SAVE THE FOODSTUFF
October 30, 1917
Mr.Hoover has been appointed as the man to lead us of this Nation in the vitally important matter of producing and saving as much food as we possibly can in order that we can send abroad the largest possible amount for the use of our suffering allies and for the use of our own gallant soldiers.Mr.Hoover’s preëminent services in Belgium pointed him out as of all the men in this country the man most fit for the very position to which he has been appointed. Let us give him our most hearty and loyal support.
In this great and terrible war the slaughter, starvation, and exhaustion are on a scale never before known. They are nation-wide. Therefore every individual of every nation engaged must do his full part or else must be held to have failed in his duty.The man of fighting age must fight. The man with especial business capacity or mechanical skill must produce arms or equipment or ammunition. And every man, woman, or child must help produce food if possible, and in any event must help economize it.
Mr.Hoover has asked us during this week to devote ourselves to getting all our people voluntarily to pledge themselves to certain forms of food economy,—which are of great consequence from the standpoint of sending abroad the foodstuffs needed by our Allies and by our own troops. There are certain foods which are easily transported which are nourishing and which are peculiarly suited for the use both of our allies and of our troops in the field.Mr.Hoover’s plan is that we shall all of us voluntarily limit along strict lines our consumption of these food products and replace them by other foods which are not suitable for sending abroad, and that we shall rigidly avoid waste. Full particulars are given in the pamphlets sent out byMr.Hoover from his Washington Bureau of Food Conservation.
WhatMr.Hoover asks entails not the slightest real hardship on any of us. It merely requires each of us to exercise a little self-control and perhaps to make some trivial sacrifice of personal preference in what we eat. Surely this is a very, very small service to be rendered by us stay-at-homes in support of our sons and brothers who have gone or are going to risk their lives in battle for us and mankind.