HOW FOOD WON THE WAR
Food won the war. Without the American farmer the Entente Allies
must have capitulated. Wheat, beef, corn, foods of every variety,
hermetically sealed in tins, were thrown into the scales on the side
of the Entente Allies in sufficient quantities to tip the balance
toward the side of civilization and against autocracy. Late in the
fall of 1918 when victory was assured to America and the Allies, there
was received this message of appreciation from General Pershing to
the farmers of America, through Carl Vrooman, Assistant Secretary of
Agriculture:
AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES,
Office of the Commander-in-Chief, France,
October 16, 1918.
Honorable CARL VROOMAN, _Assistant Secretary of Agriculture_:
DEAR MR. VROOMAN:--Will you please convey to farmers of America our
profound appreciation of their patriotic services to the country and
to the allied armies in the field. They have furnished their full
quota of fighting men; they have bought largely of Liberty Bonds; and
they have increased their production of food crops both last year and
this by over a thousand million bushels above normal production. Food
is of vital military necessity for us and for our Allies, and from
the day of our entry into the war America’s armies of food producers
have rendered invaluable service to the Allied cause by supporting
the soldiers at the front through their devoted and splendidly
successful work in the fields and furrows at home.
Very sincerely,
JOHN J. PERSHING.
This tribute to the men and women on the farms of America from the
head of the American forces in France is fit recognition of the
important part played by American food producers in the war. It was
early recognized by all the belligerent powers that final victory
was a question of national morale and national endurance. Morale
could not be maintained without food. The bread lines in Petrograd
gave birth to the revolution, and Russian famine was the mother of
Russian terrorism. German men and women, starved of fats and sweets,
deteriorated so rapidly that the crime ratio both in towns and country
districts mounted appallingly. Conditions in Austria-Hungary were even
worse. Acute distress arising from threatening famine was very largely
instrumental in driving Bulgaria out of the war.
On the other hand, Germany’s greatest reliance for a victorious
decision lay in the U-boat blockade of Great Britain, France and
Italy. Though some depredations came to these countries, the submarine
blockade never fully materialized and with its failure Germany’s hopes
faded and died.
The Entente Allies and the United States were fortunate in securing
Herbert C. Hoover to administer food distribution throughout their
lands and to stimulate food production by the farmers of the United
States. After his signal success in the administration of the Belgian
Relief Commission, Mr. Hoover became the unanimous choice of the Allies
for the victualing of the militant and civilian populations after
America’s entrance into the World War. His work divided itself into
three heads:
First, stimulation of food production.
Second, elimination of food wastage in the homes and public eating
places of the country.
Third, education of food dealers and the public in the use of foods
that were substitutes for wheat, rye, pork, beef and sugar.
After long and acrimonious debates in Congress, Mr. Hoover, as Federal
Food Administrator, was clothed with extraordinary powers enabling him
to fulfil the purposes for which he was appointed. The ability with
which he and his associates performed their work was demonstrated in
the complete débâcle of Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria-Hungary and Germany.
These countries were starved out quite as truly as they were fought
out. The concrete evidence of the Food Administration’s success is
shown in the subjoined table which indicates the increase over normal
in exporting of foodstuffs by the United States since it became the
food reservoir for the world on account of the war.
TOTAL EXPORTS
3-year pre-war 1916-17 1917-18
average fiscal year fiscal year
Total beef products, lbs. 186,375,372 405,427,417 565,462,445
Total pork products, lbs. 996,230,627 1,498,302,713 1,691,437,435
Total dairy products, lbs. 26,037,790 351,958,336 590,798,274
Total vegetable oils, lbs. 332,430,537 206,708,490 151,029,893
Total grains, bushels 183,777,331 395,140,238 [A]349,123,235
Total sugar, pounds 621,745,507 3,084,390,281 2,149,787,050
July, 1917, to July, 1918, to
Sept. 30. 1917 Sept. 30. 1918
Total beef products, lbs. 93,962,477 171,986,147
Total pork products, lbs. 196,256,750 540,946,324
Total dairy products, lbs. 130,071,165 161,245,029
Total vegetable oils, lbs. 27,719,553 26,026,701
Total grains, bushels 66,383,084 121,668,823
Total sugar, pounds 1,108,559,519 1,065,398,247
[A] Wheat harvest 1917-18 was 200,217,333 bushels below the average of
the three previous years.
Upon the same subject Mr. Hoover himself after the harvest of 1918 said:
It is now possible to summarize the shipments of foodstuffs from the
United States to the allied countries during the fiscal year just
closed--practically the last harvest year. These amounts include all
shipments to allied countries for their and our armies, the civilian
population, the Belgian relief, and the Red Cross. The figures
indicate the measure of effort of the American people in support of
allied food supplies.
The total value of these food shipments, which were in the
main purchased through, or with the collaboration of the Food
Administration, amounted to, roundly, $1,400,000,000 during the
fiscal year.
The shipments of meats and fats (including meat products, dairy
products, vegetable oils, etc.) to allied destinations were as
follows:
POUNDS
Fiscal year 1916-17 2,166,500,000
Fiscal year 1917-18 3,011,100,000
--------------
Increase 844,600,000
Our slaughterable animals at the beginning of the last fiscal year
were not appreciably larger in number than the year before; and
particularly in hogs, there were probably less. The increase in
shipments is due to conservation and the extra weight of animals
added by our farmers.
