with the WOMEN of this
country. Now there is one
thing about food work that is
different from other kinds of
work and that is that it is hard
to visualize the results actually
obtained. The Red Cross has in
it the element of service and af-
ter a weeks work there are so
many sweaters, so many socks,
so many bandages rolled, and the
person who has served visual
ICES that service and sees what