The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-03-15
MN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

l am sorry to say it, but some who
preparedness and market bureau of Bir-
mingham seem to think it is merely an
advertising scheme and that there is no
real patriotism behind the movement, for
it is hard to make people who have
never suffered privation realize that
there is scarcity of food.
remember how they laughed last
spring when Mrs. Mathis foretold that
there was going to be a scarcity of flour.
heard many business men treat it as
joke, and remark that she was just do
ing it to scare the country people into
planting more foodstuffs. / recall how
in one Of the smaller cities was riding
with the picked citizens, and they were
rather resentful that any such talk
should be INDUCED in. But she was
right.
Now, if the war lasts for any length
of time, the situation is going to get
more serious with Russia out, France
nearly impoverished, Italy crying for
bread, and England on rationing basis.
Here in prodigal America our housewives
can get so pounds of fluor only by
buying 50 pounds OF other food materials
which can be eaten to save bread. Our
hotels and other public eating places
can serve but two ounces Of bread at
meal as a single portion. There are not
rpIv tu-o VIII dow Inf
one wheatless meal a day.
The Nation sounds the note of warning.
saying: There is one powerful general
whose advance is so steady and rapid
as to make it clear that he will soon
menace the further conduct of the war
itself. He may even be the one to die
tate peace upon his own terms long be-
fore the allied field marshals are ready
general who is to have his way? Why,
he is none other than General Fam
inc Any one who reads the signs OF
the times knows that he is steadily and
stealthily advancing and that it is
high duty to stay his onward
march.
The knowledge OF this is what is maxi
ing President John H. Frye and his
splendid committee of bankers, lawyers.
doctors, merchants, preachers, editors,
and others put aside their
private affairs and go out and urge upon
the 70 towns in the radius of Birming-
ham activities to get ready to do their
part to keep the wolf away from the
doors of our homes and to help feed the
starving mon. women and children in the
war zone, helpless victims of the mad
of Germany.
l know there is a studied effort on the
part of the pro-Germans to discrcdit
Food Administrators Hoover and hold
him up as tyrant interfering with the
personal rights Of free Americans. But
facts are facts. We have already ex-
ported our full allowance of wheat-S0,-
10000 bushels-but our allies are asking
for i5,000,00o bushels more. Any one who
heard Phillip S. Gardiner the self-sacri-
ficing millionaire lumberman just re-
turned from France. where he went at
ais own expense, cannot doubt that the
great French republic is hard put to get
flour because of her inability to cussivate
her lands because more than a million OF
her sons sleep beneath the sod.
Get this in your mind. The cereal crop
harvested in France the past year was
four-ninths of the pre-war prod.ic-
ton. The bread allowance. in spite OF
the fact that early in the war the gnv-
eminent took the situation sharply IN
hand and exhausted every resource TO
forestall a shortage, is only 200 grams a
day, less than half pound. Keep be-
fore You the further fact that it is war
bread with a vengeance. and not tho
pleasant substitute which goes by that
name here in America. as Mr.. Gardiner
testified at a luncheon Monday, when
he was served a portion at the Young
Mems Christian association.
| haven't time to so into the situation
in England. Italy. Belgium. Serbia, AID
even among the neutrals friendly to our
allies. 4 can merely point out that Rus