The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1918-04-26
FOOD CLUBS AN
INDIANA IDEA
Five thousand win Be organ.
lied by Hoosier Women
to Aid Nation in War.
HOUSEWIVES 70 COOPERATE
First Branch Formed Near Rockport
and Will be Known as United
States Food Club No. 1.
(By Don Heroid.)

III your nelgnDOrnOOO there soon
will be a United States food club. II
may be No. 3 or No. 1898. Whatever
its number, it will be one of about
5000 such clubs, which will cover
every inch of Indiana before long.
The purpose will be to make food do
Its part toward winning the war.
Great h~eavensl" you say, another
organization?
Yes, another organization. But
wait.
This organization already has AGO.,
600 members in Indiana, which is a
pretty good nucleus with which to
start. That many persons in the state
signed the food saving pledge card
during the food pledge campaign in
November. Individually, each of them
pledged himself or herself to help
make food win the war.
But wars aren't won by individual
good will or individual effort. The
food clubs which the food administra-
ton is forming will enable these
100000 persons, mostly women, to
get acquainted. They will help them
to do work as a team. When 400 900
persons push together the same way
tie resultant force is noticeable.
incidentally, the food clubs will en-
able the 100000, each representing {
family, to learn the 100000 families
in Indiana who did not sign the food
saving pledge card. And that in it
self is of some Importance just at this
time.
If you signed the food pledge card
you will automatically become a men,
Der of your neighborhood food club
when it is formed, or if any member
of your family signed the card your
whole family will be entitled to men,
bership in the club. If no one in your
family signed the card, the fact will
be recorded on the books of your
neighborhood food club, and an effor
probably will be made 10 ascertain
why.
These food clubs are an Indiana
idea. The food administration a.
Washington seized on the plan and
has recommended it to the othe
states, and similar organizations al
ready have been started in perhaps /;
dozen states other than Indiana. Be-
fore long there will be, not a standing
army, but a fighting army of food
fighters throughout the United States
representa-" practically every family
in the county.
Get this fundamental fact into
your head: That while food is a quie.
and prosaic and everyday thing, it is
a far more effective agent in the win
ming of a war than all the 'bayonets
on n side or the other or all the
busiest of the busiest Berthas. That's
a pretty hard thing for us to imagine
yer here. Hunger is slow and gnaw-
ing, and works from the inside out.
Bullets are swift and noisy and cause
the loss of brilliant red blood. So,
as usual, we look at the spectacular
and get the habit of thinking of war
in terms of steel. Wheat has won
more wars than steel.
The German submarines are not
after boats, or even men. They do
not care about boats, or ARE much
about the men on the boats. The sub
marines are after-food, The subma-
rines are, primarily, starvation instru-
ments. When the home fires go out,
soldiers at the front had just as we'll
give up.
Now the United States food admin
istration, on whose shoulders at this
time rests practically the entire food
problem of the world, does not pro-
pose to be content with putting
pieces in the paper" about the seri-
usnes of the food situation and
trusting the people to respond to the
complex demands of the complex stu
alton in any way their individual
consciences happen to dictate. There
Is no doubt that the public means
we'll. But response, now, must be
quick, unified, consistent. 1t must be
the same kind of response all over the
United States, from every neighbor-
hood. 1t must have punch. 1t must
not be a hit-and-miss response, q to-
day and tomorrow response, an Il
will" and 81 will think it over" re-
Spouse. 1t must "click," as they say
In the army.
So the food clubs. By all means
you must join-and push-in your
neighborhood. The clubs will be
formed around schoolhouses and other
central meeting places. 1t is expected
that from 100 to 200 families will
constitute each club. There probably
will be monthly meetings. There will
be a county president of clubs in each
county (about sixty of which have al
ready been appointed), township pres
idents, ward presidents, precinct pres
idents and local club presidents. And
each club will be divided into squads
of fifteen members each, with a lieu
tenant for each squad.
Communicating Organizations. =.
The clubs will be, fundamentally,
communicating organizations. They
will constitute a gigantic and simpli-
fed grapevine telegraph wire over
which Herbert Hoover, the United
States food administrator, through
H. E. Barnard, federal food admin
istrator for Indiana, through the va
rious presidents, down through the
local lie~utenanta. can get word 70
y ~