Putting the Impress of Thrift ipn Our iatiens Wasters Special Correitpondenc# WASHINGTON, D. C.„ M VICTOR BORET, the French minister of food. In a recent Interview, said: O "The allies will owe a debt of gratitude to two men after the victory has been obtained. First, to the general who leads the soldiers to win the decisive battle. Second, to Herbert Hoover, who rendered It possible for the soldiers to eat so that they might fight." And a distinguished American said: "Herbert Hoover has taken a nation of wasters and put the impress of thrift upon it." * * * # Into these two short paragraphs is condensed the story of a great achieve ment; the accomplishment in one year of a work that would be monumental as the lifework of any man. He has made possible the winning of the great est war of all time, and as a byproduct to the doing of it he has conferred on a hundred million people a great and lasting benefit. The impress of thrift put upon a hun dred million wasters! No man has vision great enough to estimate what that will mean in the years to come. Genera tions of Americans yet unborn will reap the major benefits, but it means so much to the generation which is here today that volumes might be written on it. It generally is agreed that the end of the great war will mark the begin ning of the greatest commercial strug gle in the history of the world. Had America remained a nation of food wasters the handicap would have offset, perhaps more than offset, natural ad vantages which this country possesses. That impress of thrift may well prove the weapon which will save America from defeat on the great battlefield of trade. Americans became a nation of food wasters because food was over abundant, and. therefore, cheap. Food never again will be overabundant, and it never again will be cheap, as it was cheap when the wasting habit was formed. Eventually, America would have been forced to learn that lesson of thrift, but it would have taken many MISS GERTRIDE B. I.AXE, Manager of a campaign of ednration In honsehold economies, which hns | revolutionized homo cooking in America. (Photo Food Administration.) \ . American Red Cross Will Send Letters Into Emmy Countries | Special Correapondence WASHINGTON D. C., THE American Red Cross, as the result of a request from the United States government, has established a bureau of com munication for the benefit of persons in this country and those in tho sev eral countries of the enemy who have for a number of months been de prived of that privilege. AY. R. Castle has been made head of the new work, and he is enthusiastic over the serv ice. He has felt that Just such work as the bureau has recently taken up has been needed ever since the out break of the war. Suppose, through illness or other i misfortune, one had friends stranded ; in an enemy country at the beginning j of world hostilities. Of course, one's i first impulse would be to get in touch I with these unlucky ones and, natural- | lv, an anxious letter would be hur tiedly written and dispatched. But! the writer, all in good time, is told that no such letters are en route be tween the countries of belligerents, nor will be for an indefinite period. Imagine the utter consternation and amazed incredulity; But the entire ease with whicn these facts are veri fied substan'iates each statement. When the United States broke with Germany diplomatically, rumors of countless unbelievable things filled the air, and among them was the pos sibility of severing all communication by post in case of war. Many per sons doubted that this would actually be done ven if war were declared. But swiftly upon the heeU of the diplomatic break canie the declara tion of war, and immediately the pos tal service between this country and Germany came to an end. * * * As a rasult of this measure, not a scattered few, but many hundreds of men and women found themselves en tirely unable to get the most vital personal messages through to rela tives and friends situated within?the boundaries tf enemy territory. It was : quite in vain that they made their pleas to the government. Uncle Sam was deeaf to all entreaty, because it was then a well known fact that the German system of espionage had reached the high-water mark of per fection, and it w-as thought wiser to err on the side of severity rather than on that of leniency. No or.e knew positively that tne most Innocent-sounding of personal messages might not be written ac cording to a Hun code and laden with hidden meaning from which the trained spy could glean the most carefully guarded military secret. Uncle Sam cared to take no chances He could not afford -isks of that sort. Vet. In spite of this, the fapt that there were many lovul American citizens who were great!-- distressed because of the interrupted communi u ' % ■.