Denver labor bulletin., 1917-11-03

4
Sugar offers an excellent concrete
example. In a restaurant one is fair
ly certain of sugar for ones coffee.
Three Jumps to person is the rule.
Formerly, the sugar was put on the
table in bowl and one helped ones
self. Now, the ration is served to
each person separately. Still one is
fairly sure of ones sugar in a restau-
rant.
But if one is keeping house, one
finds that one must have a sugar
card" permitting him to buy a stip-
ulated amount of sugar in a month.
| The allowance is l Y pounds of sugar
a month, if three meals day are
taken at home, l pound if two meals
are taken at home and half pound if
only one meal is taken at home. This
means for the person who takes three
meals day at home Is pounds of
sugar year. The annual sugar con-
sumption per person in America is
S5 pounds.
| One would not be likely to find this
out, if one were living in restaurants
in France, but one finds it out very
soon, if one is keeping house
1t is soon learned, also, that the
sugar card" does not mean that one
can demand a pound and half Ct
sugar a month, but only that one is
permitted to buy that much; provided
dealer can be found who has it to
sell. A dealer who has sugar will not
sell it to anyone who comes in. He
sells only to his own regular custom
ers.
We paid last winter in Paris II cents
apiece for eggs and 50 a pound for
butter and there was frequently
neither butter nor eggs nor milk to
be had. Private families were al
lowed TO buy one-eighth Of a pound of
flour at a time. The grOcers could
not sell flour, only the bakers. The
flour mills could not choose their own
customers, nor could the bakers and
restaurants choose the mills they
would buy from. Lists we're made
out, telling each miller % whom he
could sell. This was in order that one
section should not be able TO eat up
the stock of flour belonging to an
other. when all were short.
Wheat Situation in France.
Let me give you the official figures
on the wheat situation in France, so
that there can be no question.
1t is estimated that there will be
deficit of approximately 5000 900
tons of wheat in France over the pc
riod from September /. 1917, to Sep
tember l, 1918.
The normal annual consumption of
wheat is from 100000 tons to 9,4OO,-
l000 tons. France has always been an
Importer of wheat, her average pro-
duction for several years before the
war being 100000 tons, or slightly
less than the consumption. Since the
beginning of the war her production
has fallen off radically. In 1914 it
was 100000 tons. in 1915 6.065 900
.,,l ~, mn I.
for this year the crop is estimated at
100000 tons with a possibility of
rising to $500. 900 tons, leaving for
the period from September, 1917, to
September, 1918. a deficit of nearly
100000 tons, which must be made
up by imports.
Wheat Must Come From America.
Where can those imports come from
except from America? Italy, by rea-
son of her position in the Mediter-
ranean, takes the first toll from the
wheat of the Far East, while Eng
land, of whom the Far Eastern wheat
producing countries are colonies, takes
the remainder. France can get lit
tie from South Africa. Argentina has
stopped the expectation of wheat.
This country is the only resource left
to France.
flour. resulting from the shortage in
wheat Let us try TO see what this
means to France. In the first place,
il must be realized that there bread is
the staple article of food. 1t is the
base of all meals, especially among
the working population. Breakfast
consists of coffee or chocolate and
bread. Luncheon is bread, soup, cof-
fee and often, tho not always. some
meat or fish and a vegetable. The big
dish is bread. Bread is again the
base of dinner or supper, however the
meal may be called. Bread and cheese
will make an entire meal for French
peasant, with glass Of wine to wash
it down.
Bread Allowance and Bread Cards"
The French soldiers allowance of
bread was a trifle over pound and a
half day. On account of the short
age of wheat it has been necessary to
cut this ration to a pound and third
a day. And it is not necessary to say
that only dire necessity will counte-
nance the cutting of the soldiers ra-
ton.
| Another thing that has happened is
'bread cards" in some localities.
There is no national bread card" in
France as there is sugar card,
but in some parts of the country it
Ihas been necessary to restrict the use
of bread by local regulations: have
in mind several letters from my
friends among the peasants of Brit
tany, telling of the privations they
were enduring because their bread was
cut down so much. Remember that
bread is the chief article of diet among
those people.
| France Suffers in Silence.
| NJ ,ot ,L;,l. ,bov corplaipaj