The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1917-12-20

and the wheat and wheat products,
the fat and the sugar. These are the
products that we are asked to save
and our supply is rapidly becoming
exhausted. We have not wheat enough
in this country today, under normal
conditions, to begin to last us until
the next crop comes. But we have an
abundance, ii we will each one save
small portion and substitute another
article in place of it, and surely we
can do that.
This years crop was the lowest we
have known in ten years. How easy
it would have been for the speculator
and gambler to corner the market and
force the price were they free to do it.
Whatever we think to the contrary,
it was most fortunate that there was
law passed fixing the price of wheat.
The allies would have bought largely
! at any price and we would today be
paying $1,000 barrel for flour and
25 cents loaf for bread, and no one
would have benefited except the spec
ulator. When the price of wheat was
fixed at $2.20 for No. l Northern at
! Chicago, then it at once began to sta
biliZe the price Of flour and the price
of -four began to fall from SIS and
above a barrel to S1O.35 barrel.
Now how far are we going to ap
proach toward the great system pre-
vailing in many parts of Europe, the
card system That depends on
whether democracy can and will do it's
duty-whether each one Of US Of our
own free will are ready to deny our
selves a little, as suggested or
whether we think, because we have
the means we have the right to deter
mine what we shall buy and what we
shall use If we feel that way and at
tempt to carry it out, it means that
every business in this country will be
| licensed and regulated. 1t means that
you and | must carry our card in our
! pocket and have it punched every
! time we get loaf of bread or other
article of food.
Now | maintain that in our country
such a condition is unnecessary. | be-
lieve our people, when they under
stand the situation, will respond as
they are responding from one end of
: the country to the other today. When
we think that there are in this country
twenty million homes and Of almost
eleven million of these homes the
housewife has signed the pledge card
and they will do what they can to
conserve the products that are neces-
V. This means that we have com ,
long ways on the road toward sue
cess. The others will come into lhe
and they will become conservers Of
the food supplies. When that happens
we can save the necessary food that
should 60 abroad.
We have been in the habit in this
country of using four ounces of sugar
per day or eighty-fve to ninety
pounds per year per capita. OF course,
that includes not only the sugar used
at home, but in the bakery and the
candy factory. We use four ounces
per day. France has never used but
two ounces per capita and today she
has not one ounce per capita except
what we have sent her from this coun-
try, and the French people are fight
ing your battle and my battle for dem
ocracy just the same as our boys who
are going into the trenches. Are we
going to let them suffer, or are we
going to come cheerfully forward and
take our share Of the responsibility
at home here and help to win the
! fight? If we save one ounce day,
! what does it mean? 1t means that we
have saved one hundred million
pounds month, enough to supply all
the wants of France and much of the
other countries. Then l appeal to you
i appeal to the men to help their
wives in their effort. Cut down in the
amount of sugar that you use. We
can get along without frosting on the
cakes. We don't need as much candy.
We can eat more fruit products, fruit
candies, nut candies and chocolates.
/ We can cut out many of the products
in which sugar is employed. And I
believe that our people are going to
do that. When it comes, that will
mean at the present time that we
must cut down our supply per capita
from ninety pounds to twenty-six
pounds per year. In place of sugar,
we can use glucose, corn syrup, honey,
maple syrup and other sweetening
products-sorghum, products that
cannot be shipped away for use. But
! you say, some Of these things will cost
( us more. Is that the measure of your
loyalty and patriotism? We have un-
doubtedly as people got to look at
this question and face it as it comes
to us, and meet it squarely and fairly
or we shall be forced into condition
that will make us victims of this war.
Corn and Wheat.
Now when it comes to the question
of wheat. If we ship wheat abroad,
the wheat that is needed to supply
! the soldiers and the Allies, it will take
not only the eighty million bushels Of
surplus that we had this year, but it
will take one hundred and twenty five
million bushels more at least. That
means that under the normal condi-
tions by June 1 we would be without
any wheat in this country. We will