The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-02-02
Save Food or Go Hungry

Save Food or Go Hungry
Dire want does not stare us in the face today
There still is plenty to 60 around You may still
go to the grocery store to buy all the provision
you want The dealers does not say, I'm sorr!
but the supply of potatoes, flour and meat is ex
hausted and we are unable to replenish ou
stock"
But if the consumption Of meat and food con
tinues undated, if persistent inroads are made
on the rapidly diminishing supply, if the peopl'
fail to observe the regulations Of the federal foot
administrator, the inevitable result will be I
shortage of bread, meat and fats.
Too many persons fail to see that crisis il
approaching They believe that the foodstuffs
available for the market are inexhaustible be
cause the food vendors are still able to sell then
the edibles which they demand.
They do not know, or if they know it they fai
to realize how important it is, that the amount OF
all food on hand today is no greater than last
years crop less the amount that has been con-
sumed since the harvest was garnered
The surplus usually carried over from season
to season in the warehouses had been exhausted
long before the present crop was ready for con-
sumption. In other words, there was no surplus
of other years to fall back on for relief, and the
world is now living from hand to mouth.
The demand on last years crop was much
larger than it normally is, because the United
States, besides feeding it's own population, had to
supply the men in the military environments and
had to ship every pound Of food it could spare to
the Allies .~.....-s
Last years crop is steadily diminishing as the
weeks 20 Bly, We do not realize this because we
cannot see the pile go down. 1t is impossible to
store all the food supplies Of the nation in one g-
gantic warehouse where we can watch it decrease
as our population of ten million people day by day
removes the amount required in the homes II
we could see this process we would readily ap-
preciate the seriousness of the situation.
Here is an illustration that may make the
problem clearer
Imagine that last October you bought only
enough meat potatoes, vegetables, flour and fruit
to keen your family in provisions for about twelve
months. Suppose that four months later you
took an inventory and found that instead Of hay
ing used only one-third you had used fully one
half OF these provisions, and that when you tried
to replenish your stock the grocer told you that
you could not buy another pound of food in the
United States.
and that would be to make the supplies on hand
do for the other eight months And sup
pose, after you had decided on this course, that
your wife. instead of acting on your recommended
tions, kept on drawing from your scant stores at
an extravagant rate.
What would you do?
Obviously, put the little you had left under
lock and key, and daily give her only enough cof
fee meat flour and vegetables to provide for the
table.
The food situation in the United States is SIM |
liar to the picture we have drawn. There is a
fixed and absolute amount of food on hand. 1t
cannot be increased until the next crop is harry
ested.
The only manner in which we can conserve |
this supply is by adopting prudential methods in
time. If all the people follow the recommended
tions of the government by observing wheatless,
meatless and porkless days, we may be able to
avoid scarcity and want
If we do not cooperate, we will stand in long
lines with meat and bread tickets waiting to re-
.eve the portion which the government de-
.rees we may have to avert starvation.
The whole problem of food conservation has
oeen put up squarely to the American people, If