Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-10-25
1hina. 10 Think About.


titled THE Starveling's Belt; the
Pause before. the Harvest," is signed
by Erich, DombroWski and is a vivid
and sarcastic picture Of the tight
ened telt Of the Fatherland." A
translation recently has been re-
ceivel by the federal Food Admins
trntion.
Once upon a time," the article
says, well situated Germans con-
sun.ed on an average daily In May,
June and July, l pint Of good coffee
with q grain Of substitute, pint of
milk and a little cream, pound of
butter. II pounds of bread, pound
of sausage, / pound of meat, pound
Of potatoes, ! pound Of vegetables.
80 pint Of soup, pound Of fruit, !
pouno Of pastry or cake, pound OF
sugar, eggs and 2-3 pint Of tea.
"And today?" the writer asks.
"Duily we have to bore new holes in
our belts, in order that they may At
our ever -contracting waists. We
would now consume daily in Berlin,
II things went in accordance with the
ratioaing, pint of bad substitutes
without a grain Of coffee, milk EQUAL
ity unknown). 1-60 pound Of butter
and margarine, ! pound Of bread, II
pound Of sausage (apart from Ill
pound 'neishing' cold meats). 1-e5
pound Of meat together with so
grams Of bones). ! pound of pota-
toes, / pound Of vegetables (when one
is lucky 1 pint of soup, pound Of
barley and barley-groats. pound
fruit CPolish' at 2-10 marks per
pound), ! pound of pastry (slime and
BROTH, ITO pound of sugar, I of an
egg, c-S pint German (camomile) tea.
Naturally one cannot simply add
the number Of ounces together and
compare the results without further
ado. But still one arrives by this
method at least at an approximate
comparison between former days and
now. Formerly 100 ounces and now
Sc ounces. Therefore only one third
of the quantity Of food in peace
times.
Last year Doctor Michaelis en-
,1eavored to control the production of
foodstuffs better by means of the i'm
perlal economic card. To no pur-
pose. lie only added another bureau
cratic link in the endless chain of de-
crees. cnactments and provisions,
witho": attaining even the slightest
advantage. On the contrary condi-
tions only became worse. Evidence:
| The very flimsy menu which is served
up 70 US daily.
I'VE nave sworn peace and friend
ship Cor what one understands by the
word wnen alone) with all sorts of
| xr;a
Poland. the Ukraine, Rumania, the
Caucasus and Finland. We have en-
tered into commercial treaties and
contracts for supplies and continual
promises. We have fattened our
sel:es On hope, either boiled or baked.
All delusive conclusions. Already it
is beginning to dawn on the house.
| wife that even after complete de-
rangement OF the economic conditions
in all con :tries, things will not be
altered, will not improve much.
| What, therefore, remains for her to
do but to make q few more holes in
her belt and resignedly accept the
inevitable"
or course we do not know just how
hungry the German masses are, or
how 1ervently they are pleading for
ming u appreciate the meaning of
bureaucratic links in the endless
chain of DEGREES, enactments and
PROVISIONS"
| A few days in our own national
capital. nowadays, is a revelation.
There we find thousands of govern
ment employees falling over each
other III a maze of bureaus, duplicat-
! ing each others work and wasting
millions upon millions of public
money. recklessly, without stint or
hesitation" and throwing millions of
hours of labor to the winds in time
of industrial stress, to lampoon the
public into saving" and "conserva-
tion," and thrift" and a thousand
| and one other hobbies for collecting
| addresses and creating a tremendous
| patronage in the Burleson scheme of
perpetuating deserving Democracy"
with a capital c.
We have bluntly called attention
to some of these glazing wastes and
their inconsistency with government
demand on the public. and the War
Industries Board Utself one Of the
worst offenders) mas investigated and
recommended "a great saving in the
tonnage Of paper usd," which will
be effected during the next six
months over that used during the
preceding six months"
Fourteen departments with their
endless chains of bureaus) were
called in discussion and took steps
to curtau."
The Department of Labor is anoth-
er ono of the persistent publicity"
fends Samuel J. Gompers, gen.
eralissimo) maintaining an "Informa-
ton and Education Service"-Heaven
save the word. This (Thursday)
morning we received from that
''SERVICE' a sheet 16 inches long
by y wide, printed on 81 inches Of