FEEDING THE NATIONS
In April, 1917, the long and bitter struggle had so drained the food
supply of the Western Allies that they were dependent upon North
America for the food that would enable their armies to continue the
battle for civilization, prevent the starvation of their civilians and
the wholesale death of their children. To this country the neutrals
of Europe had also to look for sufficient food to save their people
from suffering. There was much grain in Argentina and Australia, but
ships could not be spared for the long and dangerous journeys to and
from those countries. Submarine warfare had destroyed so much of the
shipping, not only of the Allies but of the European neutrals as well,
that every available ship was needed for use on the Northern Atlantic.
Therefore, North America was the last reservoir of food, the last
producer of food, to which the hungry populations of Western Europe
could turn for the sustenance of their armies and civilians or the
neutral nations and such of the subjugated peoples under the German
yoke as could be reached look with hope for any help. All Europe was on
the verge of starvation and only North America, which meant chiefly the
United States, could give assistance. For this country to produce and
conserve vast quantities of food and send them to Europe had become
one of the fundamental necessities for the winning of the war.
The United States Food Administration was created, under the Food
Control Act passed by Congress in August, 1917, for the purpose of
handling this situation in such a way as would give the nations with
which we were associated the food they needed and would at the same
time protect our own people against food scarcity and excessive
prices. A Food Administrator, acting under the informal request of the
President, had already been at work for three months, securing data and
working out tentative plans, and had opened the way and accomplished
much by appealing to the people for voluntary coöperation. The work
of the Food Administration throughout the war was another example of
the splendid team-work of the whole nation and of the highly efficient
coöperation of all the agencies of the Government. In coöperation with
it the Department of Agriculture bent its energies to the stimulation
of food production, the War Trade Board controlled food movements
between this and other countries, the War Industries Board saw to it
that such manufacturers as produced goods needed in the production,
storage, conservation and movement of food supplies received the
necessary raw material. Leaders in the grain trade, familiar with all
its phases, gave up their connection with enterprises of profit and at
great personal sacrifice volunteered their services to act as managers
of the corporation through which the Food Administration purchased its
immense grain supplies and controlled the grain situation. Dealers
in food stuffs of every sort, both wholesale and retail, willingly
deprived themselves of large possible profits and obeyed the requests
of the Food Administration. And the people all over the country
voluntarily pledged themselves to the necessary program of food
conservation. The task of feeding the nations of Europe and the armies
of America, England, France and Italy became the task of the whole
nation, and the whole nation, guided by and functioning through the
Food Administration, took up the task with eager hands.
We entered the war with our national stocks of cereals at a lower level
than they had been for many years, due to the heavy demand made upon
them by the Allied nations during the previous year. There had been
also, for the same reason, a considerable lessening in the number of
food animals.
Beginning in the spring of 1917 and continuing through that and
the following year the stimulation of production was carried on by
setting before the farmers of the country and, indeed, before all
the population, the urgent need for more food than the nation had
ever before produced. The appeals to grow food went to the owners of
back-yard gardens in cities and towns and villages, to all who had
or could obtain the use of a few square feet or a few acres of soil,
to farmers all over the land. The Agricultural Department used all
its avenues of reaching the farming population, agricultural colleges
aided the movement, newspapers and magazines published discussions of
the subject and advice for the amateur. It has been estimated that
during the first year of the war at least 2,000,000 “war gardens” were
planted, over and above the usual garden planting, and that number was
considerably increased during the second season. Most of them bore good
results and their products added immensely to local food supplies and
so lessened the drain upon exportable foods. The “war garden army”
included men, women and children. Business men spent leisure hours
hoeing and planting, thousands of women, in addition to those who
worked in home gardens, turned their attention to agricultural labor
and did what they could in the lessening of the serious problem of help
on the farms. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts did efficient work, school
boys who were old enough and strong enough to make their labor right
and worth while went by the thousands from cities and towns to country
districts to work upon farms.
