Evening star., 1947-10-17
The Eqq, the Chicken and Us

Many puzzled and Slightly indignant
American housewife will be pleased If GER
tain questions now in her mind are cleared
away at next Mondays meeting between
Chairman Luckman's Citizens Food Com
mittee and poultry producers and grain
and feed dealers. The uppermost question
Is this: Is it really going to do any good
in terms of saving wheat desperately need
ed in Europe-to keep on abstaining from
eggs and chicken every Thursday?
The answer is anything but clear at the
moment. There are experts who say yes
and experts who say no, and Mr.. Luck
man himself apparently is uncertain In
such a situation, the average housewives
confusion is understandable. the more so
when she reads statistics from the De-
partment Of Agriculture showing poultry
in cold storage to be at new all-time high
for this season Of the year. If slaughtered
chickens are so abundant, she asks, why
not eat them on any day of the week? AS
she sees the picture, they are certainly no
longer in a position to consume feed, so
how does abstaining from them on Thurs
days help to conserve wheat for Europe?
The abstinence advocates have a per-
suasive case, of course. At the risk of
oversimplification, 1t may be summarized
as follows: Cd big reason why there is
an unusual amount of poultry on hand is
that the cost of feed is so high that pro-
ducers have found 1t more profitable to
slaughter than to keep on feeding. (2)
The present supply in storage ought not
to obscure the long-term need, which Is
to save good grain wherever possible for
human beings threatened with starvation
abroad. 90 The cumulative effect of eggless
and chickenless Thursdays-if faithfully
adhered to-will be to hold chicken prices
to point low enough to discourage feeding
with costly grain. And "a besides helping
to lower the cost of living, this ought to
effect an appreciable cut in the wheat fed
to American poultry. Last year, wholly
apart from much greater amounts of other
grains, we fed over 1O0,0o0OOo bushels of
wheat to our hens, pullets and chickens
or roughly the same as the total the
Citizens Food Committee is seeking to
save for the people of Europe. Accord
ingly, since we can reduce that figure sub
stantially by abstaining once week, the
obvious thing for us to do Is to abstain.
Despite the persuasiveness of this view,
however. there is considerable body of
expert opinion on the other side of the
argument. This opinion though it ignores
the possible psychological value of the idea,
holds that eggless and chickenless Thurs
days will conserve, little or nothing. 1t
holds that abstinence on one day will be
offset by indulgence on another It holds
that If abstaining forces prices down. the
decline will be only temporary at best and
that the cheaper poultry will stimulate in
creased demand, which in turn will force
prices up again and make it profitable for
the producers to step up production regard
less of the cost of feed. In short, it holds
that the economic and human factors In
volved make 1t futile to expect much from
the -and-chicken front in the battle
against European hunger.
Caught between these conflicting view
points and seeing poultry In immediate
large supply, the average housewife and
the average husband as we'll, cannot be
blamed If they have serious doubts about
the Thursday feature of the food con-
servation program. It will be good for all
parties concerned, therefore if the point
can be clarifed-one way or the other-at
Mr. Luckman's meeting on Monday. For
while most Americans are anxious to help,
an appeal for their help must be directed
to their common sense as well as to their
sympathy with the objective.