Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1923-03-29
Three Awards Will Be Made to Fifth
Sixth and Seventh Grade
Students
Article on The Poison Squad Of
the Kronprinz Wilhelm to
Be Written

LIC 10
Be Written
The Telegraph, desiring to follow
up the work it has done in the food
campaign for saner eating deems it
advisable to offer a prize for the three
best compositions on The, Poison
Squad of the Kronprinz Wilhelm.
The article is reproduced here from
the book, The Science of Eating, by
Alfred w. Mccain, so that every
child in Georgia may have an oppor-
tunity to enter the contest.
Three prizes are offered, these being
three ten-dollar gold pieces-one for
the fifth grade child, one for the. sixth
grade child and one for the seventh
The contesting children must rewrte
the story given below in their own
language, with the reasons for the
sickness Of the Germans and naming
the foods they should have had to
have kept them in health
Rules of the Contest.
|. Only three compositions will be
accepted from each school. These
three must be one from the fifth,
one from the sixth and one from the
seventh grade. The teachers of the
respective grades are to select from
their grades the best story submitted
and send to the Telegraph to repre-
sent that grade in the contest. If
there are two or more of these grades
in one school, teachers shall select
tile best story of the combined grades,
2. Story must be condensed re-
production in the child's own words,
covering the articles given below by
Mccain and must contain the reasons
sfor the illness Of the German sailors
and how they might have avoided this
illness.
3. Each contestant is limited to 400
words
4. Stories must be mailed before
April Is, 1923.
S. Address all communications to
Food Editor. Macon Telegraph.
Following is the Mccain article to
be condensed, etc:
THE KRONPRINZ WILHELM
POISON SQUAD
The Kronprinz Wilhelm, a German
cruiser, left Hoboken August 3, 1915.
For 25S days the cruiser roamed the
seas sinking French and British
merchantmen. taking from them the
supplies which they carried before
she sank them and living on these
focdstuffs.
In the 255 days the Kronprinz
Wilhelm sank twelve ships from
which she took the foods that the
crew lived on. From British ships
sailing from Argentina, she took an
enormous quantity of meats of the
best quality, hind quarters, ribs,
enough fresh beef to supply her needs
for a year And in addition she
corned 100000 pounds of the round
steaks. From time to time she sank
other ships carrying red meats, pork,
beef and mutton and there was never
day that the menu did not have
meat on il three times. She also
seized butter, oleomargarine, white
-four, tea, Irish potatoes. white crack
crs. sweet biscuits, in such quantities
that at all tines the men on the boat
were plentifully supplied vita these
foods. There was also a limited sup
ply of canned vegetables and con-
densed milk.
By Feb. %, about six months after
she had left Hoboken, a number of
the crew were complaining of swollen
ankles and pains in the nerves of the
legs below the knees On March rs,
a month later, fifty of the men were
acting queerly" and none of them
were any too vigorous.
Ignorant of Cause
The Germans did not know that
they were sick because they were
getting the wrong kind of food They
had sunk Norwegian bark CARRYING
a cargo of wheat Whole Wheat, the
germ and the grain of this wheat
would have been worth more to the
Alarming conditions began to de-
precious stones. But they did not
know how badly they needed the
calcium and potassium salts of that
wheat. Because of their faith in
fresh meat, white -four, oleo, pota-
toes and coffee. those priceless bush
els OF whole wheat were sent to the
bottom of the sea-
velop. Typical symptoms OF party
velop. TYPICAL symptoms of paraly-
sis, dilated heart, pain and anemia
began to appear. Fifty of the men
could not stand on their feet. They
were dropping off at the rate of two
day. and the crew was rapidly going
10 pieces. The Kronprinz Wilhelm
would soon have crew of 500 dead
bodies. So on April II, 1916, she
made dash for port and put into
Newport News to see If the Ameri-
can doctors could help the situation
There were at this time ITO strick-
en- men aboard They all had the
same symptoms and all had lived Ss5
DAYS on meat, potatoes, oleo, butter,
white bread, tea. coffee, canned milk,
sweet cakes and canned vegetables
with beer, wine and spirits. The Off
GERS showed mild conditions of anemia
and acidosis but none of them were
Frustrated. When small quantities
of fresh vegetables and fruits had
heen taken from vessels the officers
had taken these for their table and
the crew had none. This kept the
officers in much better shape than the
crew tho they did not get enough
of these fresh vegetables and fruits
to keep them in perfect health.
Cured mn Few Days
These sick Germans were cured in
few days by feeding them fruits
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