THE FOOD ARMIES OF LIBERTY 



193 



our market, and, therefore, we must re- 

 duce our consumption if we are to leave 

 enough for them. 



We consume from 85 to 90 pounds per 

 person per annum. The Allies have 

 placed their population on a sugar ra- 

 tion of from 21 to 25 pounds per person. 

 Even this cannot be supplied without re- 

 duction on our part, and France has 

 asked us to export them 100,000 tons of 

 our supplies at once ; otherwise they must 

 stop the ration altogether. That we 

 should refuse France is unthinkable. 



Besides substitution the other great 

 need is to save waste — the gospel of less 

 buying, serving smaller portions, the 

 clean plate, to use our food wisely in 

 economy. There are a hundred avenues 

 of saving — if we inspect the garbage can. 



Again, there are commodities in which 

 we must reduce consumption. If we are 

 to supply the Allies and ourselves both 

 with sugar and fats over the next winter, 

 we simply must reduce the consumption. 

 By fats we mean lard, bacon, butter, 

 cream, lard substitutes, and soap. We 

 consume nearly double the amount of 

 fats that we need and we waste a fabu- 

 lous amount. 



There are other features of food con- 

 servation of national importance. One 

 of them lies in the whole problem of na- 

 tional saving. Wars are paid for out of 

 the savings of a people. Whether we 

 meet that expenditure now or after the 

 war, we will have to pay it some day 

 from our savings. 



The savings of a people lie in the con- 

 servation of commodities and the savings 

 of productive labor. If we can reduce 

 the consumption of the necessary com- 

 modities in this country to a point where 

 our laborers can turn to the production 

 of war materials; if we can secure that 

 balance and get to the point where we 

 can free our men for the army, we shall 

 have solved one of the most important 

 economic problems of the war. 



If we are to carry on this war and 

 carry it on without economic danger, we 

 must carry a major portion of it now dur- 

 ing the war from the savings which we 

 make at the present time. If we reduce 

 the waste and the unnecessary consump- 

 tion of food by a matter of only six cents 



a day, we shall have saved two billions 

 per year. 



Conservation has other bearings as 

 well. There are the great moral ques- 

 tions of temperance, self-denial, and self- 

 sacrifice. We have been a most extrava- 

 gant and wasteful people, and it is as 

 truly intemperance to waste food as it is 

 to take unnecessary drink. 



Next year, in order to maintain our 

 Allies in war, we must make even further 

 efforts to increase the export over last 

 year, and it is obvious that we not only 

 cannot do so without conservation, but 

 that unless we do have conservation we 

 must expect higher prices. 



It is often said that high prices are 

 themselves a conservation measure, but 

 they are a conservation measure of the 

 nature of famine. It is conservation in 

 favor of the rich and against the poor. 

 The rich will have all the food and va- 

 riety they need, but the poor must, under 

 this form of conservation, shorten their 

 food allowance and diminish their stand- 

 ard of living. 



The only real conservation is one by 

 which the whole population, rich and 

 poor alike, take their part in the pro- 

 vision of these necessary supplies. 



This can only come about either by 

 forced measures from the government, 

 by which all are placed on ration and the 

 available foodstuffs equally divided, or 

 alternatively, by a great voluntary effort 

 of self-denial by which the added supply 

 can be obtained without vicious action or 

 conservation through price. 



A CALL TO PLAIN LIVING IN EVERY HOME 



Another bearing of the problem lies in 

 that we have had growing in this country 

 a class of the population given over to 

 more or less idleness and a great deal of 

 extravagance. There grows out of this 

 a certain amount of class feeling, in a 

 country where there should be no class 

 division. There is now an opportunity 

 for that class, by a reduction in its scale 

 of living, to demonstrate its fidelity to the 

 national cause and its willingness to share 

 its full portion of the national burden. 

 In so doing that section of our people 

 will have demonstrated something more 

 than mere savins: — it will have demon- 



