Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-04-10
Country Has Plenty Of Ger
tain Kinds but the Lack of
Fats Is Telling Very
Plainly on the Population.
PRICES so HIGH THE
POOR CANNOT BUY
Food Depots Have Been
Very Successful and Have
Gone a Long Way Toward
Solving the Food Problem
: in, Germany.
BY CARL w. AcKERMAN
Copyright, 1917, The Tribune Assooia-
ton.

The food depots are by far
the most successful under
taking of the German gov
eminent. In Cologne and
Berlin alone close to 100000
poor are being fed daily by
municipal kitchens. Last
October [ went through the
Cologne food department
with the director. The city
has rented a number of large
vacant factory buildings and
made them into kitchens.
Municipal buyers go through
the country to buy meat and
vegetables. This is shipped
to Cologne, and in these
kitchens it is prepared by
women workers, under the
direction of volunteers.
A stew Is cooked each day and sold
for AZ pfennigs (about 8 cents) a quart,
The people must give up their potato,
fat and meat cards to obtain 1t. In
Berlin and all other large cities the
same system is used. In one kitchen
in Berlin, at the main market hall,
$4,000 quarts a day are prepared.
In Cologne this food is distributed
through the city streets by municipal
wagons, and the people get 1t almost
boiling hot ready to eat. Were 1t not
for these food depots there would be
many thousands Of people who would
starve because. they could not buy and
cook such nourishing food for the price
the city asks. These food Kitchens
have been in use now almost a year,
and while the poor are obtaining food
here, they are becoming very tired of
the supply, because they must eat
stews every day. They car have moth
Ing fried or roasted.
FEEDING THE MIDDLE CLASS.
In addition to these kitchens the
government has opened throughout
Germany 'mittlestand kueche," a res
taurant for the middle classes. Here
government employees, with small
wages, the poor who do not keep house
and others with little means can OBJ
tain a meal for 10 cents, consisting of
O stew and dessert. But 1t Is very
difficult for people to live or this food.
Most every one who Is compelled by
circumstances to eat here Is losing
weight and feels under nourished all
the time.
A few months ago, after one of my
secretaries had been called to the
army, I employed another. He had
been earning only 81 a week and had
to support his wife. On this money
they ate at the middle class cafes. In
six months he had lost 20 pounds.
Because the food Is so scarce and be-
cause 1t lacks real nourishment people
eat all the time. 1t used to be said
before the war that the Germans were
the biggest eaters in Europe-that they
ate seven meals a day. The blockade.
has not made them less eaters, for they
eat every few hours all day long now
but because the food lacks fats and
sugars, they need more food.
Restaurants are doing big business
because after one has eaten a meal
in the afternoon one is hungry by 3
o'clock and ready for another meal"
Last winter the Socialists of Nun
ich, who saw that the rich were hav-
ing plenty of food and that the poor
were existing as best they could in food
kitchens, wrote Chancellor Won Beth
mann Hollweg and demanded the i'm
mediate confiscation Of all food in Ger
many, even that in private residences.
LEADERS SAFEGUARDED.
The Socialists demand was, as are
most others. thrown into the waste
basket because men like the chancel-
lor, President Batocki OF the food de-
partment. wealthy bankers. statesmen
and army generals have country es-
tates where they have stored food for
an indefinite period. They know that
no matter how hard the blockade
pinches the people 1t won't starve
them.
When the chancellor invites people
to his palace he has real coffee, white
bread, plenty of potatoes, cake and
meat. Being government official he
can get what he wants from the food
department. So can other officials.
Therefore, they were willing to disre-
gard the demand of the Bavarian So
cialists.
But the Socialists. although they
don't get publicity wren they start
something. don't give UP until they