The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-06-19
TELLS STORY OF JOB.
Continued from Page IL

were getting it about six months stale,
from 40 to 80 per cent good, and MIR Hob
brook wanted it as nearly as possible 100
per cent good To this end he set about
having it shipped green to France and
roasted and ground on the other side.
lie was told that it could not be brought
about within six months, but after an
exchange Of cahlegrams General pershingI
ordered early in June that roasting and
grinding machinery sufficient to supply
million men be shipped to France, togcth-
er with green coffee and sufficient men
TO do the roasting.
The records gave the names of only
two men in the army who were expert
enccd coffee roasters, while 40 were want
ed, To get these men the coffee trade
was circularized to find out what coffee
roasters had entered the army. and when
the 40 names were secured the adjutant
general refused to have them transferred
until Mr. Holhrook had informed him that
he would be held responsible to General
Pershing for refusing to enable him to
enty -iive cablegrams were exchanged be-
fore the plants, Of which there were Is,
were in successful operation.
ported decided Improvement in their
coffee. Before that they had character
lied it as rotten" Seven large camps
in this country had been equipped with
! coffee roasting plants and u others were
| about to be similarly equipped when the
armistiee was signed
The speaker told an especially inter
esting story about soluble instantaneous
coffee, which played an important part
| in the war because of the use of mustard
! gas by the Germans The gas spoiled
whatever food it came in contact with
including coffee, and General Pershing
tabled for soluble coffee packed III suci
a way that it would be impervious to gas
Ills order called for ., l0O per cent more
| than was being manufactured in the Uni
ted States, to be delivered at the port o
embarkation in 80 days. The process wa
complicated and it was utterly impossible,
to fiji the order through any then know
process
Mr.. HobrooIl called to Washington off
eials of big firms, such as Arbuckle, Grace
Hires and Kellogg, and indicated to then
a process by which he thought solubl
coffee could he made and asked them t,
put their chemists to work, which the.
did with the result that in a very shor
time Il process had been worked out alon
; the lines Indicated The soluble coffe
was put up III envelopes in mdlvidua
= meal quantities, and for this purpose a
p ,the machinery in Fitchburg, Mass, use
r for making congressional seed envelope
| was Communicated, which accounts 70
r the scarcity Of the congressional seed di;
tribution
2 The speaker said the most importan
] work with which he was connected had t
do with the food crisis in France, cor
: corning which little ever was said i
the newspapers
The mustard gas corroded and at
through the tins of canned goods in
hours and destroyed large quantities {
supplies, which caused hairs in Washin
ton to turn grey To meet this cris
heavy galvanized IRON cans were bui
which were air.and gas proof, and the
were filed with ready-to-cat food whic
! included corncd beef and some otht
meats, salmon, sardmes, hard bread sol
? bic coffee, sugar and salt Packing plan
: were started in New York and Chicago, al
! the manner in which things we're brougl
to pass in hours, which ordinarily won
tdkt AtthA, tbilNlllbNtu "a SUI WIN
sounded almost ike a fairy tale. II
labor Of about $4,000 persons was involve
: in filling the order and meeting the Ct
SIS, and the goods were delivered at tt
port Of embarkation six and half da
sooner than the date set by Gener
| Pershng.
/ At Chateau Thierry, in the Argonl
| forest and in other places these speci
| reserve rations were the only food ava
able for the American boys \ metal
| package containing food for soldier +
! one day, known as the iron rations
[ was exhibited. These packages we
| dropped from air planes close to the fgf
ing forces.
IN closing, the speaker said that t
war was won by the loyal manufacture
in the United States as truly as by t
boys over there, and he paid high tribu
10 them for the manner III which tn
carried out the slogan, Subsistence mt
not fail
After the meeting an enjoyable buff
luncheon was served by d. H. Scovi
At the beginning Of the meeting it W
voted that the president appoint co
mittee of seven to revise the bylaws.