A LAND OF SUBSTITUTES
The only food substitute which meets the casual eye of the visitor
to England in war time is margarine for butter. Germany, on the
contrary, is a land of substitutes.
Since the war, food exhibitions in various cities, but more
especially in Berlin, have had as one of their most prominent
features booths where you could sample substitutes for coffee,
yeast, eggs, butter, olive oil, and the like. Undoubtedly many of
these substitutes are destined to take their place in the future
alongside some of the products for which they are rendering
vicarious service. In fact, in a "Proclamation touching the
Protection of Inventions, Designs, and Trade Marks in the
Exhibition of Substitute-Materials in Berlin-Charlottenburg, 1916,"
it is provided that the substitutes to be exhibited shall enjoy the
protection of the Law. Even before the war, substitutes like
Kathreiner's malt coffee were household words, whilst the roasting
of acorns for admixture with coffee was not only a usual practice
on the part of some families in the lower middle class, but was so
generally recognised among the humbler folk that the children of
poor families were given special printed permissions by the police
to gather acorns for the purpose on the sacred grass of the public
parks. To deal with meat which in other countries would be
regarded as unfit for human consumption there have long been
special appliances in regular use in peace time. The so-called
_Freibank_ was a State or municipal butcher's shop attached to the
extensive municipal abattoirs in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, and
elsewhere. Here tainted meat, or meat from animals locally
affected by disease, is specially treated by a steam process and
other methods, so as to free it from all danger to health. Meat so
treated does not, of course, have the nutritive value of ordinary
fresh meat, but the Germans acted on the principle that anything
was better than nothing. Such meat was described as _bedingt
tauglich_ (that is, fit for consumption under reserve). It was
sold before the war at very low rates to the poorer population, who
in times of scarcity came great distances and kept long vigils
outside the _Freibank_, to be near the head of the queue when the
sale began. Thus we see that many Germans long ago acquired the
habit of standing in line for food, which is such a characteristic
of German city life to-day.
Horseflesh was consumed before the war in Germany, as in Belgium
and France. Its sale was carefully controlled by the police, and
severe punishment fell upon anyone who tried to disguise its
character. An ordinary butcher might not sell it at all. He had
to be specially licensed, and to maintain a special establishment
or a special branch of his business for the purpose. Thus, when
wider circles of the population were driven to resort to
substitutes, there was already in existence a State-organised
system to control the output.
Since the war began, sausage has served as a German stand-by from
the time that beef and pork became difficult to obtain. In the
late spring, however, the increased demand for sausage made that
also more difficult to procure, and we often got a substitute full
of breadcrumbs, which made the food-value of this particular
_Wurst_ considerably less than its size would indicate. It was
frequently so soft that it was practically impossible to cut, and
we had to spread it on our bread like butter.
The substitute of which the world has read the most is war bread.
This differs in various localities, but it consists chiefly of a
mixture of rye and potato with a little wheat flour. In Hungary,
which is a great maize-growing country, maize is substituted for
rye.
Imitation tea is made of plum and other leaves boiled in real tea
and dried.
To turn to substitutes other than food, it will be recalled that
Germany very early began to popularise the use of benzol as an
alternative to petrol for motor engines. This was a natural
outgrowth of her marvellously developed coal-tar industry, of which
benzol is a product. Prizes for the most effective
benzol-consuming engine, for benzol carburettors, etc., have been
offered by various official departments in recent years, and I am
told that during the war ingenious inventions for the more
satisfactory employment of benzol have been adopted. Owing to the
increased use of potatoes as food, the alcoholic extract from them,
always a great German and Austro-Hungarian industry, has had to be
restricted.
It is an ill wind that blows nobody good, as I learned from the
owner of a little general shop in a Brandenburg village. He told
me that about twenty-five years ago, when kerosene became widely
used in the village for illuminating purposes, he was left with a
tremendous supply of candles which he could never sell. The oil
famine has caused the substitution of candle light for lamp light
during the war, and has enabled him to sell out the whole stock at
inflated prices. All oils are at a premium. The price of
castor-oil has risen fivefold in Germany, chiefly owing to the fact
that it is being extensively used for aeroplane and other
lubrication purposes.
But it is oil from which explosives are derived that chiefly
interests Germany. Almost any kind of fruit stone contains
glycerine. That is why notices have been put on all trains which
run through fruit districts, such as Werder, near Berlin, and
Baden, advising the people to save their fruit stones and bring
them to special depots for collection.
Five pounds of fat treated with caustic soda can be made to yield
one pound of glycerine. This is one reason, in addition to the
British blockade, which causes the great fat shortage among the
civil population.
Glycerine united with ammonium nitrate is used in the manufacture
of explosives. Deprived of nitrogenous material from South
America, Germany has greatly developed the process for the
manufacture of artificial nitrates. She spent 25,000,000 pounds
after the outbreak of war to enable her chemists and engineers to
turn out a sufficient amount of nitric acid.
