The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-02-27
Ger,,,a,,y's Food
~ Problem
tFrom evolutionary Digest>


of Ambassador Gerard and certain e>grespondents
who took advantage Of the occasion to Hsake their
exit. Not the least among their reasons NJ being
glad to get beyond the borders of the Teutonicen-
pre is the fact that they through wrestling VIVA
Germanys food-problem. we read. and reports from
this and other sources incline some editorial OBJ
servers ask what good it will do Germany to sub
marine England starvation if she herself starves
in the actH Yet while food is very scarce. Bern
advces state that one seldom sees any person show
ing mar ks of undertaking. though elderly per-
and some anxious mothers look cnlaciated. and
reduced in weight is quite general. We in
formed further that physicians writing for the medi
cal journals assert that children now evidently
undernourshed lacking fats in particular. yet the
merry shedding throngs' in the parks during Jam
uary never suggested want of food. The general
verdict is that the health of the people better than
before the war, when "overeating had almost
sumed the character OF a national besettng sin"
The people mostly disposed to jest about short
rations when the pinch is not too KEEN it appears.
and audiences at the variety shows laugh heartily
at topical songs turning upon shortage Of food and
the prevalent issue of substitutes"
Nevertheless, men in authority recognize that
Germany is confronted with problem Of increas-
ing difficulty and the next four months regard
ed especially critical because the supply of
tables. except potatoes and turnips is practically
hausted AS to potatoes the 1916 crop only
two ffhs that of 1915, and this shortage precuding
potatoes feed for live stock. resulted in the pre-
mature slaughter of vast numbers of pigs. But
the number of pigs increased in 1916 up to Septem-
Der by nearly 100000, the country Seems have
an ample meat margin the present scale Of con-
sumption" and the Bern dispatches state that:
practically all meat is sold q card emitting
each person to half pound weekly. but dishes made
Of kidneys lungs and other scraps be bought in
restaurants without a card. Game and poultry
exempt from the card system, and command extraor-
binary prices The maximum prices Of pork and
| mutton range from so to Is cents, but dollar more
is paid at back doors for despite Germanys genius
| for organization. much surreptitious dealing pre-
| walls Even German officials, usually models OF the
srictest obedience to the laws, give hungry children
! the advantage of loose Interpretation and do not
put awkward questions.
| "The rich of course, suffer comparatively little.
| They still able to buy high priced poultry
fish, Turkeys, geese and chickens are still dis
played in windows, and bear labels announcing that
they be purchased at from $3.50 to 81 so pound
| Cases have been reported where a fat goose
brought more than $50. The poorer people, espe-
cially in Berlin, undoubtedly suffering from
hunger, their food is confined mainly to bread,
potatoes turnips, and low-grade marmalade. 1t is
generally asserted that in the country districts the
food problem is less pressing than in the big cities
producers retaining supplies for home consumption"
In contrast with such news from Germany. we
have the reports that Austrias grain store will not
last until the next harvest is reaped and also dis
patch from Amsterdam in which unnamed au-
thority Is quoted saying: "Constantnople is a
starving city, where very certainly dozens of poor
creatures perish every day. and where for year and
half typhus, cholera and plague have never been
absent cpidemics Constantinople is dirty, and
over all hangs the terrifying spector of famine.
which also threatens nearly all Turkey in Europe.
The New York Times recalls that for months past
we have heard widely divergent accounts of food
conditions in Germany and calls attention first, to
reports that may be called of official nature, be-
cause they prepared by or under the supervision
of German authorities. Next we have stories told
by occasional strongly pro German Travellers ar
irving here from Berlin, who we'll provided with
money and lived in the best hotels. They proved
by their experiences that food in Germany was
plentiful and cheap and that talk about hunger and
hardship was product Of the malignant British i'm
agination" But have a dispatch from
Stockholm in which there is a detailed statement b!
an Associated Press correspondent of facts HI
found them and this journal goes on to say:
1.-THE picture drawn by this correspondcnt-wh'
wrote, be it remembered, under the strctcst orders
c neither to magnify to mnmize-is not o
quite desperate misery, but it is sufficiently terrible
nevertheless. According to him, the of tn
German people, represented in the capital, ia
from sufficiently fed. and only the soldiers at tn
front have enough to eat Prices, as rule, ar
kept low by effective government order but Will
potatoes. for instance, are cheaper than they ar
here, it is only in minute quantities that they ca
be bought. and many other ordinary foods can nc
: be obtained at all.
THE state of affairs thus revealed Is probabl
toorablo for the present and might be endured fo
" some time to come by people united and devote
! as the Germans, but it obviously not so
IA indefinitely without producing the most serious low
10 ering of the national health and strength"
In the Stockholm dispatch, the New Yor
Sun notes items of times bill of fare "a dc
" coction Of roasted acorns chcory and what ne
l. that by the name of coffee; brews of linde
blossoms and raspberry leaves in place tea hare
~ any meat, no cheese, sausage; beer all b,
undrinkable. no fat, ten ounces of potatoes a da
" flour that takes hours of waiting in line procur
er eggs for five weeks, although it had been hope
T. to allow one egg per person each two weeks" tt
;" correspondent reports many complaints from Peep
h. who said Il feel hungry all the time" and II
Sun remarks
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