The Washington herald., 1918-01-31

OF America this night are feeding TO
their cattle better food than millions
of humans in Germany and Austria
have had at times.
Cow beets and straw bread-can you
imagine human being keeping alive on
such fare?
Well, German people did. and be-
cause they did, one must feel that
no privation. no pressure OF any sort,
can be made severe enough to start
a general revolt among the civil pop
uIation of the empire. II ever a revo-
luton comes in Germany, 1t must
have soldiers in 1t. And the soldiers
will never revolt for lack of food
or clothes. They have plenty of both.
Cow beet Is American for mangel-
wurzel. 1t is raised both in America
and Germany as feed for pigs. 1t
is a hardy vegetable, cordy and un-
palatabIe, but more or less rich in
sugar, and, therefore. nutritive.
straw Bread.
Straw bread is made from a sort
of -four or bran produced by grinding
the dried stalks of wheat and rye.
II Is mixed with rye flour, and the
combination Is most unpalatable. al
though not entirely lacking in nutri-
ton.
The COW beet and straw bread are
off the German bill of fare at present
"a proof that conditions in Germany
are better today than they were at
the close of last winter. 1t was then
that the potato stores became ex-
hausted and recourse was had to the
COW beet.
nj - int fha
realm of human foods has given that
man politics that it could never have
attained in a million years Of ap-
peasing cattle hunger.
In December, 1917, a meeting Of
forty mayors Of leading German
COW beet and erect barricades against
its return.
The German people grow bitter at
the mere mention OF the COW beet.
In hate it ranks second only to en-
gland.
The COW beet, its seems was put
into the soil unobtrusively. and in
secluded sections Of the empire. by
order OF the food directors, when it
pccame apparent that the potato crop
would not be sufficient to last through
the winter of 1916. The mayors de-
manded to know whether any such
action had been found necessary in
1917.
They declared most positively that
their pcop;. would hSve no more of
the COW beet. It would be better,
said they. to restrict further the
potato allowance now, than to test
the temper of the people with the
COW beet, should the potato supply
fail toward the end Of the winter.
Further. said the mayors, it was COM
mon talk that the aristocratic agrari-
ans. or land owners. were feeding
potatoes to their pigs. II that were
so, how could the potato supply last?
The mayors were assured that the
potato crop would prove ample for
the year. and the report about the
agrarians was denied. The COW beet,
the mayors were told, was of the
menu for good. The mayors ad-
journed and went home satisfied.
Now wouldn't it be an odd page
in history If the calculations again
should go awry, and the COW beet
should come back. bringing with it
the germ Of revolution?
Austrians Suner.
Living conditions in Austria are
vastly worse than in Germany In
Switzerland 1 met an American
family who had lived eighteen
years in Austria and had left there
at the time America declared war
on that country. The women of
the family had kept household ac-
counts carefully over a period Of
years. They said that in 1917 it
cost the family five times as much to
live as in 1916.
Even at that" they said, we
were not able to live as well as in
1885,
Bread and potatoes are the only
foods that can be counted upon by
the mass of the people in Austria,
and even their supply is limited.
The Austrian government has held
down the prices of these two articles.
but has been compelled to cut the
allowances to a point that makes liv-
ing difficult. If these two foods were
allowed to follow their natural econ
nomic tendencies, millions of Aus
trians would be without food alto
gether.
Conditions in Hungary are better
than in Austria or Germany. 1t is a
common practice for Austrians to go
to Budapest to get a square meal.
The Germans have the same quaint
customs, only they go over the line
into Swiss cities.
There are thousands Of Germans in
Basel, Berne and Zurich. OF course,
most of them have duties, furtive
enough. no doubt. of one sort or an
other, to perform. But to see them
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