New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-07-01
Food Saving Day


At the request of Herbert {. Hoover.
churches all over the land are keeping
this day as Food SAVING Sunday Cler-
gymen will discuss food conservation in
their sermons. A concerted attempt will
be made to crystalline aroused public SEN
tment into some definite programme of &C
ton. Committees will be formed by
women of the churches to cooperate with
local authorities and civic bodies in an
organized movement to eliminate eXtrava-
gance.
One advantage Of this method is that
it deals with the food problem as a local,
domestic and personal matter 1t empha-
sizes the fact that if anything IS to come
of the attempt to conserve the food supply
Of this country something more must be
done than simply to ask Congress to pass
a law on the subject. The food bill will
be passed, but the Federal government
cannot do everything. Even with the
most effective machinery Of control, the
government cannot sit on eyerybody's
back doorstep and watch what goes into
the garbage can. As Mr.. Hoover says,
The waste in food amounts to fifty dol
lars a year for every family in America.
The waste of single ounce of food each
day in every home means a yearly waste
of nearly five hundred millions pounds Of
food. The waste of single slice of bread
each day in every home means a daily
waste Of a million loaveS of bread The
thousand million dollars of waste which
thus takes place yearly IN the households
of America can and should be stopped
Obviously it is much better and more
American" to follow Mr. Hoover's advice
and "eat as much and no more than we
need, and especially save the waste" than
to wait till we are forced to practise econ
cmy either by government regulation or
By still higher food prices. But the whole
responsibility for food waste cannot be
placed upon the individual any more than
il can all be shouldered by the Federal
government. The public has the right to
expect more help than it is getting in this
matter from local and state authorities
everywhere. Vastly more food is wasted
through speculation and on account OF
cur chaotic market arrangements. than is
lost through household extravaganza. In
almost every centre Of population, even
at the moment when prices are highest
and food scarcest, trainloads of perish
able goods may be found rotting on side
4. Go fa
tie has been done by any state or munic-
ipal official beyond laggard and generally
futile investigation" and occasional
preachments on the subject Of extraya-
gance.
Press reports from the potato growing
region Of Virginia reveal state of af-
fairs which no food-saying campaign can
afford to ignore. Here are acres Of pota-
toes unharvested, and a thousand Boy
Scouts, who periodically volunteered to
do the work, sent home, the order to dis
continue digging having been given By
"a producers organization Of which all
the truckers are members" The state
nent given out by the officers Of the Boy
Scouts indicates that the order to stop
work apparently was caused by conges-
ton in the potato markets and drop Of
So a barrel in price"
l. this sort Of thing all that is to come
Of the enthusiastic efforts Of the public
TO increase the production Of food? Unless
local authorities everywhere can do more
than they have done 10 prevent such
methods Of profit grabbing, the greater
part Of the public's efforts both at food
PRODUCTION and food conservation can only