THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



207 



© Committee on Public Information 

 CANNED GOODS ARE A STAPLE OP THE AMERICAN SOLDIER^ DIETARY IN PRANCE 



"But 'airtights' take up a frightful lot of space on shipboard, and besides, there is plenty 

 of fruit to be had in France. To bring American canned goods to a country where every 

 peasant makes a pet of a pear tree is like carrying coals to Newcastle. So the tin is to be 

 brought over in sheets and made into cans in French shops, and next summer the farm women 

 of France will put up canned goods for American soldiers." 



With that growth of the army the 

 daily needs for clothing and food grew 

 in proportion. Reserves must be built 

 up to provide against possible hard times 

 ahead. Artillery must be furnished, for 

 Uncle Sam reacted with a jerk to the 

 discovery that the squirrel rifle of our 

 daddies is no longer useful, there being 

 few squirrels in PVance. Transportation 

 must be furnished on an unprecedented 

 scale. New railroads must be built and 

 equipped and old railroads furbished up. 

 Three-ton camions take the place of 

 mules in hauling food for a modern army ; 

 but mules are also needed. 



As the wants increased, so did the diffi- 

 culties. U-boats are daily sunk in the 

 editorial columns, but manage to maintain 

 a certain liveliness on the high seas. No 

 particular genius was required to demon- 

 strate that every possible pound should 

 be bought on the European side of the 



Atlantic, to loosen the tension on tonnage. 

 But genius was needed in the buying, in 

 order that America's allies should not 

 be hampered. France and Great Britain 

 and Italy are taking practically all the 

 European market can supply, and their 

 troops are fighting. It would not be 

 good strategy to rob fighting forces to 

 favor an army which is practically non- 

 combatant as yet. 



WHERE KITCHEN DIPLOMACY ENTERED 



A matter of kitchen diplomacy entered 

 into the problem also. The moment that 

 American food purchases began to swell 

 the prices in the village markets the 

 French housewife would certainly pro- 

 test. Her budgetary curve has been 

 downward, for the most part, while the 

 cost-line of cabbage and sugar has been 

 steadily warping up. It would never do 

 to allow the deep American pocket to 



