Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-09
WHY TO SAVE FOOD, AND HOW
dissatisfaction
BY DR.. Ray Lyman Wilbur
resident of Leland Stanford University

(Pr6S1dont
A RTHUR is away at boarding school for the
II first time in his life. And he is enjoying II.
He has found host of new friends, he mas
a good room and good roommate, and he has
begun to have dreams of making the school team:
Even so, there are times when he grows Dlt
homesick And of those Is when he is seated
at the long table of the dining hall. 1t isn't that
he dislikes the food. 1t does well enough ana ne
has no fault to find. Yet there are moments when
he cannot help thinking of his family sitting
arounds the dining table at home, laughing and
talking and watching his mother while she cuts
one of those wonderful mince pies of hers. on,
those mince pies! Was there ever anything like
them? What wouldn't he give for big wedge
out of one of them. VIII they tuck one into that
box they have promised to send him each week!
That is vital question to him.
Meantime what is Arthur's family back home
doing? They have their regular supply of mince-
meat canned and slowed away. They are fond OF
mince pie themselves Yet they know that Arthur,
living on the routine boarding school fare is count
ing having that mince pie arrive from home at
periodic intervals. What does the family do under
these circumstances? Do 'they use the regular
amount of mucemeat for themselves? Or are
they saving of it, substituting other desserts for
mince pie SO that Arthur may be sure of having
his?
1 leave you to answer
And in the meantime 1 am going to Jake the
abrupt leap from the family circle to tropical
islet in the South There is nobody on it ex-
cept three Sailors the sole survivors OF shpWreck
on a nearby reef. Yes, there is a fourth--a wee
mite of a child whom the sailors saved when its
parents persisted 1t sounds almost like plot for
a short story, doesn't it? But am still thinking
of food Luckily the island is rich in edible tropi
cal fruits. Aid still more luckily, the day after
the wreck of the sailors found washed up on
the beach, small case of condensed milk. Who
got the milk? The sailors? Or did they save IL
for the baby, while they themselves got along
we'll enough cocoanut milk, on breadfruit and
mangoes?
This time also I shall leave you to answer Il
wouldn't impugn the kind-heartedness Of the
sailor-man the world over by even intimating that
there could be any doubt about the answer.
ired of maginarY illustrations which
seem to you to lead nowhere? You will quickly
discover that they lead somewhere very definitely
if you will pause to consider world events and
world problems today
Our allies fighting men in the trenches and
women and children at home, need certain kinds
of food. They wheat, beef, pork, dairy prod
ucts and sugar We have those foods. We shall
have plenty TO send over where it is needed-if
willing to make the slight subst1tutlons
necessary in own diet.
Otherwise we shall not be able to send over
the food they need. Or, to put it more informally
and pointedly, we shall-in this particular-be
leaving friends in the lurch
An ancient proverb runs: whats life to
man when his wife's a widow" Remodeled for
this occasion, may say: What good are our
soldiers in France if the people we are sending
them to fight for have meanwhile died OF starVa-
tion?
For cutting down the use of certain specified
foodstufs the personal sacrifices we shall have to
make are trifing. The results possible from such
small sacrifices and substitutons are immense.
Later l shall tell you in detail just what to sub
sttute for wheat for beef, for fats, for sugar 1t
is the food administrations wish and plan that re-
suits shall be achieved with the least. possible
rifice to the men, women and children of this
country.
But the necessary surplus of food must be
raised. And that problem is up to you, and to all
of us
The lad at boarding school got his mince pie.
The baby on the South sea island had his milk.
Are our allies-making common cause with in
the fight for freedom-to fare worse when it comes
to depending on us for wheat, beef, pork dairy
products and sugar?
Or shall we, for their sake, each and all of us,
help them by sending them the foods they need.
tuition in what we ourselves eat?