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Show Food Shipments Will Help Write the Peace in Europe By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1C16 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C Since Good Friday, when you heard a President and an ex-President speaking on the same radio program, one in the White House, the other across the w Atlantic In Egypt, f you have read and I f heard many other f t'i'i. appeals I" prupara- I fi tion for a drive ' J which will start "rV 'J (hurtly to get food f H to live hundred mil- - . : fj lion starving men, y'"'-4 PA women and cliil- J :J '"j ; I dren in Europe and L L. ''J:3 Asia. ff--- ' The voluntary .; -!J4j'aiS effort to cut down fc ... j food consumption miiiii nimiiitnii simply hasn't worked. It isn't that the people are unwilling. un-willing. It's that there was no Immediate Im-mediate way to cut down on our eating which seemed practical. And so a practical means of getting food in cans Is to be tried, and its success will depend on the local volunteer vol-unteer organization In your community. commu-nity. The foods needed are milk (condensed, evaporated or dried), meat, fish, peanut butter, baby foods, baked beans, Juices, stews, soups, honey, vegetables. I know that you have heard this before in detail. I hope you will hear It again, with further details, but perhaps you don't realize what you and the United States can get in return for the food we send out, and what we may lose If starvation becomes widespread. The whole question Is pointed up In a not-too-promlnently displayed dispatch from Moscow to which an official called my attention last week. It was a statement made by a correspondent of the Soviet paper Izvestla, who had been touring the American zone in Germany. "The food stuff difficulties which forced lowering of rations (in the American zone)," the correspondent wrote, "are explained, in my view, not so much by the absence of productive pro-ductive districts as by a lack of order and distribution of agricultural agricul-tural products." Then he went on to explain that the big estates had not been broken up, as they were in the Russian zone. Hunger Used as Political Weapon This criticism, which I think Investigation In-vestigation will prove to be exceedingly exceed-ingly biased and unfair, reveals how food, or the lack of it, is serving and can serve as a weapon to stir up discontent and to bring the western west-ern countries into disrepute and disfavor, dis-favor, i Revolution follows hunger just as surely as hunger follows war. As a matter of fact, one of the most efficient organizations In the American military zone of Germany Is the agency which distributes food. Working closely with it is another highly efficient American agency which the British have used as a model in their zone the health and sanitation division. However, there is a food shortage In Germany, just as there is in the rest of Europe. The effects are the tame everywhere, nd Germany serves as an excellent examnlp nt the political effects of a good shortage. short-age. There, the American authorities authori-ties can accurately check on what is going on since the military government gov-ernment Is so closely tied in to every ev-ery phase of the daily lives of the people. Recently a military government official in Germany wrote to me: "No slogan was ever truer than 'Food will win the war and write the peace.' " We are about to sit down at the peace table with Italy. Russia probably prob-ably will not be present. But the food tha' Italy does not have may affect the validity of that peace treaty. A revealing comment on how this works was appended to a report made shortly after the British were forced to drop to a 1,000-calorie scale and coal production dropped approximately 20 per cent This was the comment: "."leavy workers are dropping at the'r work and food riots have already al-ready taken place. If this ration is not raised soon, there will be no coal; without coal there will be no transportation; without coal and transportation, there will be no processing of food from indigenous resources. . , . "The fact that we now have to go back on our pledged word to the German people will seriously im-" im-" pair our prestige and the confidence of the German people in the pledged I word of our officials. This will give to those who oppose our economic system the best weapon they have ever received. As fast as possible, we are losing all the advantages gained by the success of arms. We are losing the peace much faster than at the close of World War I. The first great blow has been the food muddle. Others will pile up like a snowball. . . . "It appears that we will have to reduce the already inadequate ration ra-tion for Berlin. This, of course, will give tlie Russians a strong talking point against the western powers when we cannot afford to sustain the 1,550-calorie ration for the normal consumer." And so the path of our friend, the reporter from Izvestia, crosses that of the American official. Clearly we see the different segments of the picture which opponents of western democracy have sketched in no faint strokes across the troubled world. Yes, Indeed, food will write the peacel Polls Show U. S. Ready to Sacrifice It Is interesting to note that the American people are perfectly willing will-ing to make sacrifices to send food to Europe. Two surveys were made by the University of Denver National Research center, one of which showed that 68 per cent of those interviewed indicated their wish to resume rationing if necessary neces-sary in order to send critical food abroad. Another survey by the same institution in-stitution showed that more than a third of the people (35 per cent) believed be-lieved that we should send food to Germany as a gift if she could not pay us for it. I believe that if a similar poll were taken in regard to feeding Japan, the results would be approximately the same. Gardens Grow On Skyscrapers People have their roots in the soil even when they live 20 stories above asphalt pavements. I had that brought forcibly to mind as I leaned over the wall of a wide terrace of a penthouse garden high above Park avenue. New York. As I looked to the right and the ' left, everywhere I saw fresh green edging other walls like the one against which I was leaning; and below me, I could glimpse neat gardens gar-dens already sprouting cheerfully in the first warm spring sun. There was a vine spreading over one wall; higher up were tall trees bursting into leaf. Tall, I say the tops were some 300 feet above the pavement, if only some 15 feet above their elevated roots. I saw one old man in a battered straw hat, his trowel laid aside and the evidence of his industry in a row of little pine trees in neatly painted tubs. He was resting in a garden chair, a little fountain playing play-ing In the wall beside him, and a neat privet hedge for his skyline. Farther away was a real achievement achieve-ment a lawn at leastO feet square with tulips blossoming along a neaf walk that led to nowhere. mm Rebuild Mexican ' Agriculture Through the building ot modern, comfortable homes for rural workers, work-ers, the improvement of farm land, and introduction of mechanized farm equipment, a general plan for the rehabilitation of Mexican agriculture agri-culture has been initiated. One hundred hun-dred model farms have been completed com-pleted in the district of Topilejo, with means for working the land in modern and efficient manner. A model school and home for teachers also have been built. To create in each center of population popu-lation a permanent board which will consider the respective problems of farmers, livestock raisers, business men, industrialists and artisans. To promote undertakings for the manufacture or sale of modern Implements of agriculture. To distribute by credit individually, individual-ly, to towns, or to areas, modern farm tools, necessary technical direction, di-rection, selected seeds and fertilizer. ferti-lizer. To promote and organize private capital for the creation of small institutions in-stitutions that will dedicate themselves them-selves to the maintenance of rural credit as the only logical means for agricultural development. To build schools and homes for teachers in agricultural, industrial or. livestock centers, as well as regional re-gional hospitals. i |