The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-15
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IMPORTATION BUREAU
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, ID. @.
SUGAR.
Every Ton and a Half Saved Means q
Man on the Western Front.

Washington, ID. c., JAN 12.-Ihere
is probably no way in which the aver
age civilian can do more to promote
the fortunes of the allies in the war
than by eating less sugar. According
to figures of the food administration,
there is not now enough sugar avail
able in the western hemisphere and
Europe for the needs of the allied
peoples, even on their present meager
ration. In order to keep up this ra-
ton, they must send to the East In
dies for sugar, which is three times
as long voyage as to America or
the West Indies, and therefore re-
quires three times as much shipping
Thus if we compel the allies to go to
Java for 100000 tons of sugar they
Will need eleven more ships for sugar
carrying than would be necessary if
we could supply that amount These
eleven ships would carry 10000 to
100000 men from America to France
So it may be stated, roughly, that
every ton and a half of sugar saved
in this country means a man on the
western front
These facts are important just now
because of the widespread belief that
the sugar shortage is ended, and
everyone may now eat as much as he
pleases- The sugar shortage will not
end until the war ends.
The American public should CON
sioer itself in certain sense ION its
sugar, because the method of allow
ing an exorbitant price to be charged
which is the only one that would sure
~ nave reduced consumption, has not
peen USED against it. Sugar began to
rise IN price last summer and went I'D
to eleven cents a pound in some sec
tlons. The food administration has
succeeded in forcing a reduction so
that the price is now from eight to ten
cents Without control, there is good
i
have been selling now for twenty-five
cents pound. There were instances
OF sales at from 6 to 20 cents per
pound. and they were promptly check
ed by the food administration. Dur
ing the civil war sugar rose in price
from 10 to 80 cents a pound
There is abundant evidence that a
sugar price of twenty cents a pound at
least would now prevail if there were
no control of prices. Every rise of
one cent in the price of sugar costs
American consumers $1S.00O.000. The
food administration therefore makes
the well-su disseminated claim that it
has saved the consumers $3.50, 100000.
| SO far the consumers are showing
their gratitude by consuming all the
sugar they can get, altho material re-
auctions have been made in the use
| of sugar in manufactures. Sugar ra-
tioning such as now prevails in all the
European countries, seems to be the
next logical step, and may become a,
necessity unless voluntary patriotic
cooperation in the saving of sugar is
| forthcoming from the people.
This sugar shortage has brought to
! the fore many interesting facts and
| questions with regard to this little I'M
| derstood element in our diet. Why
| is it that sugar, which was unknown
to man two thousand years ago, and
a rare luxury in the sixteenth century,
| is now a necessity for which nations
will fight? And why is it that Ameri-
| cans consume more than twice as
much sugar as Germans and French
men, even under normal conditions?
| Mems enormous need for sugar is
| the result of the evolution of his
digestive system. Our remote ancestors
| in the European forests of the ice age
were able to digest celluloSe and get
| the sugar out of it, as a goat or
camel does now. The organ which did
| this work, the vermiform appendix,
still remains in our bodies as useless
vestige Later man began to get
enough sugar by converting the starch
! in grains and fruits. Then he discov
cred the process of cooking, which
makes this conversion of starches into
sugar much easier, and even in some
| cases performs the conversion When
sugar was discovered, it was at first
regarded as a curiosity. then served
as a luxury, and finally became the
|
stomachs became accustomed to its
use. 1t is, then, partially dlgested
food, and a highly concentrated form
| of energy. The sugar eating man has
| survived because he took a great bur-
den off his digestive tract and thereby
had more energy for other work.
Hence man has become a confirmed
sugar eater
DIR. c. E Woodruff in his book,
.1f ID II hot
white men in the tropics need more
sugar than when living in cold
climates, thus reversing tho popular
belief that more sugar can be eaten
in cold countries In tropical coun-
try, the man with a white skin is at
a disadvantage because he cannot re-
sist the wasting effects of excessive
light and heat. He Graves sugar, just
as he Graves alcohol, to restore his
rapidly failing energies. This has been
abundantly proved. Our soldiers in the
Philippines. for example, constantly
crave sugar, and at one time consumed
twenty tons of confectionery a month.
The excessive consumption of sugar
in America is attributed to the same
cause. America is a much warmer
country than northwestern Europe,
where, ethnologists have proved, the
Aryan race originated, and where it
has always existed in greatest num-
bers. The Aryan in America is a man
out of his proper environment, This
is believed to explain the tendency
which has been so often pointed out OF
late. for the old Aryan American stock
to die out. giving place to the darker
. types of Mediterranean man. 1t also
probably explains the nervousness OF
Americans; for this is a milder form
of the typical nervous degeneration
4 which Aryan stock undergoes in the
: tropics. Incidentally, it suggests al
explanation CT our inordinate sugar
consumption.
. At a period before the European
war, when the consumption of sugar
in Germany was thirty-six pounds pei
capita yearly, and that in France wa.
thirty-two pounds per capita, the con.
sumption in this country was eighty