The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-24
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
REFORMATION BUREAU
By FREDERIC j. HAsRIN. Director.
Washington, ID. C.
THE COMING OF THE PAPER CAN.

THE COMING OF THE PAPER CAN.
Washington. d. C., Oct 24.-Wel-
come into your home the paper can!
This is another request from the
| food administration, another tip on
how to be patriotic Patriotism is &
complicated business these days, and
/ requires study. It has been suggested
| that some one ought to publish a
volume entitled. The Complete
( Patriot; or a Thousand and One Ways
to Serve Your Country. The success
! of this war depends absolutely upon
that unit of civilization, the average
/ man. Upon what he eats, what he
! wears. what ne says, what he thinks,
| how he conducts his business, now ne
takes care of his health, what amuse-
ments he goes in for, how much of ms
| income he saves. how he invests his
| Savings, how he does his shopping
upon all of these things depend the
fate Of nations and the future OF
I democracy. There is now patrlotc
and an unpatriotic way of attending to
| everything from your shopping TO the
investment of your heritage.
| Breakfast in Spirit of '76.
! But especially and seriously impor-
! tant is it that you eat in a patriotic
manner. You should bring to the
( breakfast table the-spirit of 10. You
should do your shopping with the high
/ consciousness that your domestic
/ strategy is having its full ERECT upon
the battlefields of France
[ For example. by purchasing food in
1 paper containers, which formerly you
| always bought in tin, you can
| strengthen the allied air fleet, blind
the German army, and help win the
war.
1t does not seen possible. But in
point of fact it is simple. Tin plate
you see. is very scarce. Tin plate mas
! for many years been used to contain
| foods that could just well be packet
in paper-coffee, for example. TN
| plate and steel, of which it is made,
are also the only adequate contalnec :
| for 'air spirits as they call that eX-
| ceedingly refined and volatile gasoline
which is used as fuel in aeroplanes.
/ The war is now being fought very
largely in the air, and large part OF
1 the gasoline with which it is being
fought comes from this country 1t is
| shipped in steel drums and in cases OF
tin cans. It cannot be shipped IN
! wood, or even in tank steamers, be-
cause it is so volatile that much of 1t
would be lost by minor leakage and
in process of loading and unloading.
Why Tin Plate Conserved.
Furthermore, tin plate is needed in
this country for the package of foods
that must be steri4ized at a high tenn
'
! the canned vegetables, canned milk,
I meat and fish. There will not be
nearly enough of these to go around
this winter. The crop of many stand
ard canning vegetables is short, but II
it had been a bumper, the situation
would have been worse. Much of-the
crop would have gone to waste for lack
of containers.
This tin plate problem is a peculiarly
difficult one. In the first place, our
| production of tin plate is limited abso-
lutely by the capacity of our rofllnS
| mills. These same mills do a great
deal Of work in connection with the
production of munitions. Their out
put of tin plate is more apt to go down
than up. ~,
SUNNY of tin. with which the thir
steel of containers must be. coated SO
that il will resist the action of acids.
A Tin Plate Committee, headed by
DR.. C. H Bentley, has now been 1p-
pointed by Mr.. Hoover, and is enter
ing into negotiations for supply of
tin. TIE cooperation of Great Britain
is assured, but space in ships IS ow
one of the most valuable Things IN
the world. So the tin supply Will be
none too large. In fact, those who
know say that it will be gears be-
fore our supply of metal containers
will be restored to normal.
The only substitute for metal con-
tanners in the preservation of foods
that must be sterilized is glass. Glass
will stand the heat and pressure But
glass containers must be either very
heavy. which is great drawback in a
country of long hauls, or else they
are fragile. Then, too, they are rela-
lively expensive to make. Glass will
be used for the preservation of many
foods that have always heretofore
been preserved in metal and it should
be used as much as possible in homo
canning, but the use of glass is only
a partial solution of the difficulty.
Paper, AS For Containers.
AS intimated above, another meas
ure of conservation along this line
will be the use of paper containers
as much as possible 1t has been
found that by impregnating paper
with certain oils it can DC made sTf-
ficiently air-tight and waterproof to
keep many food products in prime
condition. The difficulty lies in the
tenderness of the impregnated fabric
= This has been overcome by using an
outer covering of ordinary heavy pa
per. Coffee is already being sold III
amounts up to thirty-five pounds in
such containers. Do not, therefore
scorn the food product packed III
f paper. 1t is a measure of economy
for yourself and for the nation al
large to buy everything possible in
paper Tea, cereals, candy, tobacco
! spices, drugs and toilet articles will
appear more and more in paper
packages.
Another way TO express your patri-
otism is to be moderate in your use OF
, canned goods The aiming industry
as represented by the National Can
ners' association. is cooperating will
l the food administration, and agrees
2 that the consumption of canned good.
should be restrained rather than slim
ulated. The demand is already fal
ahead of the supply. If canned good:
are consumed lavishly in the early
part of the winter, there will almos
t surely be a scarcity later on.
e Cook, Store and Raise.
1t is in this way that you can show
Your natriotisn by what YOU eat. Tn.