< iiPf '■ s Y 1 > vV \ DR. RAY I.YMAN Wll.Btß, Who organized the great food conservation movement. (Photo by Clioedinst.) years and the price would have been want and suffering and social unrest and lost opportunities. A single year of war and of Hoover have accom plished it. That the lesson has. been learned is attested by the fact that today the American people are eating or.ly 43 per cent as much wheat as they ate in the davs before the war—and they are doing it ' without complaint, without hardship and without any real incon venience. And, above all other things, thev wre in the main doing it volun tarily. Any autocratic government that attempted to force so radical a change in the eating habits of a people in so short a time would he confronted by a throne-toppling revolution. Curtailment in the use of wheat is greater today, of course, than it has heen at any time in the past, but since the last crop was harvested the Amer ican people, by practicing conservation, have saved enough wheat to supply more -than 30.000.h00 of people with bread for a like period. In other words, each American family of three persons, bv practicing conservation, has made it possible for one person in Europe to eat bread who could not otherwise have had it to eat. That, it would seem, ought to be a pretty satisfying reward for the amount of self-denial involved, but it is only a part of the story. A *' * The 131" harvest of wheat in the United States was short many mil lions of bushels; one of the poorest crops, in fact, of recent years. On the basis of normal consumption In this country there was an exportable surplus of only about 15,000,000 bush el* But consumption in this country has not been on a normal basis. The American people have been Hoover izing. As a result, to June 1 the United States had been able to ex port 1"5 000.000 bushels of wheat, and anothe'r -5.000,000 is to be exported before the new crop is harvested—a saving through conservation of 125.- 000.000 bushels, practically a bushel and a peck for each man. woman and child in America. Four and one-half bushels of wheat make a barrel of flour. It figures out. therefore, that j since the first of last August each American family of sevep persons has cation between the United States and Germany brooked no denial. It seemed to some of them that a v ery unnecessary trial had been Inflicted upon them. % There was but one chance of im portant messages reaching those on the other side who were confined within territorial limits of the foe. This was by means of neutral coun tries. Letters might first be sent to t a neutral country and from there to the address In Germany. This method was far less direct and consumed a much greater length of time than normal methods, but it could not be helped. The chance of loss and other mishaps were proportionately In creased and these missives were al wavs subject to the check of the French or British censor, providing thev got that far. (in the whole, com- ! I munication of this sort was neither j successful nor satisfactory to the ma • joritv of those who were forced to i resort to the method. In despera ! tion. there were people who wrote re- | ! peatedlv and posted letters hopefullv, and occasionally, by some great goods i luck for them, letters would slip I through. Then came another blow to these | offenders who were entirely innocent . of any malevolent intent. The trad ing-with-the-enemy act w-as passed j by Congress and received the sane- i t'on of the President. This made the briefest and most harmless of mes s-ges positively illegal and subjected i l • offenders of the future to severe j reprimand and punishment. Uncle Sam w-as in dead earnest. There was but one exception to this ! new- ruling, and .that was relative to prisoners of war. According to in ternational law, communication with prisoners of war is permissible. Were it not for this many a war prisoner would, indeed, languish and despair, but each black day which - stretches itself before him is forever lightened a little by the hope of letters from horn*. Letters to Americans wha are now- prisoners behind the German lines can be sent to these men with out postage, and every effort will be made to deliver them. * * Otherwise international law opposes the conveyance of the most purely personal messages between fighting nations. However, the practice of communication has become a custom which has generally received Interna tional respect. In fact, during the present war the United States is said to be the only nation which ever put this practice outside of the law. There are government authorities who realize that this legislation causes real suffering among their own peo ple. There are countless numbers of naturalized Americans who earnestly long to send newrs to people in the enemy territory. German-Americans were prevented from making the most innocent inquiries respecting citizens of the fatherland. Some authorities ftirther contended that. In spite of the stringency of this iaw- nnd in spite of the many hard ships it Imposed it only theoretically- averaged eating about two barrels of flour less than it normally would eat during the same period. Saving of other foodstufTs has not been proportionately so large, be cause the necessity has not been so great, but the savings effected have played a tremendous part in enabling England and France and Italy to con tinue in the war, to say nothing of the thousands saved from actual star vation in the regions desolated Hun invaders. Reduction in the' consumption of meat—beef, pork, mutton and poul try—has amounted to eight pounds per capita, a total saving of 310,000.