Evening star., 1918-01-08
People of U. S. Warned That
Cooperation in Conservation
Is Absolute Necessity.
LICENSING OF RETAILERS
NOW A NECESSARY STEP
Demand for Law Compelling Obedi.
ance to Regulations Prescribed by
Food Administration.

If the food necessary to the winning
of the war is to be provided. the Amer
lean people will have to do better this
year than they did last and the law Hn-
der which the United States Food Ad-
ministration operates will have to be
strengthened.
Retail grocers. regardless of their
volume of business. will have to be
brought under control of the food adj
| ministration.
Hotels, restaurants and other public
eating places must be required by law
to observe meatless and wheatless days
and conform to other conservation
! rules
| Hoarding of food, even in private
homes. must be forbidden.
The substitution urged as necessary
| to release foods required for overseas
| shipment must be practiced generally
| instead of nominally.
| Imitation in the price of these sub-
stitute foods must be prevented
Give Lip Service" Only.
The great effort Of the United States
| food adminiRration since its creation
necessary results The American peo-
| pie have given Zip service to the cause
| of food conservation, but they have not
conserved Their pledges have not been
| kept
| Unless America does what she has un-s
dertaken to do in the way of supplying
| England and France and Italy with
| food, those countries will collapse and
| the United States will face Germany
alone.
| There is no other way out Their
food resources are short of their abso-
lutte minimum requirements. America
| must make up that shortage. If IL
doesn't. England and France and Italy
| must make peace with Germany.
| 1t is not a great sacrifice the goyern-
| ment. through Herbert Hoover, is aslx-.
ing the American people to make In
fact, it is no sacrifice at all. They
financially. for eating as they are ask
ed to eat.
Excess in Foods Consumed.
The American people eat so per cent
more proteins (chicf1y in the form or
| red meats. beans, etc, than they re-
quire Ito maintain health. Ten per cent
| of this excess will meet the needs of
the allies, leaving Americans 20 per
cent more than they need.
! They eat 165 per cent more fats than
| they need. Ten per cent of this excess
| will supply the allies. leaving still an
excess of 155 per cent for American con-s
sumption.
They eat so per cent more sugar than
they need. Here again 10 per cent will
give the allies the sugar they require.
| leaving still an excess of 40 per cent at
home.
With bread the situation is different.
Americans as a rule do not eat an ex-s
cess of bread, but they are asked to cut
down their consumption of wheat rs per-
~ and tIg-tt~ ~,,4x,
| cereals. They are not asked TO eat less
bread.
| If they will do these things, and win
not hoard food. the requirements of
able to remain on the fighting line II
| they will not meet this requirement.
i Persmne's troops will be driven out OF
organize to repel the German invader
/ from her own shores.
| The food administration has not vet
abandoned hope that the people win
come to realization of the gravity Of
the situation and will give voluntary
corporation. and give it by deeds in
stead of by words. If they win nor
compulsory rationing would seem to be
the only alternative.
Z, Control of Retailers Needed.
The necessity for bringing retailers
under control of the food administra-
tion lies in the fact that they are
guilty of whatever profiteering is. be-
ing practiced. today. Reports show thar
since wholesalers were placed under
license. November !, prices to retailers
have come down with a rush. The re-
tailers have not made correspondents
reductions to consumers
The necessity for bringing hotels and .
restaurants under control is that while
some practice conservation, others do
not. Some hotels in Washington, il il Z
said, are fragrant offenders.
Home boarding threatens to defeat
the whole food conservation program
unless il is stopped. Thousands OF
families which signed the food pledge
and observe meatless and wheat tless
days are boarding food. Families
which never did so in the past have
bought a barrel of fiour>and a hundred
pounds of sugar. and they are keeping
fhat much ahead of their needs by con-
tinuing to buy the amounts required
for current consumption. Each barrel of 3
flour and each hundred pounds of sugar
SO boarded is removed as absolutely
from the nations stock of food as il IL
had been destroyed. If each family in s
America laid in "a barrel of -four and a 4
hundred pounds of sugar it would 3
amount to withdrawing from the COM
mon store two months supply of those
necessary foodstuffs-and Germany
would win the war.