Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-02-07
'U.S.,N WAR CRISIS,
FORGETS ITS FOOD
Costs Keep Soaring and
Country Hasn't Turned
Hand in Matter
NO LINE ON RESOURCES
Various Organizations Here
Either Not Interested or Have
Merely Talked"

America, facing n national crisis, is Civ.
ing almost no attention to the conservation
y of food or to economies along that line
Inquiry today at n number OF the principal
associations in the city whose chief aims
Y are economies in some form revealed this
fact, and II also was shown that mobiliza-
tion and conservation were being practised
In every important activity having bearing
upon the present situation, except where
food is concerned
This country. II has been frequently said,
fs the most wasteful Of all nations. As IT
took England two and half years to
learn and practice national economy in food,
II is being asked on many sides today what
will America do.
With not merely a national. but world
crisis impending, the cost Of living is higher
In this country than II has even been. II is
higher even than in some of the countries
which have been at war for thirty months
Aside from the rising cost of foodstuffs. IL
Is admitted that absolutely no information
Is Immediately available to show what the
food resources are now.
NOTHING KNOWN
The authorities at Washington know the
resources in men, ships, guns and inland
transportation facilities They know the
capabilities Of every available Industrial
plant of importance in war times, and they
know almost TO a dollar our enormous inan-
cial resources. but of the food supply moth
ing is known and nothing is being sought
Colonel Montgomery. of the Frankford
Arsenal whose activity in the M. .atiun
and conservation Of military supplies Is
wen Known, when asked to discuss the
rood situation said he had never heard of
any move, either State or national, toward
the conservation OF food supplies lie ac-
knowledged this was vitality important
matter at present, and urged prompt action
py the proper authorities.
Colonel Penrose, of the Schuylkill Ar
senal, expressed the same opinion.
LEAGUES INACTIVE
Inquiry at the Consumers League
brought forth the information that the ac-
tivittes of that organization were directed
mainly to the supervision of the sanitary
manufacture of garments, and that the
question or food was not in it's provence.
The Bureau of Municipal Research. il was
stated. has nothing whatever to do with
food economics. The Bureau Of Applied
economics, when asked about the matter
said that while it was n State institution
food economics was foreign to its activities
At the Civic Club Mrs. William f. Lee
chairman Of the feed economics department
SAID that almost nothing had been done by
tnat organization up TO the present except
'talk'-which she deplored Mrs Lee ac
knowledged the pressing necessity for action
IN the face of the present crisis and said
she would have her committee consider the
suDJect at once ana try to get some action
URGES UNITED STATES CAMPAIGN
AT the University of Pennsylvania Prof
Z. l.. King. who has been largely interested
In such subjects. said that so far as he
knew nobody had been appointed nor any
action taken in the past with a view Of
putting the subject of food economies as
applied to the nation on such a basis as
had been done with the nations industries
He acknowledged the vital Importance of
the subject, and said the National Govern
meht shouid at once take an inventory Of
the country's resources in foodsturrs and
then hnd out from England, who has
learned her lesson, and conduct a nation
wide campaign of education on the sub
!ect' Other details, he said, could follow,
put these two were the most important to
begin with