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Show MEED THE 1H 1st, IS ROLE OFJEIM Less Than a Living Share of the Food Supply Left for Some Classes at Home. SOME FLAWS IN THE 1 SYSTEM APPARENT Many Hungry Ones Too Proud to Visit the Soup vitchens or Unable to I Wait in Line. f By OSCAR KING DAVIS. Copyright, 1917, by The New York Times company. In my first letter on food conditions in Germany I stated briefly, as one of my conclusions from my experience and observations ob-servations in that country, that "the German Ger-man government is deliberately underfeeding under-feeding a certain section of the people in order to furnish larger supplies to the army and those who are contributing directly di-rectly to the maintenance of the war." I have talked with German officials and civilians who have denied that hotly, and almost In the same breath have denounced Great Britain with angry vehemence for "making war upon the civilian population : of Germany" and for "starving the little children and the old people of Germany" and that sort of thing. Well, it may be a matter of choice whether it is the British government or the German government which is ulti-L ulti-L mately responsible for the underfeeding of I a distinct section of the German people. II hold no brief for either and do not undertake un-dertake to render Judgment on such a question. But I do kno'w what everybody ! else knows who has spent any time in Germany, that it is the German govern- ment which is controlling the distribution distribu-tion to the German people of what food i there is in that distracted country, and it is the German government which is decreeing de-creeing a large and full share for the army and less than a living share for some of the German people. , 1 ' This leads to an endless merry-go- ' ' round of argument. The German de-j de-j elarejfrily that the British are making I wjui innocent civilians and are en-k en-k jTvoring to starve a noncombatant popu-Vatlon, popu-Vatlon, in flagrant violation of the long v and well-established principles of interactional inter-actional law and every consideration of n nanity and civilization as well. The Jsher retorts with equal anger that the n dodges the issue and the point .British blockade is merely tight-Te tight-Te food situation for the "German i that it is the wanton and ruth-Uan ruth-Uan government which is robbing I in population of the very bread I order to feed fat "the Vandals tlluns" who have devastated Bel-fl Bel-fl are seeking to lay waste France other allied countries. There is no JFihat. Army First of AH. but if you fall into a discussion In friendly tone and manner with the aver-age aver-age German acquaintance, especially if lie happens to be an officer of the army ' on duty in Berlin, you will presently finj him explaining the necessity of feeding the armv first Of all, and of giving to it at all hazards and no matter what the privation to others, all the food it needs '; and the best in quality as well as quan- ! tit y. That view of the matter has been I explained to me with most painstaking! particularity on repeated occasions. There was one young officer in the ' war office who had spnt several years tn America, and who used to take spe-j spe-j cial pleasure in discussing with apparently appar-ently equal interest two problems. One was thit-, of tlie importance of feeding the army, and the other was the development develop-ment of democracy in Germany. He never tired of either, "and he was ready at almost any time to demonstrate not only the necessity, hut The Justice, of giving the army the first and best and most of everything, even at the cost of the phys-Ica phys-Ica 1 condition of those not in the army. He would contend with energy and eagerness eager-ness for the proposition that those who were yius 6tarved for the benefit of the army should be proud of the sacrifices they were compelled to make, and should find their reward and their glory in tue consciousness that in that fashion they were rendering their greatest possible service to their country. A Strong Argument. The argument he used to advance was simple and plausible. 1 was merely that it was the army and nothing else which was preventing the British and French from overrunning the country and compelling com-pelling Germany to make a surrender of national existence. Then he would quote the old military maxim that the "army moves on its belly," and all the rest would depend naturally from that. If you don't feed the army all it wants, or at least enough to keep it feeling fit and up to its work, the first thing you know it falls under the stress of attack and then down goes the whole national structure. Also it Is just as necessary to keep in condition for hard work those upon whose labor depends the munitions and other supplies of the fighting line. No good having an army if it has nothing with which to fight. They teil you at every corner in Germany now that the Germans lost the battle of the Marne because they did not have sufficient ammunition and transportation. Everybody with whom you .talk tells you that General Falken-hayn Falken-hayn los't his place as chief of staff because