The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-04
May Be Necessary for House
wives To Help Country.
Give Up All Over Weeks Sup
ply, Warns w. p. Innes Here.
WHEAT SITUATION IS SERIOUS
Most Important Problem, Ad-
ministratOr Tells ROtarians.
EmpOria Rotary Club VIII Sing
Here Sunday, April ri.

THE wheat situation in this coun-
try at the present time is the most ser
ious problem confronting the food ad-
ministration and will probably con-
tinue to be the most serious until after
the harvest is in" Such is the declar-
alton of Walter P. Innes of Wichita,
food administrator for the southwest
ern zone of the United States at the
Rotary luncheon at the Chamber of
Commerce this noon.
ANY nation at war; asserted In
mes, lis sure to be confronted with a
deficit in some of it's food supplies
but the deficit changes from week to
week and from day to day in regard
to what commodities are short. Just
now the wheat situation is the worst
as we are trying to meet all of the
demands of our allies for this food"
I'm regard to the recent order is
sued by the food administration about
the communicating of stored up wheat
in farmers bins, the farmers are TAX
ing teh order very nicely and some of
the most persistent holders are now
beginning to put their wheat in mo-
ton towards the mills.
Storage Grain a Relief.
This movement of stored up grain
will relieve the foreign situation for a
little while" continued Innes, but not
enough to warrant any letting down
Oh the DdTS DIS Idr as our own COnSeT-
walton of wheat is concerned. In fact
the situation is SO serious that we are
now taking steps SO that a little later
on we may send out call for all cit
liens to turn in any flour they may
have on hand in excess of a weeks
supply"
At one point in his speech Innes
touched on the way the food admins
tration is handling men who are guilty
beyond doubt of profiteering. 1.-The
~,
use force on these men, asserted
lnnes, so We just go to them and
suggest that they suspend their bust
ness for thirty days, and then sign a
pledge to be good in the future So
far nearly all of the men that this
has been suggested to have voluntar-
lily gone ahead and done as requested
and we have no more trouble from
them"
Urges Use of Substitutes.
lines urged the use of substitutes by
all housewives in making up their
daily menus. Potatoes especially were
urged as a wheat substitute, THE
more potatoes we eat the less wheat
we need" declared Innes. Potatoes
are Perishable in the extreme and
wheat is not. Therefore serve all the
potatoes your family can eat and cut
down on the bread and things made
from wheat"
,, In speaking of the rumors and ac-
cusations of the ground glass in foods.
Times declared that nearly all of
these accusations are without founda-
ton, and are in substance nothing
more than one kind of German
| propaganda designed to scare the peo-
pie In one package of breakfast
| food that was sent to us last week for
examination and in which it was de-
| clared that there was a lot OF ground
| glass, our inspectors found nothing
| but little real Kansas sand probab ly
| blown in the package by real Kansas
| wind
Great Danger of Hour.
| In closing, lines read a part of
speech made by Mrs Burnett Smith. a
prominent English woman, at the
| recent conference of the food admin
! istrators in Washington Mrs. Smith
said:
want to point out to you what
| is the great danger of the hour and
what makes the coming months be-
! tween now and the harvest the most
critical of this mighty struggle Our
people, by three and a half years of
.uneXampled sacrifice, have become
not weak in moral fibre-but have
| weakened physically. We do not talk
much. We are not very good at put
ting our goods in the front window.
and l do not think one-half of what
Great Britain has done for this war
will ever be told.
tOur casualty averages about 1850
you must know what that means!
/ You must know what the homes are
! like back of these figures. and when
| in addition to all this moral, spiritual
and heart sorrow and strain is going
to be added the acute physical test of
actual hunger. we who think about
the deep things of life are very very,
anxious, and that is why We thanked
God on Bonded knees when America
! came in. We waited a very long time.
but we are now full of confidence and
| hope.
| everywhere 1 speak I ask that
| everything be speeded up. that there
be no time lost either in the saving of
! food or in the sending of it to our
shores. and / ask that it may not be
done in spirit of sacrifice. 1 think
| that word should be eliminated from
our war vocabulary. We are fighting
called upon to give up should be re-
garded a privilege, a joy, right,
! We give money, we give time, we give
service. and. what is hardest of all, we
this great individual responsibility in
that spirit We shall have helped to
bring about the peace and victory for
which we long
Innes Has Large Territory
= In the course of his talk to the
Rotary club, Food Adm. nistrator
Innes told of a recent meeting of the
a set of rules was drawn up and
| forwarded to Washington. The rules
| were adopted not only for Kansas but
for the whole United States
! The country is now divided into
seven zones. each zone under the head
of an administrator. Innes is food
| administrator for the southwestern
zone of seven states, which is the
| largest of any in regard to size. Innes
is administrator for Kansas. Nebraska
/ Colorado. New Mexico. Texas. Okla
homa. Utah. and Clay and Jackson
counties in Missouri, under the new
zone administration.
At a recent meeting of the state
administrators of the southwest zone
in Kansas City. MIR. Morrison of the