- 000 pounds of meat. To realize what this mean/" it is necessary only to know that the 840,000.000 pounds saved through conservation is almost exactly half the total amount of meat exported by the United States during the last year of unprecedented meat shipments. The actual figures for pork, the great essential meat for overseas shipment, are not available. | but the saving in pork was much greater than in meats taken as a whole. During the year 300.000.000 people in the United States and allied coun tries have been fed from a common stock of food estimated to be sufficient only for 250.000,000. That it was possible to stretch this food stock to supply an extra 50,000.000 people is due very largely to conservation practiced in this country. How large has been America's con tribution is shown by the food im port figures of the allied countries. In pre-war days about 10 per cent, of the food import requirements of the I allies came from America. During the last year America has supplied 50 per cent, of this food deficit, and did this despite the fact that her own stock of food was 7 per cent below normal. The fereat publicity campaign of the food administration made every one familiar with the necessity of send ing wheat, meat* and sugar to the allies, but there has been an enor mous export of other vital foodstuffs about which little has been heard. Thousands and tens of thousands of children in France and Belgium are alive today only because it was pos sible to feed them on American con densed milk. Nearly half the dairy ment of Mr. Hoover as food ad ministrator, the increase had amounted to fully 20 per cent. Flour put an end to the communication be tween the clever German spy and his native land. Spies can, of course, be arrested and made to pay dearly for their transgressions. But the clever spy makes it increasingly difficult for representatives of the law- to catch him. Conditions iq-this country today are markedly different from those exist ing in countries cf the other allies. If forced to face the question with a "Yes" or "No." the British govern ment. for instance, when confronted with "Do you allow any communi cation between the people of England and Germany." would reply. "No." \v. R. CASTLE, Head of communication bureau of Red Croaa. Nevertheless, It'has been ascertained persons In England connive at this practice. English censors can very capably manage whatever mail of this kind passes through their hands. Ameri can censors, on the other hand, would be overwhelmed with their task, so gigantic would it prove to be. In deed. it could not he done with any great degree, of thoroughness or effi ciency. It is just here that the Red Cross lins come to fill the breach and solve the riddle. A great organization like the Red Cross can arrange to send mail through neutral countries and on into enemy countries with more speed and fewer difficulties than those attendant upon individuals, even were they allowed the practice. The plan which the lied Cross has developed has been tinder consideration for some time. Changes and revisions have been made until at last it stands as near perfection as, under existing U cattle in Belgium and practically all in the occupied portions of northern France are carried off or killed by the Germans, Because of the terror under which the mothers of these regions lived, the average period of breast feeding was under four months. Then it was a question of condensed milk or starvation. In northern France, especially, there has been scarcely a child born since the German Invasion, whose continued life has not been dependent upon con densed milk from America. Export of condensed milk from the United States has increased from a pre-war yearly average of about IOO.OO'O pounds to a present yearly average of 120.000,000 pounds, a percentage of increase of nearly 30,000 per cent. Ship ments of condensed milk alone have ab solutely meant salvation of the race to the peoples at war against Germany. * * ♦ These figures tell only a part of the story of what operation of the United States Food Administration has meant to the peoples of the al lied countries of Europe. And the benefits to them have been benefits also to us, for their war is our war and if they perish we must battle the Hun alone. "It would be worse than folly," said Mr. Hoover in a recent address, "to put five million of our hoys into France if the civilian pop ulation of our allies are not to be maintained in strength and morale with our food." Collaterial benefits' have come to the American people which are great beyond reckoning. Complaint is heard now and then because the food administration has not brought about greater reductions in prices. Frice control was not one of thq primary purposes in creation of the food administration. but its ac complishments in the way of pre vention of inflation have saved the American people many hundreds of millions of dollars. With the declara tion of war against Germany on April 6. last year, food prices, already high, took a sharp upward turz. and by May 1", the date of the appoint was selling at $l7 a barrel, with prospect that it soon would go to $25. i and other commodities were jumping dhily to keep up with it. When Mr. Hoover was appointed BEN S. ALLEN, Director of the ednration division, who hna conducted the greatest publicity campaign In the history of America. circumstances, it is possiMe to Bet it. In the middle of April the first in structions were sent to the various chapters of the Red Cros3. So at thin time the plan is Just getting well under way. All those who wish to send a mes sage from this country to some one, other than a prisoner of war, in an. enemy country must get in touch, with his local Red Cross branch or chapter. The Red Cross will imme diately provide the inquirer with an application for personal communica tion, and this must be filled in with great care as to