Charlevoix county herald., 1919-02-21

Let Fish Cut the Cost
of Living


The average American eats twenty
pounds of fish per year This includes
oysters, clans. crabs, lobster, shrimp.
and mussels. One dietary authority
states that two hundred miles inland
from our three coasts, the consump-
ton OF fish-food, per person. is less
than half pound annually.
For purposes of comparison it may
be well for us to state that each in
habitant of the British Isles has fish
on his bill of fare to the extent of one
hundred pounds every twelve months,
while the fish consumption, per capt.
ia, in Germany is. one hundred and
twenty pounds; Norway. Sweden and
Denmark, one hundred and fifty
pounds, China, two hundred and
twenty-five pounds and Japan nearly
five hundred pounds.
Latin-Americans are the only people
who eat less fish than do the inhabr
tants of the United States, and this
despite the fact that most of their
countries have large seaboards A
peculiar feature about the inhabitants
south of the Rio Grande is that they
prefer the old-style dried Goldfish, as
salt as Lots wife and with the skin
and bone attached. This forms the es-
sential ingredient of "bacalao la
Vizcaya," dish to be seen on all
tables in Spain. Portugal, Italy and
South and Central America on Friday.
With oceans of water about them,
teeming with fish, they are in reality
too lazy to go after them and prefer
buying them from the fishermen OF
the Maritime Provinces, whose small
schooners bring cargoes to these
countries yearly, returning with salt
from Turks Island, sugar from Cuba,
rum from Barbados or Jamaica, and
tobacco from other localities, all of
which they have taken in exchange
for their dried cod.
There is absolutely no sane argu.
ment against the larger and more ex-
tensive use of fish as daily diet
throughout the length and breadth OF
this land. 1t is ideal as a food. 1t
is most nutritious and rich in prote-
ms. 1t is most easily digested. 1t con-
tains in great abundance the chemical
ingredients for making bone, muscle,
and tissue. AS a food nothing detri-
mental can possibly be said against it.
Fish, with the exception of few spe-
cies. are clean feeders. For this rea,
son their meat is extremely whole
some No fish is as promiscuous and
unclean in the provender it consumes
as the hog.
The United States Government, rea-
lizing that we eat less fish than the
people of other countries, is beginning
a national advertising campaign to
urge upon the American public the
value of fish as food, from both the
standpoint of economy and of health.
No country in the world is so COM
pletely surrounded by waters contain
ing this standard dietary article. No
country has profted less by its fish,
cries. We have completely ignored
the opportunities within our reach. +
With the exception of one or two con-
Germs the fishing industry in the Uni
ted States has not kept pace with the
demands upon it and is to-day COM
pletely unorganized and conducted
along slipshod lines by persons I'M
acquainted with modern efficiency
methods. In this field of endeavorr
there exists a really great opportuni-
ty to serve the public, reduce the cost
of living and at the same time make
money legitimately from an industry
destined to grow hundred fold in ten
years.
II we do not wake up to this fact
quickly the Japanese will have con.
troll of this trade, for they are now
operating, not only in their own and
adjacent waters, but have many
packing plants and stations along our
Pacific Coast, and in Mexico and Ca
NADIA, and are shipping timed fish to
the United States and also all over
the world, especially to China and
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..