Evening star., 1917-01-14
Government Plans to POpulariZe Certain -

q 0NCLE SAM has come to the aid
of the hcusekeeper who is wor-
III ried by the high cost of living
~ which means practically every
bausekeeper in the United States-wlth
new and perfectly feasible scheme for re-
A,,.,,v tho expeuse OF the family menu
az, meat is too high" says the paternai
ola gentleman who represents your gov
,,,,ar, "sat less meat and more hsh'
You will fnd the fish much cheaper ana
% carefully and properly prepared. quite
a. palatable and wholesome as '"e
meat"
In ordsr to stimulate general consuinp
t,on of sea food and thereby 20 tahe "
faJI out of the high cost OF hfihs Wy
government is preparing 10 iau'.u " -
gantic advertising campaign eu.esb .ol the
pose OF popuariZng the goosensni;
rravfish and sea musSels. three Ear.
or sea food OF which the Cniteo Saa ss =
now makes but little use and -, OF "Eisi Erar 1t
wastes an immense quantity every Staa S;.I
In the opinion Of pr. Hugh NJ Snitn'
commissioner of fisheries TINS ca1nps6r ps'i.
Is destined to be even more iar-reaci't,e the
ard productive of better results tnah ,ne
governments efforts TO popufar,ze 'ne w. ~
Ash. a movement which resulted IN the
replacing of this almost forgotten SEQ
food upon the menus oi 'he +>'i'e' '>"''
public 49,. ...,,.,,, Dr
In discussing this subject recentlS ~, ~
Smith said THE man who coineu l,'e
phrase the tickle public, may nave nee,
n theatrical manager n base pan staI,
milliner or poltician-it Is certain tra. t
ne was not in the fish business, for IN lew
things is the public SO steadtas' anu '''
servative as in the fish 1t eats
This is particularly true with respect
to the American. who. blessed beyond
cellent food fishes, eats but few of them
He. or possibly in this case IT is she' 'a'hS
ruently and often Of the high cost of Nv
ing but takes no practical steps to reduce
n. even when to do so requires no more
initiative than the substitution OF one
word for another when the order is placed
with the market man. This is especially
true of sea foods. OF which today we are
wasting by neglect more than we are
using largely because we do not even
know tn, names Of them and do not know
what to ask for when we wish somethlng
at a low price better than some OF the
high-priced things which we nave oeer
THE tiIefish in abundance lay off our
coast unsought and unconsidered until
by little judicious publicity ana ,he co
operation of few progressive dealers
its name was made a household word
Then it bounded into popularity. and
within the year was providing the peo-
than had been provided by the biuehsh,
the uackerel, the whitefish or the lake
trout and at a lower cost.
Quality and price fix the economic
character of a fish. but without rep
utation tand a good one) the pubic
will not eat il, however excellent II may
be. Fortunately for the fish-but un-
fortunately for the public-the carly
reputation of the grayfish was based.
not on its high quality as food, but
on its destructive habits Like the
bluefish il is pirate and marauder.
but its weapons are more efficient and
II not only eats and drives away other
food fishes. but il cuts to pieces with
its teeth the fshermen's gear and
leaves him helpless and exasperated.
Naturally, under such conditions. no
name was too bad to apply to the spe-
cies and the mildest one in common
use was the 'dogfsh. This is a poor
title to conjure with. II lacks an allur-
ing sound and. besides there are sew
eraI inferior fish known by the same
name. For both reasons it is desirable
to call il something else and 'grayfish
has been selected obviously appro-
pirate.
These fish are found on both shores
of the North Atlantic. south to the trop-
fcs. and probably range widely in the