Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-02-04
(By. Victor Morgan.)

LulIOf OI Inc SIeFeIduQ iTeSS.
Copyright. 1918, by the Newspaper
Enterprise Association.)
Germany is the land of the Ersatz
the substitute.
Immediately a necessity disappears
from the market there ONE into its
place an ersatz.
The s]hopkeeper does not try to
palm it off or you by telling you that
it is lust as good" He merely says,
at is the only thing Of the kind that
can be bought in Germany"
The number of these substitutes
runs into thousands. There are few
things that bear n relation what
ever to life today that have not their
substitutes. The existence of this vast
number Of substitutes is indicative not
only of the scarcity of necessities in
Germany, but OF the docility of the
people who continue year in and year
out to use these substitutes.
1t is probable that few of the sub
stitutes are injurious to health, but
certainly all. or nearly all, are lack
ing in nutritive qualities.
They appease hunger by filling the
stomach, but they do o build up the
body. sand the. people who undertake
to subsist upon them become weaken
ed and susceptible to disease.
For coffee there are many substi-
tutes. The leading n is ground
acorns. This costs SO cents a pound.
"a cheaper substitute is made of
ground roots.
The substitute for sugar is sac
charm, a coal tar product, many hun
dred times sweeter than sugar. This
is sold in tiny tablets, and is so sweet
that it is s%ickening. The sugar pro-
duction of the country is used for the
extraction of glycerin, needed in
munitions.
Ground COW beets. sweetened with
s~accharin, form a sort of expensive
jelly, sometimes labeled as a substi-
tute for marmalade.
A sort of heavy oil made from root
seeds and stalks of plants Is offered as
a substitute for lard. l saw some ad-
vertised at $3.50 a pound.
Leaves Of all sorts Of trees stepped
in a tea brew are a substitute for tea.
The papers are full of advertise
ments of flexible woods to be used in
stead of sole leather. Most shoes are
now soled with wood. Various hair
cloths are substitutes for leather.
The gathering of nettles has grown
to be quite an industry. = Children
mainly are employed. Nettles and
green willow bark are used in the
manufacture of a sort Of fabric which
takes the place of cloth.
Paper also is used as a substitute
for cloth.
Whole suits Of clothing have been
made from paper. Paper shirts are
common. The German comic papers
are full of funny stories about per-
ted themselves to be caught in the
rain.
Engineering newspapers advertise
a great variety Of 81 substitutes for ma
chine oil. They are made mainly
from seeds.
= Butter has many gu Institutes. The
| best is made from seed oil. spiced with
Ipaprika.
I No substitute for the hot bath has
las a daily incident has all but passed
out of existence. No fuel to heat the
water. There is plenty Of coal in
Germany, but n way Of distributing
it. There are many substitutes Cor
tobacco.
Beer is. no, longer made Of hops and
malt. So little grain is used in its
/ manufacture that 1t is hardly more
than colored water. 1t is in great dis
favor with the Germans. accustomed,
as they were in pre-war days, to heavy
brown breWs.
The result Is that the consumption
Of, beer has been enormously reduced.
In. the ~pre-war days Munich prob
ably led the world in per capita con
sumption of beer. 1t also led the
world In number of cases of fatty ce-
generation Of the heart. More per-
sons died Of fatty heart in Munich
than in any other city Of its size III
the world. (.
l. rAtSwiss who until recently had
lived in Munich told me hat the dis
cage had almost entirely disappeared.
But said he, 1.-THE famine fare
has brought a lot Of new ones, such as
lfamine-dropsy and hunger-typhvid.
ESQ that the elimination Of fatty heart
has resulted in no net gain In health
The caricaturists of the future will
have to devise a new type of German
The German. sohce the heaviest tEter
IN the world, may etill eat IL he has
the money. but the at-building auali-
ties have departed from his fare, and
with It him Of the full paunch tLd
double chin. made 80 familiar by tile
cartoonists Of all nations.