detail. The full name and address of the applicant must be given, as well as that of the addressee. The relation between the two must be known, as, for example, whether the writer is about to com municate with sister, mother, fr.iend, uncle, etc. ft * These messages are of necessity re stricted and brief. No letter that is not wholly personal and relating to one's family will receive the sanction of the Red Cross. It will be thrown out and will stand not the slightest chance of delivery. Any mention, even though it be but a word or two, concerning politics, financial ques tions or matters of vital interest to the public will serve to bar a commu nication. Also it will be impossible to send one message to more than one person in the land of the enemy. This is absolutely forbidden by the authori ties. No doubt there will be a very con siderable number of applicants who are unable to write. But this does not make communication impossible for them, as the Red Cross has made am ple provision for just such emer gencies. Such an applicant will find a" chapter representative very glad to render all possible assistance. If the applicant cannot write at all the rep resentative will pen the entire letter. If the applicant writes slowly and haltingly, but prefers to write the letter himself, he does so with what ever help he may seek from the Red Cross. The Red Cross insists upon dupli cates of all these messages. Both du plicate and original must bear the signature of the person sending the message. The applications, retained at headquarters, are written In En glish. Individuals In Austria, Ger many, Turkey or Bulgaria who know nothing about the English language will receive their letters in their own tongues. No man or woman who is In any sense under suspicion will be permit ted to forward letters. As a matter of fact, before an applicant is entitled to an application blank he is obliged to prove himself worthy of the trust placed In him. If he is quite reputa ble, and is among his fellows as such, the fact Is more than likely' to be known by a chapter representa tive. and this will suffice. If he Is a comparative stranger in the commu nity, or for some reason he is too ob scure in be known to any Red Cross HERBERT HOOVER. he had no authority of law back of him. and did not have until the foqd control bill was passed In August. Whatever he accomplished had to be through voluntary co-operation. His first act, after addressing an appeal to the women of America to con serve food, was to call the grain dealers of the country to Washington for a conference. He asked the grain men. as an act of patriotism.- to stop all speculation in wheat. They agreed, and the food panic was at an end. Inflation was brought to on abrupt halt, and since that day prices of foodstuffs, taken as a whole, have been held fairly level. On the foods most essential to human life prices are lower today than they were a year ago. Flour, for example, Is selling for about $ll a barrel, as against $l7. That inflation of food prices should have heen halted, and the cost of living Actually reduced, is something absolutely unprecedent ed in the history of wars. T!ie only money available for or ganizing the food administration un til after the food control law was passed was set aside by the President out of the emergency war fund, and every dollar had to be made to count. Mr. Hoover served, and continues to serve, without salary, and many of the men and women who have cpme to assist him also are volunteer workers. The list of these patriotic men and women is a long one. and the fact that all cannot be mentioned here is no reflection on the important contri bution they have made to a great ac complishment. Among the Hoover lieutenants, however, are two men and two women who have done work, the results of which have been felt in every American household, but member who has the authority to vouch for him, he will be compelled to ask some one whose good standing is known to write a letter for him. The letter should contain a statement or two relative to his character, and this he must present at the Red Cross "when he makes request for an application. This letter is made fast to the duplicate of his application and carefully filed for future reference if need be. .il letters eventually pass through the hands of the Red Cross at, na tional headquarters. When things are well started there is every reason to believe that from one to three thou sand letters a day will be received Iby it. A little later it is expected | that the post office will put a censor I in the communication bureau of the Red Cross, which will greatly facili tate matters. The actual delivery of letters cannot possibly be guaran teed. but the Red Cross will do ev erything in its power. The Red Cross asks no fee for this work and the letter will be entirely without cost to the writer. It is taken for granted that if mes sages are received they will be an swered. The answers will be sent byway of neutral countries to the Red Cross. Here the bureau of com munication will translate or para phrase whatever letters it is neces sary to change in this way and the answers will be forwarded to those who made the original inquiries. This work will all be handled with as great a speed as is compatible with accuracy. ft * Mr. Castle says that the bureau of communication constantly receives the most pathetic appeals from peo ple who declare their loyalty to the United