Evening star., 1947-02-27
High Prices Here;
Less Food Abr0ad,
Speaker Says
BY Ruth Dem,

The American housewife who Is
apprehensive about food prices with
the price of pork at 81 pound,
should remember that every price
rise here means. less food in Eu-
rope according to Mrs. Helendeen
Dodderidge Of the Agriculture De-
partment.
Mrs. DOdderidge, who is with the
Consumers Information Services
Production of Marketing Admins
tration, spoke yesterday before a
luncheon meeting Of the Soropti-
mist Club at the Willard Hotel. She
spent last summer in Europe, where
she went to attend the first confer
ence since the beginning Of the war
of the Associated Country Women
Of the World, held in London. She
stayed seven weeks longer to see
the food situation in England,
France, Belgium, Switzerland and
Holland.
The speaker pictured the resent
ment Of the average European, who
has had a meager diet for the last
eight years, toward the average
American for eating well. "You may
say it is our concern what and how
much we eat" Mrs. Dodderidge
added, but as citizens of the world,
maybe we should think of what our
European neighbors are eating, if
we don't want to send our sons into
another war"
Mrs. Dodderidge said she was ap-
preached at the conference by an
English woman writer for an inter-
national woman's magazine, who
was incensed over the "gluttonous"
consumption of food in America.
Pictures Purpose Explained.
Mrs. Dodderidge told the writer
that Americans are used to a high
er standard Of living than the aver
age European and that magazine
articles which give false impressions
to foreigners were written primarily
for American consumption. The
food pictures were prompted by the
Agriculture Department as an edu-
cational feature, she explained, di-
rected at the American housewife.
who had to learn during the war
how to prepare an acceptable family
meal from cheaper foods.
Mrs. Dodderidge said the English
woman's attitude was changed by
her explanation, which indicated to
her what can be accomplished by in
ternational understanding on many
issues.
The speaker described the food
situation IN England, where every
one, regardless of income, gets a
minimum diet. She told of her own
experience trying to improve on
British cooking. With her emer-
gency ration she waited in line
three hours before getting to the
counter, and then got only one egg,
8 ounces OF sugar, 2 ounces of but
ter, ounces of bacon, ounces of
cheese, l ounce of cooking fat and
"a cents worth of meat. She ad-
mitted the lack of variety could
not be blamed on British cooking.
wondering why people did not
buy the fresh fruits and vegetables
she saw for sale, Mrs. Dodderidge
found, upon pricing them, that some
fruit was selling for So a bunch,
while pound of green peas sold
for S1.20 to $160.
A Dutch refugee woman told her,
she said, that her child knew moth
ing about citrus fruits, her closest
acquaintance with it having been a
form of citrus concentrate. AS a
treat, the woman bought her child
three grapes, and for them paid 6
shillings or about $120. At the time
she left Europe, Mrs. Dodderidge
said, grapes, which had sold for $40
a pound, had dropped to $40 a
pound.
Situation Worse in France.
In France the situation was even
worse, Mrs. Dodderidge said, as the
government has not provided any
plan of food distribution for the
people. There she saw an impov-