The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-05
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
FREDERIC ]. HASKIN, Director,
Washington, D. c.
MASS FEEDING IN EUROPE.


Washington. D. Germany, to
judge by the accounts of her news
papers. is country with a magnifi-
cent system of food distribution, but
sad shortage of things to distribute.
The German press Is null OF complaints
that people are not getting even the
meager rations their innumerable food
cards call for. The way some of them
feel about 1t is well expressed by a
soldier who contributes the following
recipe for meal to Gastwirtsgehilfe:
Take the butter card, cook with 1t
the beef card, and beat up with the
egg card The potato and vegetable
cards are to be cooked separately and
then added. For dessert, the potato
card is heated up and the milk card
added; this is seasoned with the
sugar card, and the bread and roll
cards are baked in. The hands are
afterward washed with the soap caro-.
and dried with the towel-order form
The card system of rationing. in a
word despite its meticulous elabora-
ton. is not an altogether successful
method of feeding the people. Hence
the method of mass feeding is coming
more ard more to be relied upon. For
merly, the public kitchens were. pat
ronized only by the poor; now the
middle classes are also depending upon
them While this system of mass
feeding-probably the highest devel-
opment of communism which the
world has seen on a large scale-has
reached its greatest development IN
| Germany and Austria, the public
kitchens have become important in
situations in Italy and Russia as we'll
| In Germany public kitchens have
| been established in all of the larger
towns, and appear to be municipal in
situations which are encouraged and
regulated by the government. 1t seems
that the people may either eat the
| food at the public kitchens or take II
home. The great saving is in fuel, and
| in the elimination. of waste; large
1 quantities may be cooked much more
,,heaply than small ones. The govern
laent recently warned the various pub
| lie kitchens to increase their capacity
| to the utmost, while more and more
people are bound to become dependent
| upon them as a result of the growing
scarcity of coal and gas. 1t is also
stated that the middle class now
I patronizes the public kitchens as much
p, as the working class. The government
seems to be greatly pleased with the
savings effected by these institutions.
| The public does not seem to be
publishes a bitter complain relating
the case of one woman with several
| young children who received at the
| public kitchen only half of the amount
, of potatoes for which her food card
called, and who cha rged that the fish
| and meat dishes contained little or
| none of the fish and meat. The
| Socialists also recently registered in
! VSrwarts a protest againts the raising
| of prices at the public kitchens by
t25 per cent. They asserted that the
people were getting little enough for
! were raised.
+ A list of the meals served at pub
tlic kitchen in Passau is published in a
! Berlin paper to show how much better
the south of Germany is faIing than
4 the north. The cost of the Sc meals
was twelve and a half cents for those
including meat, and about eleven cents
| for those without meat. A typical
meatless meal consisted of potato
soup, flat macaroni and jam. A typ
ical meal with meat consisted of cab
tbage soup, veal and potatoes No men,
ton is made of bread or butter, and
the only sweet thing appearing is jam
Land that only once a week or there
Iabouts. The Berlin paper. comment
ling upon this sumptuous fare, says
that the people Of that city would
gladly pay double the price for it.
A complete account of the public
kitchens in Vienna is published IN one
of the newspapers. There are 15C
such kitchens in the city Fifty OF
the municipality. while the rest are
private, including % cooperative
kitchns. 26 attachd to institutions. AZ
for Industrial purposes. for profit
and two for invalids. The largest
number of customers attached to q
single institution is $500, and the
smallest number is fifty.
In Hungary the pubic kitchens
seem to be pseudo-charitable institu-
tons. There is national wal
kitchens committee of which the Arch
duchess Isabella is the head This
committee has started two kitchens in
Budapest one of which is known as
the Burgois kitchen. and has for its
purpose to feed needy memb.rs of the
middle class at cost. 1t serves mea
tof soup. vegetables and farina ceous
food. The other kitchen is designed
for people of the INDECENT classes and
serves for a nominal sum a meal OF
Esoup and vegetables. .
I 1t seems that every one in Europe
fcan get soup, most can get vegetables
potatoes, while only the affluent know
the joys of meat and butter.
| How hunger pinches in Austria, and
how precious food has become. is
wildly suggested by an account of. the
struggles of the officials with what il
comparable to the suit case trade ir
liquor in dry parts of the United
States. The people go out into the
icountry and buy potatoes. meats and
Eother controlled foods in small guam.
titles, and try to take them home in al
sorts of hand baggage The police
are compelled to search all baggage
and confiscate all the food they find
Thus the food smuggler who is caugh
loses his potatoes or his goose. an6
gets nothing for it, These food con
fiscations have engendered so mucf
bitterness that the officials have beer
instructed to wink at smuggling BY
poor persons. and to confiscate only
foods which are brought in for pur.
poses of illicit trade.
"A Russian paper publishes a lengthy
statement of the regulations governing
public kitchens in Petrograd, but nc
idea is given of the number or i'm