be-cause he decided that the supply of munitions muni-tions was sufficient when events proved that it was not. One of Hindenburg's claims to glory is that he gave the order fixing the sky as the limit of Germany's production of munitions and guns, and that the sky has been the limit ever since he succeeded Falkenhayn as chief of staff. You will meet German civilians who take pleasure in telling you that they dine just as well as the kaiser does, and that they have everything on their tables ta-bles and as much of it as he has on his. It's a good enough "jolly" and they like to give it to themselves, but they know it isn't true. It is one way of showing patriotism, but as far as my experience goes it is not a very popular way. On the contrary, you meet .civilians who take pleasure In bragging, as so many officers do, that the army is so well taken care of, and who seem almost to like to emphasize em-phasize the point that this fine care of the army is at the expense of the civilian population, to some of whom it brings decided de-cided hardship and suffering. The Ones Who Suffer. When it comes down to the hard facts, the real testimony tends to show that this maintenance of the army in condition condi-tion is cos tins: a considerable portion of the German population its very life blood. Germans may argue that when soldiers are literally giving up their lives, civilians civil-ians should be willing to give up part of their food. But it is hard for the civilians civil-ians to see the necessity under the circumstances. cir-cumstances. Also, and this "is one of the arguments argu-ments of official explanation and excuse, ex-cuse, it Is entirely unnecessary for any person, no matter in what circumstance in life, to suffer actual want of food, because be-cause the government maintains public kitchens were square meals are prepared and supplied to those who need them. If a person can pay he Is expected to do so, and in that case he need not eat his public pub-lic meals in public, but may come to the kitchen and get his hot food and take It home to be consumed as he pleases. But if anyone cannot pay he may have the food just the same. only, if he is able to do any sort of work, the government will get something out of him by way of compensation. com-pensation. Tripped Up by Pride. The obstacle over which the government govern-ment scheme trips and falls is the pride of some of the people. And, as usual, it is the pride of a class which cannot afford to be proud. They are for the most part persons who earn just enough to keep body and soul together if everything every-thing goes well with them, but who have not received Increase of earnings to keep pace with the increased cost of food and other necessaries of life since the outbreak out-break of the war. With earning capacity capac-ity stationary and living costs constantly mounting, it has become increasingly hard for many of these persons to get along. Then, on top of that, comes the difficulty of managing the routine of food distribution required by the government scheme of food conservation and waste l prevention, which often requires time to 'bo taken from labor if food is to be had at all time which cannot be taken from labor without reduction of earnings and consequent hardship. In such matters as these there is no doubt some justification for the contention conten-tion of the government defenders. But there are other points which are not so easy of defense. The radical militarist, perhaps, will defend the use made by the German government of the great sugar crop of Germany. It may be sound from the military point of view to take all the sugar produced by the Germans and make glycerine out of it for munitions, or trade it to Switzerland or Scandinavia, Instead of depreciated marks, in payment for goods bought from those countries. It may be entirely sound from the military point of view to scrape up every particle of fat that can be gathered In the whole erfcpire and use it for munitions so rigorously rigor-ously that literally thousands of persons are deprived of an element of ration essentially es-sentially life sustaining for them. These things may be of paramount view, but, just the same, their result is the under-nourishment of a distinct section sec-tion of the civilian population of Germany, Ger-many, a Bectlon that is not equipped to cope with such necessities, and which as a consequence Is showing the increased white cell count in the blood test that marks the beginning of starvation. Hunger and Peace. No doubt the recognition of this situation situa-tion in influential government circles is one of the reasons why Germany is so anxious for peace. Certainly this phase of the food situation has had Its effect upon the desire of the people for peace. The thousands of women, who chiefly are the ones affected by the conditions here described, may not be able to exert a direct influence upon the government as yet, but they surely are among those who are yearning for the end of the war, and the time is not far away when it will not be as easy to prevent that yearning from becoming a determination to have peace as It has been up to now. |