States, but at the same time are greatly perturbed because they have been unable heretofore to get so much as a line through to some very dear friend or relative in one of the countries of the enemy. There was the case of a Serbian officer who had been sent to this country to get recruits. For many months he had been unable to get in touch with his family in Serbia. Naturally, his anxiety was ektreme. Hearing of this new work which the Red Cross had recently begun, he visited headquarters and to the bu reau of communication related his story and told of his hopes and his fears in regard to the lost family. The Red Crpss pledged him its word to do everything in power to get some trace of the family. Immedi ately through Switzerland, inquiries were started. The work took time, and to the waiting man so eager for news afTairs seemed to move with agonizing slowness, But in only two months the Red Cross was able to give him news of his family's health and whereabouts. Again, there is the story of Thomas Hitchcock, a young American aviator • whose plane crossed over the enemy I lines and failed to come back. After a time his worried father made urgent . Inquiries qf the State Department and endeavored also to obtain news i through Spain. But it was the Red • Cross, working through the German Red Cross, that gave him the news , of his son, who was held in a German prison camp. From two weeks to • siv months is usually required to get i' news of missing men. who have kept their personalities in the background. * * * Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur left his du ties as president of Leland Stanford University to organize the great cam paign for food conservation. He had to build from the ground up. There were no precedents, and there was no authority to enforce the saving of a slice of bread "or an ounce of meat. Everything had to be accomplished through voluntary co-oper.ation. The results of that campaign are to be measured in the wheat and meat, sugar and fats which the American people have refrained during the last year from eating. Miss Sarah Field Splint, editor of a woman's magazine, undertook to per suade American housewives to sign the food pledge card and enroll them selves as members of the food admin istratioiv More than thirteen million of them are enrolled today, the greatest organization of women the world has ever known. Other great organizations have been effected, such as that of the hotel and restau rant men, to assist in the conserva tion of food, but all their accomplish ments are dwarfed by the great thing which has been done by American housewives. Once these women were organized they had to be told what to do and how to do it. It was announced as a fundamental principle by Mr. Hoover and the food administration that in saving food for shipment overseas no American family was to go underfed or undernourished. American women, therefore, had to be taught how ade- TROUBLES AND HUMORS OF FOOD SHORTAGE IN ROME ROME, , ' THE value of time lost In looking for articles to eat and wear is one of the new elements that has come to be counted in connection with the high cost of living in Italy, ac cording to Food Controller Dr. Silvio Crespi. , Practically every member of every household now spends several hours each day in searching for butter, su gar, firewood, coal, coal oil or cloth ing needed at home. Those persons who have servants have been com pelled either to increase their num ber of servants or to do part of the servants' work while the latter runs from store to store attempting to lo cate articles absolutely required to keep the household going. The question of high prices, which was long a disturbing factor, has been supplanted by that of scarcity. There exisists everywhere a scarcity of car pets, table linen, dishes, kitchen uten sils, shoes that fit, men's collars and every article that can be named. In Rome, the capital city, headß of families, whether ambassadors, min isters, clerks, doctors or cooks, are now compelled to occupy themselves with these details Their conversation regarding the war, diplomacy, peace and other important matters is In terspersed with the problem of where they are going to get the next meal, or if they are going to be able to find enough sugar to put in tomor row's coffee. "The test of true friendship is no longer if a man will lay down his life for you or loan you money," re cently said David Lubin of the In ternational Institute of Agriculture, "but if he will tell you where you can find some real tea imported before the war, or if he will lend you a pound of sugar under solemn pledge not to reveal your secret that you obtained the aforesaid pound of sugar from your family physician who got it from a druggist, the druggist sur rendering it though liable to pay a fine of $lOO for so doing." One of the most popular men in diplomatic circles for a time was the Japanese ambassador, Hikoklchi Iyuin, who was reported to be about to receive a few tons of fine white rice as a personal consignment during the period when rice could not be had for love or money. He was courted and flattered by a large contingent of men and women who were rice hungry and who fancied they could secure loans or gifts of a few pounds. They had all their trouble for noth ing. however, as the rice never ar rived. On another occasion an Amerlo&n Navy collier was arriving with a cargo of rice at an Italian port, whereupon an officer