Guaranteed prices for wheat, established in accordance with the
conclusions of the Food Administration and its committee of expert
advisers, prevented the sky-rocketing of prices and assured the farmer
a staple return for his labor. This, in addition to what the farmers
already knew of the need for food, resulted in the planting of immense
acreages. In 1917 there were planted 35,000,000 acres of leading crops
beyond the average of the five-year period immediately preceding the
war, and 22,000,000 acres in excess of the previous year. But 1918
exceeded even this vast acreage with a planting of 289,000,000 acres,
an increase over the preceding record of 5,600,000 acres. The bitter
winter of 1917-1918 killed much wheat and the next summer drouth
withered much corn. Nevertheless, the aggregate yield of the leading
cereals in each of these years exceeded that of any preceding year in
the nation’s history except that of 1915, when unusually favorable
weather produced a more bountiful harvest from a smaller acreage. With
the expectation that the war would continue until at least well into
the next summer, the Government appealed in 1918 for a still greater
production of wheat for the following year. The farmers responded with
a planting of winter wheat amounting to over 49,000,000 acres, which,
it was calculated, with average winter weather and an average crop
of spring wheat, would insure for 1919 a wheat production of over a
billion bushels, an excess over that of 1918 of probably 200,000,000
bushels.
All the principal kinds of live stock--horses and mules, in spite
of the big exportation to Europe for army needs; milk cows, other
cattle, hogs, and even sheep for the first time in many years--were
increased in number by from one to twelve millions. Meat, milk and wool
production showed signal increase, that of beef of a million pounds and
of pork twice that amount.
The zeal of the whole country for increased food production appeared
not only in the multiplied thousands of war gardens, the desire of
every one who had access even to a few feet of soil to make something
eatable grow upon it, and the immensely increased acreage devoted
to the sorely needed cereal crops, but also in a striking growth of
interest in agricultural matters of all sorts, whether of farm or
garden. To all such subjects newspapers and magazines began devoting
much more than usual attention, while for books dealing with them
publishers noted a sharply increased demand.
The Food Administration was so organized as to decentralize its
operations as much as possible and bring them into direct touch
with the people. Under the United States Food Administrator, and
also appointed by the President, was a food administrator for each
state who selected one for each county in his state. These county
administrators in turn appointed special committees or committee
chairmen to keep track of and solve local food problems and to keep
each locality in touch with the aims and operations of the national
organization. Upon these local committees were representatives of
local grain and food trades, of hotels and restaurants, of clubs and
associations of various kinds and directors of educational work.
Through these assistants educational campaigns were aided and directed,
close watch was kept to prevent both hoarding and profiteering and a
nation-wide survey of the food situation was in constant progress.
It was all voluntary service, from that of the United States Food
Administrator down to the county chairmen and the local committees,
given with enthusiasm and the best ability each could bring to the
service, with the single-hearted hope of helping the nation to win the
war.
The primary purpose of the Food Administration was to make sure that
there should be sufficient food to meet the needs of our fighting men
on land and sea both at home and abroad, to provide such a supply for
our people at home as would maintain them in health and comfort, and
to furnish to the nations associated with us for their armies and
civilians as much of our surplus as they might need. To make that
surplus as large as possible called forth its most strenuous endeavor.
In addition, it aimed to maintain an even supply of the essential foods
and to stabilize prices by preventing, as far as possible, hoarding,
speculation and profiteering.
The problem of food for the Entente warring nations was reduced in
the spring of 1917 to the determination of the amount of food that
could be drawn from North America, of which, of course, the chief
portion would come from the United States. The surplus over our normal
consumption, in all classes of food, which we usually exported, had
always been small and would have to be multiplied many times over in
order to meet pressing needs, in order, even, to win the war. Moreover,
we had diverted from eight to ten million men from their usual
productive activities and set them to the making of war and supplies
for war.
The situation could be met only by a nation-wide program of
conservation which would save vast quantities of the sorely needed food
out of the usual prodigal consumption and waste of our own people.
With complete confidence that the American people would respond of
their own good will the conservation measures were all made voluntary.
People were asked to eat more carefully, to waste nothing, to use less
wheat, meats, fats and sugar, to combine flour from other grains with
wheat flour and especially to use more corn. Grocers were directed
to see that their customers purchased pound for pound of these other
materials and wheat flour. The nation was requested to reduce its sugar
consumption by fifteen per cent and housewives and other buyers of
food were told that it was necessary to limit their purchases of sugar
to three pounds per month for each individual. Homes and hotels and
restaurants were counseled to institute wheatless and meatless days.
Appeal was made to all who had charge of the providing of food for
others and to every individual consumer to waste no food of any sort.