Toluol, a very important ingredient of explosives, is obtained from
coal-tar, which Germany is naturally able to manufacture at present
better than any other country in the world, since she bad
practically a monopoly in coal-tar products before hostilities
commenced.
Evidently, however, substitutes to reinforce goods smuggled through
the blockade have not sufficed to meet the chemical demands of the
German Government, for great flaming placards were posted up all
over the Empire announcing the commandeering of such commodities as
sulphur, sulphuric acid, toluol, saltpetre, and the like.
Germany long ago claimed to have perfected woodpulp as a substitute
for cotton in propulsive ammunition. She made this claim very
early, however, for the purpose of hoodwinking British blockade
advocates. Her great need eventually led her to take steps to
induce the United States to insist on the Entente Powers raising
the blockade on cotton. She went to great trouble and expense to
send samples by special means to her agents in America.
The cotton shortage began to be seriously felt early in 1916 in the
manufacturing districts of Saxony, where so many operatives were
suddenly thrown out of work that the Government had to set aside a
special fund for their temporary relief, until they could be
transferred to other war industries.
The success which Germany claimed for a cotton-cloth substitute has
been greatly exaggerated. When the Germans realised that Great
Britain really meant business on the question of cotton they
cultivated nettle and willow fibre, and made a cloth consisting for
the most part of nettle or willow fibre with a small proportion of
cotton or wool.
It was boasted in many quarters that the exclusion of cotton would
make but little difference so far as clothing was concerned. Not
only does the universal introduction of clothing tickets falsify
this boast, but the cloth is found to be a mere makeshift when
tested. Blouses and stockings wear out with discouraging rapidity
when made of the substitute.
My personal investigations still lead me to believe in the motto of
the Sunny South that: "Cotton is king."
Paper, although running short in Germany, is the substitute for
cloth in many cases. Sacking, formerly used for making bags in
which to ship potatoes and other vegetables, has given way to it.
Paper-string is a good substitute widely used, although "no string"
was the verbal substitute I often got when buying various articles,
and it was necessary for me to hold the paper on to the parcel with
my hands.
The craze for substitutes has spread so extensively that there have
been some unpleasant results both for the purchaser and the
producer, as was the case with several bakers, who were finally
detected and convicted of a liberal use of sawdust in their cakes.
Germany has worked especially hard to find a substitute for
indiarubber, though with only moderate success. I know that the
Kaiser's Government is still sending men into contiguous neutral
countries to buy up every scrap of rubber obtainable. In no other
commodity has there been more relentless commandeering. When
bicycle tyres were commandeered--the authorities deciding that
three marks was the proper price to pay for a new pair of tyres
which had cost ten--there was a great deal of complaining.
Nevertheless, without an excellent reason, no German could secure
the police pass necessary to allow him to ride a bicycle. Those
who did obtain permission to ride to and, from their work had to
select the shortest route, and "joy-riding" was forbidden.
"Substitute rubber" heels for boots could be readily obtained until
the late summer, but after that only with difficulty. They were
practically worthless, as I know from personal experience, and were
as hard as leather after one or two days' use.
Despite the rubber shortage, the Lower Saxon Rubber Company, of
Hildersheim, does a thriving business in raincoats made from rubber
substitutes. The factory is running almost full blast, all the
work being done by women, and the finished product is a tribute to
the skill of those in charge.
It is impossible to buy a real tennis hall in the German Empire
to-day. A most hopeless makeshift ball has been put on the market,
but after a few minutes' play it no longer keeps its shape or
resiliency.
Germany has been very successful in the substitution of a sort of
enamelled-iron for aluminium, brass, and copper. Some of the
Rhenish-Westphalian iron industries have made enormous war profits,
supplying iron chandeliers, stove doors, pots and pans, and other
articles formerly made of brass to take the place of those
commandeered for the purpose of supplying the Army with much-needed
metals.
For copper used in electrical and other industries she claims to
have devised substitutes before the war, and her experts now assert
that a two-years' supply of copper and brass has been gathered from
the kitchens and roofs of Germany. The copper quest has assumed
such proportions that the roof of the historic, world-renowned
Rathaus at Bremen has been stripped. Nearly half the church bells
of Austria have found their way to the great Skoda Works.
Of course Germans never boast of the priceless ornaments they have
stolen from Belgium and Northern France. They joyfully claim that
every pound of copper made available at home diminishes the amount
which they must import from abroad, and pay for with their
cherished gold.
The authorities delight in telling the neutral visitors that they
have found adequate substitutes for nickel, chromium, and vanadium
for the hardening of steel. If that is really so, why does the
_Deutschland's_ cargo consist mainly of these three commodities?