6 
LAND & WATER 
June 7, 1917 
Organising Food Supply 
By Herbert Hoover 
Mr. llcrberi Hoover ivrdc the following just before leaving for Washington xvherc he has tiow assumed the position of rood 
Controller. There is no man living to-day uho has had the same practieal experience of obtaining ami distribuling food 
supplies under circumstances of extreme difficulty as that possessed by this writer. The jvork is described fjy Mr. Alden, M.P.. on 
page 28. The experience will be invaluable to Mr. Hoover, who is a man of exceptional energy and administrative ability. 
A 
By ctiurlfsi/ nl '■ Chicago Hladc' 
A Merchant Marine Cartoon 
you have 
asked me 
to say a 
.few words 
about my new work 
and the position of 
America in this war 
I very gladly com- 
ply, but it must 
be remembered that 
I have only just 
accepted the posi- 
tion of Food Con- 
troller at the re- 
quest of President 
Wilson, and I imag- 
ine that the post 
has been offered to 
me because of the 
experience that has 
been gained in 
feeding 7,000,000 of Belgians and over 2,000,000 of French 
in territory occupied by the Germans. 
My position as chairman of the Neutral Commission meant 
that I was chiefly engaged in negotiating with the German 
authorities with a view to getting better conditions for the 
liardly pressed Belgian people. My colleagues who so generously 
came to my assistance have had nearly all the detailed work 
to do and I owe them a debt of gratitude which I can never 
lepay. I am still remaining as chairman of the Commission. 
but, of course, I shall not be able to give so much time to this 
work as in the past ; and indeed half my occupation is gone in 
that respect since 1 am no longer able to go either to Berlin or 
to Brussels. 1 1 has been a very difficult and complex problem , 
this question of feeding people by the million in another 
country, where at least two languages arc spoken and where 
in addition the German language also became a necessity 
both in Belgium and Northern France The task of organising 
relief has been quite unprecedented and only the untiring 
devotion of the Belgium and French Committees could have 
made the work possible. 
I think, however, that our system may be said to have 
proved a complete success. It was economical and unbureau- 
cratic. The food reached the people in the quickest possible 
space of time without loss an4 without deduction, except in 
rare instances. Perhaps we may add that it cost less than 
similar food would have cost anywhere else in Europe. 
As to my future work, it will be chiefly to organise 
America's share in the war so far as the production and distri- 
bution of food are concerned. The President no sooner 
signed the general resolution by which Congress declared 
that in America's judgment Germany was an enemy to the 
democracies of the world than the Council of National i3efence. 
comprising six Cabinet Ministers and six distinguished business 
men, began to take vigorous measures with a view to placing 
100,000,000 Americans on a war basis. 
Wc shall have greater difficulty even than the English 
democracy in getting into harness,, for although the framers 
of the American Constitution, wise in their generation, drew 
up that historic document in such a way as to enable the 
President in time of war to take absolute and single control 
of all the military agencies of the nation, yet at that time the 
control of economic and social forces as of equal importance 
with military forces had not been considered. As a result 
there are many difficulties in applying these forces to the new 
and amazing circumstances in which we find ourselves. 
Some patience and ingenuity on the part of the Federal Govern 
ment will be required to work out such control as may be 
necessary in all directions, but already we have taken some 
important steps such, for instance, as the following : 
(1) We have arranged to provide the Allies with all the 
money necessary to pay for their purchases abroad. 
(2) We have advanced large sums of money for the Allies in 
order to tide over their immediate difticulties. 
(j) We liave instituted a system of rapid ship construction. 
lx>th wooden and steel. 
Col. (.ioethals, who built the Panama' Canal, has been placed 
iu charjsc of this rapid ship construction of the United States. 
The same energy and ability which built the Canal will build 
ships and arrange for the utihsation of the German interned 
vessels. One very important point is the necessity for inter- 
national co-operation in the control of shipping. 
My problem is that of the food supply, not only for the 
Allies, but for America. It is one of extreme difficulty 
because owing to the decrease in man power in the Allied 
countries and the consequent decrease of the harvests of 
France, Italy and England, and owing also to the shortage 
in the harvests of both hemispheres last year and the jjartial 
failure of America's winter wheat, the whole world is faced 
with a period of short food supplies. There is nothing in it 
that cannot be overcome with good management and rigid 
economy, but the necessity for such economy must penetrate to 
every dinner table in the whole of the Allied countries. There 
is no occasion for panic or hoarding ; but there is occasion, 
and plenty of occasion, for self-sacrilice. 
An Allied Food Board 
Unless all the Allies, including my own citizens in America, 
are prepared to make far greater sacrifices than have so far 
been asked of them, there may come a day when scarcity of 
food supplies may rob civilisation of its complete victory. 
We shall have to set up an Allied Food Board which can .speak 
with an authoritative voice as to the needs of all the countries 
concerned. It .is not enough to leave it to an individual Food 
Controller in each country . They, naturally, do their best for 
their people ; but what is required is that all the nations war- 
ring against the Central Powers shall be regarded as a unit for 
this purpose. Finally I am anxious to dispel the view lliat now 
America has entered into the war there will beplcnty of foo;' 
for all. From the figures at my disposal I am convinced that 
while tnerc are sufficient cereals in America to Iced our own 
people the supplies do not begin to reach the ((uantity neces- 
sary for the Allies in Jiurojje. To enable our European ])ai t- 
ners to carry the war to a successful conclusion the American 
people will not only have to increase largely their normal 
production of wheat, but to reduce their present consumption 
of wheaten bread and flour, and wherever possible to 
substitute maize for wheat. 
You will have seen that the great meat-packing firms of 
America have already turned over their organisation voluntar- 
ily to the Food Board and have undertaken to operate with- 
out profit. Other interests concerned with the production and 
distribution of food are likely to follow suit ; and before long 
I trust we shall have assured sufficient supplies from America 
to enable the Allies, if rigid economy be exercised, to carry 
over from this harvest to the next. It seems fairly certain 
that the Council of National Defence will completely prohibit 
the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquor throughout the 
United States and this will at once free an enormous quantity 
of grain for Erigland, France an<l Italy. I do not think 
that the grain when imported into the I'nited Kingdom should 
be used for alcoholic liquor. It is not my intention to tell the 
people of Great Britain what they ought to do, but sacrifice 
on one side ideserves some sacrifice on the other. 
I do not believe in any system of conipulsorv rationing 
unless driven to the last necessity of national 'extremity. 
A'oluntary methods combined with control of the food supplies 
will, I hope, prove .satisfactory. There must be a tremendous 
amount of waste in labour if you set up a huge bureaucratic 
machine to deal with the question of rationing. In lielgium. 
where, however, the problem of destitution is simpler, there 
are some 55,000 volunteers with 50,000 minor einplovecs 
daily employed in supervising the distribution of rations to 
a ]>opulation of 10,000,000. For the United Kingdom it 
would probably be necessary to secure the work of some 
400,000 distributors, inspectors and officials. You can get 
these people in Belgium because there are so many unemployed, 
but it would not be ea.sy to get them in Great Britain. 
1 am under no delusion with" regard to the difficulties that I 
shall have to face, and after trying most experiments and 
studying all others, 1 have come to the conclusion that the 
only real solution is to be found in the fifteenth chapter of 
St. Matthew— the feeding of the imiltitude in the wilder- 
ness. However, wc will do our best with the resources at 
our disuosal. 