Pledges sent out by the Food Administration which bound every signer
to observe its requests and rules were distributed by many thousands
of volunteer workers, men, women and children, who saw in the work of
securing signatures opportunity for patriotic service. Pamphlets and
leaflets setting forth the reasons for what was asked, giving expert
advice on the use of foods, analyzing the food situation, and urging
compliance with the requests of the Food Administration were sent all
over the country. Posters contributed by well known artists were hung
on hoardings, in windows, and on home and office walls in cities,
towns, villages. There was hardly a newspaper or a magazine of any
sort in the whole United States but freely gave space to the always
cogent and interesting articles furnished in great quantity by the Food
Administration in support of the purposes it had set itself to achieve.
Speakers who could present in living words the urgent need of food and
the crucial test laid upon the country of producing and saving immense
quantities of meat, fats, wheat and sugar addressed general and special
audiences in many cities. Experts in home economics gave lectures and
demonstrations and conducted classes that were attended by thousands
of women, rich and poor alike. Especial effort was made to furnish
this sort of education to the women of poor and ignorant families in
order that they might learn how to provide food that would give equal
nourishment at less expense.
Colleges and schools aligned their vast educational equipment with the
food production and conservation movement and gave important service.
When the colleges and universities for women or admitting women were
asked, at the end of 1917, if they would undertake to give special
instruction looking toward the aiding of the Food Administration’s
purposes seven hundred of them, practically every such institution in
the country, replied within a week asking to be supplied at once with
the necessary material. Courses were outlined and supplied, prepared by
experts upon the subjects, which dealt with the world food situation
and the part the United States should take in it, with food values
and the principles of nutrition. During the winter and spring of 1918
40,000 young women took these courses, which were repeated at summer
schools in nearly all the colleges of the nation and were offered again
in the autumn. They were also opened to men students, who saw in them a
means of patriotic service. Under a secretary for each state appointed
by the Food Administration, the graduates of these classes were
organized and their services directed by the State Food Administrator.
They gave to local administrators and committees efficient service of
varied sort, depending upon the locality and the need of the moment.
So successful was the initial work of the collegiate section of the
Food Administration that its activities were soon enlarged to include
the schools also and several text-books were prepared for use in both
high and lower grades that would show to the pupils the relation
of food to the war and the part they might play in the winning of
the conflict and would inculcate the ideal of service. The National
Educational Association asked especially for such a text-book to
be used by children below the high school grade and by means of an
advisory committee coöperated with the Food Administration in its
educational program in the schools. So important and enthusiastic was
the work of the schools and colleges that a state director of their
activities was appointed in each state to correlate their efforts with
the other undertakings of the state food administrator and so make
team-work for the production and conservation of food more thorough and
efficient.
The central offices of the Food Administration in Washington expanded
amazingly as the country leaped to its support and asked for
instruction, advice and guidance. It began, a month or more after our
entrance into the war, in two rooms, with a Food Administrator, whose
office was informal and tentative until Congress in August authorized
the program of food control, and two or three assistants. By the first
of January it filled a huge structure holding over a thousand employees
and in the following summer it crowded both this and another building
of equal size. It finally had in its service nearly 8,000 employees
and under its coördinating hand were the purchase and control of
food-stuffs whose value amounted to $300,000,000 per month. To its
staff came men and women of expert knowledge from all over the country,
many of them giving voluntary service,--university professors who were
specialists in food and other economic subjects, journalists, magazine
editors, office experts, scientists whose specialties would throw light
upon one or another phase of the food problem.
The Food Administration dealt with prices in the food trades, which
were prevented from sky-rocketing above the levels caused by war
conditions, and with speculation and profiteering by means of a system
of licenses applying to all persons engaged in the importation,
manufacture, storage and distribution of certain staple foods and
including retailers doing more than $100,000 yearly business. The
purpose of the system was to stabilize prices by limiting those
charged to a reasonable amount over expense, by preventing the storing
of food in large quantities in the hope of speculative profits on a
rising market, by keeping all food commodities moving from producer to
consumer with as little delay from unnecessary business transactions as
possible and by limiting as far as practicable dealings in contracts
for future delivery. Every licensee was required to make reports of
his dealings once a month and none was allowed to keep on hand or
under control food-commodity supplies for more than a certain term in
advance, set, with some exceptions, at sixty days. Retailers doing less
than $100,000 business annually were exempt from the licensing system
but were forbidden by the Food Control Act to hoard or waste food or
to charge excessive prices. In the neighborhood of 100,000 licenses
were taken out and of all these only an insignificant percentage were
ever found guilty of breaking the provisions of the law. Equally rare
were attempts to break or evade the law by retail dealers. Nearly all
of even these small numbers were brought back to right feeling and
right action merely by confronting the violater with proof of his
wrong doing. As punishment, if punishment was necessary, his license
was revoked or suspended, or there was forced sale of his hoardings,
or his place of business was closed for a period, or he was required
to refund excess profits or to make a contribution to some patriotic
organization. But the whole hearted desire to aid and coöperate with
the Food Administration in its efforts to solve the food problem and
meet the food necessities of the time was so nearly universal that the
few exceptions were noteworthy chiefly because they were so few.
