The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-06-17
Food Situation In
Central Europe

a detailed survey of the food sit
uation in Germany, Austria-Hun
gary, Bulgaria, and Turkey during
1917 has just been published as Bull
letin 242 by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics of the L. S. Department of
Labor. This survey is based exclu-
sively on laws, DEGREES, orders, utter
ances OF public officials and civic
bodies of the countries covered, and
! on comments OF the daily press and
leading economic and trade journals
of these countries.
In general, the survey shows that
Turkey is actually starving because
of the corruption of her own of1ci-
ais and the greed of Germany; that
Germany and Austria are not starry
ing, but are having very hard, strug-
gle to feed themselves; that Hun
gary is in better shape than eitfters
Germany or Austria, and that Bull
garia so far as food is concerned, is
suffering the least of all the coun-
tries covered. The survey also shows
that Germany has failed by a wide
margin to live up to her reputation
for efficiency in her attempts at food
administration, having been obliged
to reverse her policies in an effort
to remedy in part the fatal results of
official blunders. 1t shows conclu-
sively that the civil populations of
Germany and Austria are suffering
permanent physical deterioration
from lack of proper food, that the
death rate from tuberculosis is rap
idly increasing, that growing boys
and girls are not getting half the
nourishment they should have, and
that manual laborers are being un-
derfed to about the same extent. l
Politically, the most interesting
thing revealed by the survey is the
fact that the traditional hatred be-
tween the two parts of the dual mon
archy Austria-Hungary has been
manifesting itself in the refusal of
Hungary to share her comparative
abundance with Austria and in the
official and public resentment of that
fact in the latter country.
Profiteering, greed, breakdown OF
transportation, and faulty organiza-
tion are big factors in the food s1tua-
tion of Germany and her allies.
Many original articles on the food
situation in leading German and Aus
trian newspapers were at the dispo-
sal of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Comments on food orders, their en-
forcement, and the practical result
of their application were available
from organs of all political parties,
thus representing every point of view.
Material relating to the food sltua-
tion in Hungary, Bulgaria and Tur-
Key was much scarcer. Those parts OF
the bulletin which cover the food sit
uation in these three countries are
therefore less comprehensive than
the parts covering Germany and Aus
tria. AS far as it was possible the
material for each country covered
was arranged in the following order:
First, an official or unofficial sum-
mary of the food situation in 1917,
or both; this is followed by an out
line of the food policy for the 1918
harvest reports, food orders relating
to individual focdstuffs, comments on
and criticism of these orders and
their practical application, data on
the supply and prices of individual
foodstuffs and their ratiOning, illegal
procuring of food, food-card systems,
measures for cheapening the food for
the poorer classes, and the effect of
the food shortage on the health OF
the civilian population.