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Show Stricken Europe Needs Large Imports of Food f j it h Never Able to Raise Enough Fare for Its 1 ' at . o- ; to ry vn ' i- '"-J"' - , -; " - in the munitions factories and with the armed forces, what did America do? American farm production in 1944 was increased, despite its handicap. 36 per cent beyond the 1935 to 1939 level. Britain's Farm Output High But what about England where the boys were in the army and the munitions muni-tions factories, too; where farmers had to farm in the blackout and around the shell-craters in their fields? The British increased their production 65 per cent they were nearer to the front than we were. They had a greater Incentive. For the same reason, the distribution distribu-tion was far better than in America. Ameri-ca. Regimentation was more stringent. strin-gent. The government in England bought all the food and distributed it itself. It cracked down hard on the black markets. In this country, . popular opinion prevented such interference in-terference with private enterprise. And so In America we permitted the processing and distribution industries in-dustries to operate at a profit. In Britain, it was a non-profit, government govern-ment operation. Rationing was stricter, too. So much for Britain's wartime effort. ef-fort. Now, what about the efficiency of her production in normal times? My informant gave me some impressive im-pressive figures. . u he .Tidy .Ti-dy m-a m-a .id. irn of the tost leir een out her the inly we offl- : to ood ally Vhy all she too 0 a gri- 1 in- rted fat "To ural He pointed to America's two typical typi-cal farm states which taken together are just about equal to Britain in area: Iowa and Indiana. Believe it or not in normal times Britain produces pro-duces more wheat, barley and oats than those two states combined. Britain also produces more cattle than Texas which is six times as large more potatoes than all our chief potato states including Maine and Idaho, more dairy products than Wisconsin. "Then why on earth," J runted - "no"'-'- t,,i CBI awm ' beanie the answei . '"i - sair reason that New York statt with its skilled farmers, its splendid splen-did soil, its up-to-date methods, can't feed itself any more than the District of Columbia can. In Europe as In these more heavily populated areas in the United States, there are just too many people." If we want these Europeans to live and prosper and earn the money to buy our automobiles and typewriters type-writers and other gadgets which keep our factories running, we'll have to keep on sending food to Europe Eu-rope as we always have. Recently I was asked to make a recording which was to be deposited In the archives of George Washington Washing-ton university, as part of a series made for the use of the class of the year 2007. It is a somewhat fantastic idea to be sure, but it is seriously undertaken and I responded in as KPrinim vpin n T pnnlH mnctAr T un- was That will fur-e fur-e of 3F be 5 tein '"- ts." ues-i'.ra-Eu-the with ited, due-cent due-cent in: in a '.ions 1 not s of ex-.vere ex-.vere ould troy nuch tretuirig stotii uau ancau been, lughtered. can't repeat what I said as that is supposed to be held as a big surprise sur-prise for the class of 2007. However, the whole idea intrigues me so much that I have been thinking about it ever since. The fact that this year begins what some people call the "atomic age" makes the speculation all the more interesting. In 1939 when the first successful experiment in "splitting "split-ting the atom," and releasing the vast power which literally holds the world together was reported chiefly in scientific publications, as of great academic importance. One writer said the experiment might have no results of interests beyond the laboratory. labo-ratory. S"ix years later continuation continua-tion of those experiments ended the Japanese war. The forces released, however, were largely uncontrolled and purely pure-ly destructive. Will the class of 2007 have to look up the word "coal" because It has been forgotten? Will all our modern mod-ern means of generating power be displaced by the atom's forces, carefully care-fully controlled and directed to the uses of peace and progress? Of course, we must not be led astray by this figure of 10 per cent the decrease In the total production produc-tion in Europe In wartime. There was a sharp cut in certain products and an increase in others. The entire en-tire pattern of the agriculture was altered. For example, the livestock raisers always imported feed. When it was cut off there had to be a shift from livestock to root crops. Potatoes and beets make for a very monotonous diet, but they were filling fill-ing while they lasted. The Germans organized and regimented regi-mented farm labor in all countries including their own. They maintained main-tained transportation fairly well until un-til just before the invasion. Now transportation is utterly disrupted, there are millions of displaced persons, per-sons, farm machinery is broken down. But this doesn't answer question number two: Why can't Europe feed herself In normal times? Are the people so much lazier or be-hlnd-the-times that they can't make things grow as vc do? Before answering that question, my friend reminded me that it wan |