Under war conditions it was inevitable that prices for all food
commodities should rise far above their level in pre-war years. But the
control of the situation which was kept by the Food Administration and
the carefully organized and consolidated buying of our own and other
governments, enormous beyond comparison with any market situation in
all the history of the world, reduced prices below what they were when
we entered the war and kept them down to a level much lower than they
would otherwise have reached. When we had been in the war for a year
the Food Administration estimated that during that time the price of
food commodities had decreased twelve per cent to the consumer and
increased eighteen per cent to the producer. For instance, the price
of flour, which reached a maximum in 1917 of $16.50 per barrel at the
mill-door, at the end of April, 1918, stood at $10.50. Without the
stabilizing influence of the Food Administration it would have mounted
in that time, in the opinion of experts, to $40 or $50 per barrel.
The plea to conserve food met with enthusiastic response. In the spring
of 1918, when there was dire need of more wheat for export, whole towns
and counties, in some of the states, pledged themselves to use no wheat
until the new crop should be available. A conference of 500 managers of
first-class hotels and restaurants voluntarily gave their pledge to one
another and to the Food Administration to use no wheat flour in their
kitchens until the next harvest was ready. Households innumerable
throughout the land did the same thing.
We entered the war with only 20,000,000 bushels of wheat available
for export. The need grew sharp in England and France and Italy and
we sent them 141,000,000 bushels, having saved 121,000,000 bushels
out of what we would ordinarily have eaten ourselves. Because the
armies and the peoples across the ocean needed sugar, the request was
sent forth that individual consumption of sugar should be limited to
three and later to two pounds of sugar per month. Its consumption was
voluntarily reduced by about one-third. In four months in the summer of
1918 we saved and sent abroad, out of our usual consumption, 500,000
tons of sugar. Increased production and conservation were responsible
for 1,600,000,000 more pounds of pork products ready for export in the
fall of 1918 than were available the previous year, while for the three
summer months of 1918 the records showed an increase of 190,000,000
pounds of dressed beef.
An illuminating instance of the temper of the people in general toward
conservation is afforded by the reports of railway dining cars for two
months in the autumn of 1917, in which they saved out of their ordinary
consumption 468,000 pounds of meat, 238,000 pounds of wheat flour
and 35,000 pounds of sugar. During that time hotels and restaurants
reported savings of 17,700,000 pounds of meat, 8,000,000 pounds of
flour and 2,000,000 pounds of sugar. That there was a very general
attempt to lessen waste of food in cooking and eating was shown by the
fact that nearly all cities reported a considerable decrease, amounting
in most of them to from ten to thirteen per cent, in the amount of
garbage collected.
[Illustration: UNLOADING WHEAT UPON A LIGHTER AT A FRENCH PORT]
Because at the very beginning of our participation in the war we
recognized the value of food, mobilized our food forces, enlisting
the whole nation in voluntary service, and kept their operation under
control for efficient war use, we were able to pour into Europe the
food without which the Allied armies could not have continued their
necessary effort and the populations behind them retained their
health and morale. In the years before the war the United States
sent an average of between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 tons of food to
Europe each year. In the crop year of 1918 we doubled that amount,
sending 11,820,000 tons, and were prepared in the following year to
send between 15,000,000 and 20,000,000 tons. In the midst of these
bountiful harvests there were no food cards and the only rationing
that was necessary was that prescribed by the individual conscience.
But that conscience, with the universal enthusiasm for increasing
production, enabled us to send to Europe in 1918 an increase over
1917 of $504,000,000 in the value of meat and dairy products and of
$170,000,000 in breadstuffs. Our total contribution in 1918 to the food
needs of Europe amounted approximately to a value of $2,000,000,000.