from the United Stt tes naval attache's office put on his best clothes and most ingratiat ing manner and went fo the port of arrival, ostensibly on official business. At last, as he was going, he delicately, casually, brought the conversation quately to feed their families with less quantities of the foods they had been accustomed to usinc. Miss Gertrude B. I-ane. also a magazine editor, was called upon to manage a campaign of education in household economies, and as a result of the work she has done the dietary of the American people has been revolutionized. Recipes for preparing all sorts of appetising and nourishing dishes have been sent out by her division and published in thousands df newspapers and maga zines. This campaign has had two objectives. One has been to save the foods essential to the winning of the war, Vtnd the other has been to "put the impress of thrift on a nation of wasters." American women under stand today as they never understood before the nutritive values of foods and their relations one, to another, and it is safe to say that the Ameri can people never again will eat as heedlessly or as extravagantly as they ate in the past. At the head of all the educational and publicity work has been Ben S. Allen, trained newspaper man, who resigned his position with the London bureau of the Associated Press to ac company Mr. Hoover to Belgium when the latter undertook the work of Belgian relief. .From that day until he broke down a few weeks ago from overwork, he had been Mr. Hoover's right-hand man and chief lieutenant. By those competent to judge. Sir. Allen is credited with having conr ducted the greatest and most success ful publicity campaign ever under taken. Day by day, week by week and month by month thousands of newspapers and magazines have published the stories coming from his office, and they have published them solely because of their value as news or feature matter. No newspaper or magazine has been paid for a single line of advertising space. And what is true of the educa tional and publicity work of the* food administration has been true of all of Its activities. In these days when millions flow like water from the Treasury it has been almost parsimonious in its expenditures. The entire cost of "making it pos sible for the soldiers of the allies to eat so that they might tight" and of "putting the impress of thrift on a nation of wasters" has not exceeded to each American citizen the equiva lent of a three-cent postage stamp MISS SARAH FIELD SPLINT, Hend of the home conservation divl- Nlon. who persuaded more than thir teen million women to become mem bers of the I'nited Statea Food Ad ministration. (Photo from Food Administration.) around to the food problem, and let | it be known there was a rice famine jin the land which included all the Navy officers' households. As the officer in -command of/ the rice ship didn't appear tp take the hint, the man from the naval attache's office expatiated on the condition of the children of the various families who hadn't had any rice for weeks. Thereupon the rice ship's commander explained how sorry he was, but that his orders had been to deliver a Com plete load of rice and he couldn't pos sibly make any inroads upon it. Or ders were orders. * * * j The loss of time consequent upon j filling out food cards and coal cards and rice and macaroni cards has been such, with the loss of time In going after the provisions which the cards call for, but don't deliver, that many classes of persons have Joined co operative associations or formed new ones. One such co-operativj association Is that formed by the newspaper men. This co-operative has its own store, where rice, macaroni, sugar, coal, chestnuts, cheese, wine and other groceries may be obtained by mem bers. The government decrees regardilng the use of gas in particular have proved expensive to many as regards heating. Early in thq winter it was known that there would he little coal or. wood available, except at high prices, so many families put in gas stoves for heating, since many of the municipalities have so far been able to supply gas at prices comparatively reasonable. Then came a decree that gas heat ing would nt be permitted, as there was barely enough gas for cooking purposes. Those who had the money to spare in desperation bought kero sene ollr stoves, despite the disagree able odor of the oil. At present their problem is to obtain oil to keep the stoves going. The oil is selling at 30 to 35 cents the quart—when there is any. Strange obsessions result from the constant worry occasioned by the food search. Persons • who never cared much for candies or tobacco find themselves dreaming about these articles. Although candies are made, not of suftar, butter, eggs, flour and fine flavored essences, but of honey, saccharine, corn meal, prunes, nuts, dates and other materials capable of being pasted together, the demand for such candies is abnormal, accord ing to published statistics, with ths price at $1 to $1.50 the pound. It has been noted repeatedly that, never have people worn such fine shoes or paid so much attention to footwear as since the prices have increased from $3 and $6 the pair to $8 and $lO, even $l5, the pair. "Women who formerly wore low shoes the year around, as they were able to do because of the mild climate, now want shoes with leather tops reach i ing half way up the calf.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers