The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-11-18
GOT WRONG IMPRESSION.
American Soldiers Who Wrote Home
That France Has Plenty to Eat.

Many American women who have, at
the request Of the food administration,
expended much energy and ingenuity in
their efforts to save food for the allies,
have had rude shock when their sons
or husbands have written them from
France that there was no such thing as a
food shortage over there; that they could
get all the food they wanted and that
this idea of saving food for starving
France was nonsense.
These letters are written in good faith,
we are sure, and what they say is true
Of the small part of France which the
average American sees And as few
Americans ever 60 outside of the mill
tary zone they imagine that what they
say is true of France as whole, and
never know what a great wrong they are
doing the rest of the country.
The military zone, a fairly wide belt
extending the length of the battle line, is
plentifully supplied with food, it is true.
If you are willing TO pay sufficiently
high price you can get about anything
you want. The presence of millions and
millions of soldiers in this zone, and their
willingness TO pay the most exorbitant
prices for especially is this true of
the American soldier-has caused phe-
nomenal flow of foodstuffs to this part of
France, which has left the rest of the
country drained dry.
Conditions outside the area under mill
tary control, which after all is very
small part of France, are very bad. The
civilian population must pay the same
s Al - Al
must go without. In the industrial cen
ters almost everyone is engaged on war
work, and receiving high wages, can keep
up with the high cost of living But in
the smaller towns and all through the
country districts the people fare very
badly indeed.
They can no longer afford butter or
cheese; and meat is now beyond their
highest aspirations. Even potatoes, upon
which they could depend in the past, are
so high in price, owing to the bad crop
this year, that many people cannot buy
them at all
Practically the only food which every
body can afford is bread, for the price Of
bread has been kept low by government
subsidy. Bread, however, is rationed,
and the ration is far from sufficient to
make up for the lack of other foods
Moreover, the fact that bread is rationed,
and that each person has card emitting
him to 10 ounces a day, does not mean
that when he presents his ticket at the
door of the bakery he is sure to receive
10 ounces. In many places last summer,
the ticket brought in exchange only half
the promised quantity-and in other
places none at all.
A representative of the United States
food administration who has recently
taken a trip through the more remote
districts of France writes, II have just
visited several villages in Auvergne, a
mountainous district where transport is
difficult. In one village there had been
no bread for three weeks; people were
eking out their meager diet from fast
failing supplies of potatoes. In another
Of these villages we found bread but it
was very black, had distinct odor and
was almost impossible to swallow.
"They told me it was made of chestnut
-four with some oats and barley and
little buckwheat added That was what
they had been living on for five weeks. 7
talked to some women who were stand
ing in queue outside of the bakers
shop, waiting for their daily ration Of
this bad bread. Some of them were com
planning bitterly but when I suggested
to one of them that if France made peace
with Germany they would have plenty to
eat, ] almost had fight on my hands"