The Washington herald., 1918-02-04
BY VICTOR MORGAN,
Editor of the Cleveland Press.
(CopyriRht. 19lSl

Germany is the land Of the ersatz-
the substitute.
Immediately a necessity disappears
from the market there comes into lts
place an ersatZ.
The shopkeeper does not try to
palm it off on you by telling you
that it is "just as good" He merely
says, ''It 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 any relation whatever to
life today that have not their substi-
tutes. The existence OF this vast num-
be Of substitutes is indicative not only
of the scarcity of necessities in GER
many, 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 lacking
in nutritive qualities.
They appease hunger by filling the
stomach. but they do not build up the
body, and the people who undertake
to subsist upon them become weak
ened and susceptible TO disease.
For coffee there are many suosti-
tutes. The leading one is ground
acorns. This costs 50 cents pound.
A cheaper substitute is made OF
ground roots.
Instead of Sugar.
The substitute for sugar is saccharin
a coal-tar product many hundred
times sweeter than sugar. This is sold
in tiny tablets. and is so sweet that 1t
is sickening. The sugar production OF
the country is used for the extraction
of EIycerin. needed in munitions.
Ground COW beets, sweetened with
saccharin, 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. 1 saw some
advertised 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 advertisements
of flexible woods to be used instead
of sole leather. Most shoes are now
soled with wood. Various haircloths
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
f,,Il 80 oh
in paper suits who have permitted
themselves to be caught in the rain.
Engineering newspapers advertise a
great variety of substitutes for ma
chine oil. They are made mainly from
seeds.
Butter has many substitutes The
with paprika.
yet been devised And the hot bath
out of existence. No fuel to heat the
water. There is plenty Of coal in Ger
many, but no way of distributing it.
There are many substitutes for to-
bacco.
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
disfavor with the Germans, accus-
toned, as they were in pre-war days.
to heavy brown brews.
The result is that the consumption
Of beer has ben enormously reduced.
In the pre-war days Munich prob.
ably led the world IN per capita con-
sumption of beer It also led the
world in number of cases of fatty de-
of the heart. More per-
sons died of fatty heart in Munich
than in any other city OF its size in
the world. ID
Lot of New Ones.
A Swiss who until recently had lived
in Munich told me that the disease
had almost entirely disappeared.
But" said he, "the famine fare
has brought a lot of new ones, such
as famine-dropsy and hunger-typhoid.
So that the elimination OF fatty heart
has resulted in no net gain in health"
The csricaturists of the future will
have to devise a new type of German.
The German, once the heaviest eater
In the world. mfE still eat IL he has
the money. but the fat-buildine quail
tiles have departed from his fare, and
with It him Of the full paunch and