The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-09-27
BY JOHN W. OWENS,
lStaf Correspondent of The Balti-
more Sum-

more Sum-
Washington, Sept. 13.-The purpose
of this article is TO tell the truth about
the food situation of America and its
Allies. And the truth is that the sit
uatIon is utterly critical. We will eco
nomize genuinely or men and women
and children will be buried because of
starvation. This is the truth of the
food situation of America and its Allies.
This statement. l know, is unpleas-
ant and alarming. 1t may be a whole
lot of other things, too, but it is not
exaggerated. 1t will be substantiated
by the men in this country who know
the most about the situation. 1t comes
from sources of unquestioned depend
ability.
When America entered the war and
Herbert Hoover was brought home to
administer our food supply. the whole
country waxed enthusiastic. Sacrifice
and economy - colloquialjzed into
"Hoovering" -was upon everyone
tongue, and seemingly in everyone
heart. We were going to do without
this and without that; waste was to be
anathema in the kitchen and the dining
room. 1t reached the proportion of a
fad among many of our wealthy people.
One prominent woman, whose es-
Establishment employed nine servants
for six members of her family, made a
public statement of her devotion to
"Hooverizing" and explained in some
detail her daily conferences with her
nine servants looking to reduction IN
the consumption of butter and lard and
discoursed happily upon the enthusiasm
with which the nine servants entered
into the new game.
In all of its widespread "Hooyering"
among the loQuacious and fad-loving
wealthy and among the vast masses of
the middle order and the poor-much
good undoubtedly was done. But, as
time wore on and the available food
supply for the average American family
did not shrink materially, even though
the prices increased, the idea of actual
want of actual food, the idea of actual
danger of starvation for vast numbers
of human beings faded from our con-
sciousness. We came around to the
good old American idea Of 1T will come
out all right.
If America could live unto itself
everythng.would come out all right,
probably. If we could build al econo-
mic wall around our country and say
that nothing should 20 beyond it, We
would be able to FEED our population
comfortably at least. But We cannot
do that We.cannot live comfortably
IN this country while our allies suffer,
even if We could steel cur hearts to
such inhumanity. Self preservation
compels US to the other course. Ii our
allies 20 down gunder starvation, we
shall have to face alone the power of
Germany and her allies. We must live
in our world and bear our share of the
common burdens and privations of our
world.
And the fact is that cur word-the
world of America and England and
France ard Italy and Belgium and
Russia-faces a definite shortage of
food; not shortage of food in stats
tical tables. but shortage of food to
put into the mouths of the hundreds OF
millions of people who compose the
populations of those nations; an actual
lack of sufficient food to keep together
the bodies and souls of the babies and
CHILDREN and women and the others not
in the armies; and who, therefore,
must go to the second food table, for
the first table must be and is reserved
for the men in the trenches. They must
be fed sufficiently.
No one in all the world realizes this
situation so keenlY and so fully as
Hoover, the man who worked miracles
in Belgium, and to whom, through the
Food Control and Food Survey acts,
We have handed unprecedented power
over our food supplies-to whom we
have given dictatorial authority over
the supplies upon which millions of
people depend for life itself.
MIR. Hoover knows the food necessi-
ties of America, England, France,
Italy, Belgium and Russia as my mother
knows the food. necessities of her house
hold Of three His knowledge is lust as
intimate, just as dependable, And he
knows the supplies in the common
larder Of these nations precisely as my
mother knows the supplies in her larder.
He knows how long those supplies will
last for the households of America,
England, France, Russia, Italy and
Belgium if living is conducted by one or
all upon the old extraYagant scale; how
long if conducted upon more moder-
ate scale and how long if conducted
on a scale of sound and workable econ
omy.
And he knows that the only way the
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