Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1917-10-26
HALF A MILLION
TO BE Modified
Canvassers to Work for the Food
Card Pledges Next Week
Plans to Explain Conservation idea
Not an Effort to Get the People to
Eat Less.

Eat Less.
With National Food Pledge Week
only a few days off, the food admin
istration yesterday announced that its
army of half million men and women
volunteer canvassers is modified and
ready for the campaign under the vari-
Gus state food administrators.
Food Pledge Week begins Sunday,
October % and ends November A..
The 100000 canvassers reported on
a preliminary survey several days ago
that they were sure to get the sigma
lures of approximately 13,000,000 Amer
lean housewives to the food pledge.
A million and a quarter of the coun-
try's 100000 housewives already
have signed the card promising to con-
serve food. This leaves between seven
and eight million unaccounted for, and
the food administration today expressed
the conviction that all Of them will be
pledged before the campaign ends.
Reports show that school children are
organized in many places as volunteer
assistant units to help in the campaign
to enlist all the country's twenty-five
million housewives in the work of con-
serving "war foods" of which there IS
a world shortage.
Among the 100000 workers who will
visit every home in the country is a
large number of "war Mothers" wom-
en- whose sons or other male relatives
have gone to the front or are in train
ing in this country.
Sunday, the opening day of the cam
paign, will be marked by war-food con-
servation sermons by the country S 1907
600 ministers in churches all over the
land. The food administration states
that the response of the ministers has
been extraordinarily generous in this
respect.
State, city, county and local organiza-
tions constitute the working machinery
Of the campaign. Beginning and con-
tinuing until Saturday, these workers
will make a house to house canvass of
the country, inquiring of each house
wife of the 100000 families i'll the
United States whether she has enrolled
as a member of the food administration
by signing the food pledge card.
The workers will carry cards for
those housewives who have not yet en-
rolled. To each housewife who hash t
"Home Card telling what foods the
government would like to have them
conserve and why they will present
one.
The workers will explain briefly and
clearly what the government s food con-
seryation idea is and what is asked of
each housewife.
The food pledge is not, food admin
istration officials pointed out today, an
effort to get people to eat less, but to
substitute those foods of which the
country has an abundance for those that
are urgently needed by the peoples of
the allied countries in Europe and their
armies and ours.
President Wilson, in 4 letter to the
food administrator has said: "ln no
other way can they (American womcn)
so greatly assist as by enlisting in the
service of the food administration and
cheerfully accepting its direction and
advice. BY so doing, they will increase
the surplus of food available for our
own army and for export to our allies.
ITO provide adequate supplies for
the coming year is of absolutely vital
Importance to the conduct of the war,
and without very conscientious elm
nation of waste and very strict econO
my in our food consumption, we can
not hope to fulfill this primary duty.
trust, therefore, that the women of the
NOuutly Will HOl OulN INoIOuu W ,Npul
appeal and accept the pledge to tho
Food Administration which you are pro
posing, but that all men also who are
engaged in the personal distribution OF
foods will cooperate with the sam,
carnestness and in the same spirit
The obligation assumed in enrolling
as member of the Food Administra
ton is simple. 1t involves no dues o
other fees.
Following is the brichy.wordcd pledg
each housewife is asked to sign:
81 am glad to join you in the serv
ice of food conservation for our natiOl
and | hereby accept membership in tn
United States Food Administration
pledging myself to carry out the direC
tions and advice of the Food Admin;
TRAITOR in my home, insofar as my eli
cumstances permit.
"a membership Window Card - wi
be delivered to each enrolling membe
upon receipt of the signed pledge, an
from time to time suggestions will b
sent out, these suggestions, taken q
whole, constituting series of LEI
sons in home economies.
'There is no threat of privation,
said the food administrator in a stat
ment formally announcing Food Pledg
Week. "We wish only that our peopl
should eat plenty, but wisely and will
out waste, Wisdom in eating is t
make possible such adjustments in OF
food consumption, shipping and VIZ
necessities as will allow us to fulfill OF
duty in exports to our allies. BY elm
ination of waste we serve ourselv,
economically and morally.
"This is a duty of necessity, huma
ity and honor. AS free people we hay
elected to discharge this duty, not u
der autocratic decree, but without OF
CIR restraint than the guidance of i
dividual conscience. Upon the succe
of this unprecedented adventure in der