Denver labor bulletin., 1918-08-31
AMERICAS RECORD IN ONE YEAR
IN FOOD SAVING TO AID ALLIES
By WILLIAM ALMON WOLFF
In Golfers.

Do you remember how, just about
year ago, that slogan first struck
your eye? You do, of course. It's
never been very much in the back
ground since then, either. Now it is
time for a report. Has food won the
war? What has it all come to, all the
saving you have done? Has it been
worth while?
Well, the war hasn't been won yet.
You still have that to do. But, on the
word of the food administration, the
way you have backed it up, the way
you have saved food, has prevented
the war from being lost. Winning it
remains; in this next year that task
be easy to do what Herbert Hoover
will ask of you now. Because-what
you have done has been so tremen-
dously worth while. 1t has helped so
much. 1t has given you such a def
mite part in the war.
l wish everyone in America could
hear the big food administration build
ing in Washington humming with the
praise of what America has done.
Your ears would burn, madam and sir
-and particularly, madam! This is
what one man-who knows what he is
talking about-says:
:. There's never been anything like
1t in history. Here was people that
had never known want, that had never
experienced famine or anything re-
motely resembling it-a people that
had plenty within reach of its hands
every moment. We asked the Ameri-
can people to do voluntarily more
than any other people has ever been
asked to submit to under compulsion.
And the American people made good!
They have saved more voluntarily
than any country in Europe has done
under the most stringent compul-
sioni"
Skirted Edges of Disaster.
Now, Just what is it that you have
done? And just what are you still
called upon to do?
In the first place, the crops of 1917
were, in general, bad. That was true
of the whole northern hemisphere. In
the face of inevitable reduction of crop
areas, directly due to the war, nature
herself seemed to fight, for once, on
the German side. So that the de-
mands upon you had to be increased,
roportionately, as the result of crop
failures. Herbert Hoover wrote to
the President in July that for the fis-
cal year 1918, ending July 1, the
total nutritional production of the
country was between z and 8 per cent
below the average for the three pre-
vious years. That doesn't sound par
tlcularly dramatic or serious. But
the statistical genius of the food ad-
ministration smiled, sadly, when l said
SO to him.
"Well," he said, "I'll tell you what
1T means. If that nutritional produc-
tion has been Is per cent below aver
age, nothing under heaven could have
saved our allies in Europe from fam
Inc and disaster. The war would be
over-we would be beaten!"
Now that we have turned the cor
ner, it is permitted to tell how mar
rowly we skirted the edges of disas-
ter. In July, 1918, there were less
than 100000 bushels of wheat in
the United States-in storage, in tran
sit, anywhere! We were within ten
days of being out of wheat. We came
to the new harvest with that slender
surplus! And normally we carry
over 60,000,000 bushels of wheat for
seed alone. We have never before.
even in years of blighted crops, car
ried over less than 100, 100000 bushels
OF wheat into the new harvest. We
are going to take no such chances in
this coming year. To begin with,
bumper crop is in sight. The crop of
1918 looks to be safe Barring dis
aster now unforeseeable, Hoover will
have great store to work with. And
already plans are being made that will
end all uncertainty. There has been
time, as last year there was not, to
make things easier for you. You can't
look for white bread this winter. But
you can look for something that, all
things considered, ought to please you
even more.
AS l write, Herbert Hoover has Just
landed in England. And he has gone
to try to perfect certain plans and ar
rangements that will standardize
bread and flour for all the allied
world-that will result in your eating
victory loaves and pies and cakes made
from standardized victory -four that
will be the only flour used in any coun-
try of the allies. If Hoover's plan
goes thru, you won't be obliged, any
longer, to buy a certain amount of
cornmeal or barley or rye or potato
flour when you get a sack of white
flour
There won't be any white flour for
you to buy
The mixing of the white wheat flour
with substitutes will be done scientifi-
cally at the mills, before it goes into
the sacks, instead of in your kitchens,
or the kitchens of the hotels and res
taurants you patronize. There will
be no wheatless days and wheatless