Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-30
HUNGER IN EACH
HOUSEHOLD IN
KAISER'S LAND
All Purchases Must Be by
Card and Government
Knows Just What viii Be
Needed by Each Purchaser
(This In the third OF nEr. Corey's ar
ticles on conditions In Germany
BY HERBERr COREY.

BY HERBERT COREY.
! Copyright. 1917. by Herbert CoreyO
BERN, Switzerland. Oct. 1s.-(By
MsiL)-Germany is nor starving, but
Germany is very hungry.
That is the conclusion which have
reached across the Swiss border after
washing many tons of the gravel OF
fiction to get at a few grains of fact.
The problem has been complicated by
the fact that very little news is per-
mitted to get across the line. What
knowledge of German conditions there
is here is in possession OF two widely
separated classes. The German sympa-
thizer paints German conditions in as
rosy hues as his regard for the credulity
of the listener will permit The German
hater would have one believe that canni-
balism and bigamy by government order
are tomorrow's certainty. The means OF
truth is to be found somewhere between
the extremes OF assertion.
In discussing the food situation in
Germany II must be borne in mind that
all statements are necessarily general
izations and few Of them hold good
for the entire empire. Food regulations
apply to and are made by municipalities
and districts and vary with local condi-
tions. 1t would be entirely possible,
then. for Berlin to be quite meatless,
whereas I'm villages a few miles away
there might be what passes under war
conditions for a plethora of flesh. A
dozen reasons might prevent the weeks
supply of meat reaching Berlin. while
a threatened shortage Of fodder might
have compelled the Strengthening Of the
herds I'm the nearby villages.
'T have been starved for fresh vege-
tables" one man told me. zone day I
left Nurnberg 10 go to Erlangen, a viii
lage few miles away. and at Erlangen
found the weekly market stuffed and
overlooking with vegetables of the fin
est quality. There had been an error
in the plan for distribution. I went
back to Nurnberg that night with all
the vegetables I could stagger under"
When the food shortage in Germany
is under consideration. IL must be
understood that the cities and the con-
gested Industrial districts are the prin-
cipal sufferers. There is an admins
trative theory that all the food in
the empire is to be put I'm pot, so to
speak. and that each shall be entitled
TO draw from that pot precisely the
amount required to keep him up to his
particular Job. The workman in the
munitions factory is given preference
next to the soldier in the front-line
trench. The person least considered is
the housewife or the man engaged IN
a sedentary occupation. That is the
theory-but there are many exceptions
Tho farmer is an exception much in
the foreground. -
"It is an odd fact" said one man
who has known much of the present
DAY conditions in Germany. that the
farmer is invariably fat and rosy"
1t has been impossible to keep the
farmer from cheating the takers of
the food census. He reports himself
the owner Of ten pigs when he has
sixteen in scattered sites. He buries
cheese and hides sacks of wheat in
the stacks of straw and has surrepti-
tious stores of potatoes. An army OF
detectives would be needed to keep tab
on MIN, and Germany has no army to
spare for this purpose. Dependence is
necessarily placed on a system OF Sc
we're and unavoidable punishments Tor
violations of the rules for the listing
of all food products. together with a
continuous twanging on the chord or
patriotfsm. Where suspicion of the
aericulturist's good faith is not accom-
panied by proof another course is taken.
you have twenty-four hens"
farmer was told, in a case that came to
nv ears. you must produce twenty
| four eggs a day for the officers mess
"But no men III the NOAAO ONSA Ae'AN
an egg a day" protested the indignant
farmer besides, six of these chickens
are cocks"
"a chicken is a chicken" was the
renly of the officer. "I have no Inter
/ est in the domestic relations OF your
poultry yard or the efficiency OF your
hens. One egg per day per chicken is
| the order"
So that the farmer was forced to buy
eggs in the open market at the TOP
mice to supply the daily shortage. The
situation was complicated by the fact
/ mat being a producer he had. no egg
| card. and that eggs are only legally
| cola against cards. He was forced 10
smuggle in eggs from his neighbors. This
was an extreme case. of course, but II
Illustrates the difficulty of forcing even
The most patriotic farmer to half starve
himself in order to feed his compatri-
OTIS.
The German faculty for organiza-
zion however. has enabled the empire
IN spread a thin layer Of food over the
/ largest surface possible. The scien-
fists assert that the German ration mas
never been deficient in calories-that Is
that each individual is entitled TO re-
/ ceive against his cards the food values
necessary to keep him in health. where
fact and theory have failed to doyetail,
however, Is that the person "AO 10 NO.
in nerfect health. or who is not living
an active life, digests and gets full
value from only a portion OF his hxed
ration. In other words, hard work
ing man utilities almost 100 per cent OF
the theoretical value of his ration
whereas his wife or father might sur
fer from undertaking on the same
portion
i Outside of the beleaguered empire
too. II has been taken for granted ina
the ration fixed by the food caros fs