The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-02-06
Swat Violators of the Food Regulations

Swat Violators of the Food Regulations
This community has spoken in emphatic
terms against the pro- German.
Now let public opinion turn it's searchllght on
the violators of the food regulations imposed by
the federal administrator and voluntarily as
sumed by the nation.
The flood conservation" cards displayed in
many dwellings of this city are no longer pledges
of food abstinence but positive declarations that
the people who reside in the house are not telling
the truth.
If every pledge card signed last summer by
the people of the United States had been kept, if
every housekeeper and her family had observed
meatless and wheatless days, the government
would not find itself confronted with a serious
condition today.
We are not saving enough food to win the
war; Food Administrator Hoover has called on
the country to restrict it's consumption of wheat,
meat and fats. This is our last chance for volun-
tary cooperation in food saving.
The next step is the enactment of legislation
by Congress which may send violator of the
food regulations to jail for six months, or pay
fine of $4,000, or both.
Our failure to comply with food regulations
word of honor does not speak well for our loyalty
or our character. 1t proves that many of us are
hypocrites.
Some of us shout against pro-Germans and
yet We are as bad as these men and women for we
are wasting the food our soldiers and allies
need to help win the
g.. An all around good American is loyal at heart.
and loyal in action. His loyalty doesn't stop with
singing "The Star Spangled Banner" but mani
tests itself in cheerful obediance to the food
regulations of his country and other restrictions
that may be imposed.
It's disconcerting to the morale of our good
loyal citizens to discover that hundreds of fam
lilies in our own city, with the food pledge card
prominently displayed in the front room window,
eat meat on meatless days and consume wheat
on the interdicted days.
Thousands of violations of the original pro-
gram of the food administration have resulted in
the new regulations that went into effect this
week.
What remedy can be prescribed for the vio-
lators?
We believe that the vigilance of patriotic
neighbors ought. to be invoked. Let them report
all violations they detect to the county food adj
ministrator. That official is clothed with power
to act
Public opinion in Richmond ought to mani
fest itself in unmstakable terms against the
violators of the food program, for they strik-
ing at our war efficiency with the same deadly
intent of pro-Germans and pacifists. There is no
difference between the classes. pro-German
and an American violator of food regulations
ought to be severely punished.
Stories are going the round here that in some
streets, housewives openly buy meat from wag-
ons for consumption on meatless days.
Some have suggested that butchers and bak-
ers be prevented from selling meat and wheat
bread on the days that call for their omission
from the table The federal food administrator
had faith in the American people, believing that
they would voluntarily refrain from making pur-
chases so that closing order would not be
needed
The trouble is not with the dealers but with
the consumers. Too many of us are guttons
ns ss'"iI oioos