Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-07-24
WEDNESDAY, JULY "a, 1918.
Hunger and Defeat.

Germany TODAY faces two gravcl1
threatening evils, hunger and defeat
With hunger the country has been con
tending for more than = year, and the
stress OF short provcndcr has been CROWNS
sharper night along Now II has reached
tho acute stage And night on the heels
of hunger comes tho defeat that is bclnF
administered to the German army, day
nftcr dav. on the western war front by
the victorious Allies
The hunger situation IS well-known IN
GERMANY and n last II Is being admitted
tv German newspapers In y letter to
a leading German paper, recently Herr
Ratockl formerly food administrator,
SAID the system of food distribution
rcscmbled an emergency bridge lie
thus described the bridge Three tim
bcrs bread. potatoes and gram feed. arc
the man girders 81 this bridge II ono
of these tlmhcrs breaks Germany hcs
At the foot Of the prcclpcc Each wear
the tlmhers bcgn 10 shake and crcak
during the last months preceding the
harvest The task of the Food Admins
tratlon is to prevent tho crcaklng and
shaking from turning into y collapse IN
the critical months Thus far We have
succeeded. although each time only by
the skin Of Our teeth
The skin Of ono 5 teeth. however, IS
very prccarIous support, because
there IS no SKIN on the human tccth worth
speaking of The declaration of the
former food administrator therefore
must be accepted as frank admission
that Germany IS suffering severely hy
reason Of lack of food supplies
But this condition IS not surprising
From the beginning OF the war thanks a.
the superior efficiency and strength u
the British navy. Germany has been
bottled up Her merchant shire have
been kept at homo, cut of from all world
commerce, and her ports have bccn scaled
against the entrance Of merchant ships
from other countries. Only by The de-
vices Of smuggling and thcy are very
precanous IN war times has 4 tccn
possible to ship 70 Germany from the
hcgnnIng Of the war, food Stunts or other
materials essential to the successful
prosecution OF war. 10 any material ex-
tent And her war navy has been held
close to home, ali tho time
Germany. therefore has been com
peeled to rely mainly. almost entirely
upon her internal resources Tor supplies
Tor her army and her pcopie And
these home supplies have been sadly
insufficient At best they could not
tally meet home demands. and since the
war there have been two wears o. poor
harvests. The collapse IN Russia gave
promise Of gram supplies from the
krainc district, but these hopes were not
lo4iIzcd All that could bc raised there
was held for home consumption The
conquest Of Rumams also held out prom
8 c. food for Germany, but this promise
$50 proved Of no real value
Germany now depends upon the har-
vests Of the current wear, and the promise
Of good results IS not encouraging,
Everything that grows will find thou
sands OF greedy mouths and hungry
stomachs ready to devour it. The first
call, OF course, VIII be for supplies for
the army and the rest Of the people will
have to get along as best they can on
what may be left.
The outlook IS ominous- for Germany
She cannot feed herself Il IS doubtful
If she can continue very long to adequately
feed her armies Napoleon q man who
knew all about the detail Of war once
said that an army travels and fights on
It's stomach, and his tirst care was To
see that hls soldiers we're well fed That
was one reason why they were such gosd
fighters. But Germany cannot fill the
stomachs of her fighting men with sJs-
tanning and nourishIng food Meanwhile,
the armies Of the Allies. thanks to the
liberal sustenance sent from Our country
are kept up to the very prime of fighting
condition by pienteous and sustaining
rations.
Who can doubt the result, in view Of
these conditions? Germany already IS
beaten The actual result is now merely
3 question Of time