The full effect of these efforts began to bear their best results
in the last half of the fiscal year, when the exports to the Allies
were 2,133,100,000 pounds, as against 1,266,500,000 pounds in the
same period of the year before. This compares with an average of
801,000,000 pounds of total exports for the same half years of the
three-year pre-war period.
In cereals and cereal products reduced to terms of cereal bushels,
our shipments to allied destinations have been:
BUSHELS
Fiscal year 1916-17 259,900,000
Fiscal year 1917-18 340,800,000
------------
Increase 80,900,000
Of these cereals our shipments of the prime breadstuffs in the fiscal
year 1917-18 to allied destinations were: Wheat, 131,000,000 bushels
and rye 13,900,000 bushels, a total of 144,900,000 bushels.
The exports to allied destinations during the fiscal year 1916-17
were: Wheat, 135,100,000 bushels and rye 2,300,000 bushels, a total
of 137,400,000 bushels. In addition, some 10,000,000 bushels of 1917
wheat are now in port for allied destinations or en route thereto.
The total shipments to allied countries from our last harvest of
wheat will be, therefore, about 141,000,000 bushels, or a total of
154,900,000 bushels of prime breadstuffs.
In addition to this we have shipped some 10,000,000 bushels to
neutrals dependent upon us and we have received some imports from
other quarters. A large part of the other cereals exported has also
gone into war bread.
It is interesting to note that since the urgent request of the
Allied Food Controllers early in the year for a further shipment of
75,000,000 bushels from our 1917 wheat than originally planned, we
shall have shipped to Europe, or have en route, nearly 85,000,000
bushels. At the time of this request our surplus was already more
than exhausted.
This accomplishment of our people in this matter stands out even more
clearly if we bear in mind that we had available in the fiscal year
1916-17 from net carry over and a surplus over our normal consumption
about 200,000,000 bushels of wheat which we were able to export that
year without trenching on our home loaf. This last year, however,
owing to the large failure of the 1917 wheat crop we had available
from net carry over and production and imports only just about
our normal consumption. Therefore our wheat shipments to allied
destinations represent approximately savings from our own wheat bread.
These figures, however, do not fully convey the volume of the effort
and sacrifice made during the past year by the whole American people.
Despite the magnificent effort of our agricultural population in
planting a much increased acreage in 1917, not only was there a very
large failure in wheat, but also the corn failed to mature properly,
and corn is our dominant crop.
We calculate that the total nutritional production of the country for
the fiscal year just closed was between seven per cent and nine per
cent below the average of the three previous years, our nutritional
surplus for export in those years being about the same amount as the
shrinkage last year. Therefore the consumption and waste in food have
been greatly reduced in every direction during the year.
I am sure that the millions of our people, agricultural as well as
urban, who have contributed to these results, should feel a very
definite satisfaction that, in a year of universal food shortage in
the Northern Hemisphere, all of these people joined together against
Germany have come through into sight of the coming harvest not only
with health and strength fully maintained, but with only temporary
periods of hardship. The European Allies have been compelled to
sacrifice more than our own people, but we have not failed to load
every steamer since the delays of the storm months of last winter.
Our contributions to this end could not have been accomplished
without effort and sacrifice, and it is a matter for further
satisfaction, that it had been accomplished voluntarily and
individually. It is difficult to distinguish between various sections
of our people--the homes, public eating places, food trades, urban or
agricultural populations--in assessing credit for these results, but
no one will deny the dominant part of the American woman.
But the work of the Food Administration did not come to an end with the
close of the war. Insistent cries for food came from the members of the
defeated Teutonic alliance, as well as from the suffering Allied and
neutral nations. To meet those demands, Mr. Hoover sailed for Europe to
organize the food relief of the needy nations. The State Department,
explaining his mission, stated that as the first measure of assistance
to Belgium it was necessary to increase immediately the volume of
foodstuffs formerly supplied, so as to physically rehabilitate this
under-nourished population. The relief commission during the four years
of war sent to the 10,000,000 people in the occupied area over 600
cargoes of food, comprising 120,000,000 bushels of breadstuffs and over
3,000,000,000 pounds of other foodstuffs besides 20,000,000 garments,
the whole representing an expenditure of nearly $600,000,000. The
support of the commission came from the Belgian, British, French and
American governments, together with public charity. In addition to this
some $350,000,000 worth of native produce was financed internally in
Belgium by the relief organization.
The second portion of Mr. Hoover’s mission was to organize and
determine the need of foodstuffs to the liberated populations in
Southern Europe--the Czecho-Slovaks, the Jugo-Slavs, and Serbians,
Roumanians and others.
To meet the conditions in Europe following the armistice of November
11, 1918, the employment service of the United States set to work
laying far-reaching plans for meeting the problem of world food
shortage.
Abnormal drought during the summer of 1918 seriously injured the
Belgian, Italian and French harvests, and appeals to the United States
for help were made.
And the appeals were not in vain. America took from her granaries
the cereals needed to stave off European famine. Germany was cared
for as well as those nations who had been associated in arms with
the United States. The demands after the war were greater than they
had been during the conflict but the nation that had fed the allies
of civilization in war time performed the task of feeding the world,
friend and foe alike, when peace at length came upon the earth.