The official bulletin [Vol. 1, no. 12, 1 December 1918]

              U. S. Food Administration
THE OFFICIAL BULLETIN
Vol. I
4
$> RALEIGH, N. C, DECEMBER 1, 1918
No. 12
NORTH CAROLINA
.*
WILL GO fM TOP
i.
  #
Rousing Meeting ot ^ounty Food
Administrators Held at Raleigh—Mr. Franklin W. Fort
Makes Inspiring Speech.
The spirit manifested at the conference of County Food Administrators
and their associate women chairmen in
Raleigh, November 20th and 21st, convinced States Food Administrator
Henry A. Page and his staff that Conservation "Week for World Relief in
North Carolina will be a huge success.
The attendance both of County Food
Administrators and women chairmen
was large and representative and all
present were quick to grasp the new
ence was the vivid message delivered
to the conference by Mr. Franklin W.
Fort of Mr. Hoover's staff at Washington. Mr. Fort's address made a profound impression, and the success of
the World Relief work in North Carolina was assured the moment he sat
down. This address contained a complete re'sumfi and outline of the world
food situation and the necessity from
every standpoint of America supplying
the food needs not only of our Allies
and starving neutrals of Europe, but
also the actual requirements of the
former enemy countries. %
Mr. Fort's address is published in
another part of this bulletin.
At the close of Mr. Fort's address
Mr. W. A. Erwin, County Food Administrator for Durham County, offered
the following resolution, which was
adopted by a rising vote:
"Resolved by the County Food Administrators of the State of North
Carolina and their associates, in conference assembled in the city of Raleigh, that we hereby pledge ourselves
to disseminate throughout our several
counties the splendid spirit of humanity and conservation so evident in this
meeting, to the end that our people as
a whole niay do their utmost in the"
matter of food conservation, so that the
starving peoples of Europe may be fed.
(Continued on page 2)
PROGRAM OF CONSERVATION WEEK FOR WORLD*
RELIEF, DECEMBER 1-7
Sunday—Conservation Sunday: Hoover message to be read in all churches,
with special services.
Tuesday—Community Day: Local mass meetings.
Wednesday—Women's  Organizations  Day;   Special program  by  women's
clubs and other organizations.
Friday'—School Day: Elaborate program lor children in all schools.
World Food Situation Vividly
Described by Mr; Franklin W. Fort
Member of Mr. Hoover's Staff Makes Impressive and Zeal-inspiring
Speech  Before  Conference  of Food  Administration  Workers—
Conservation Necessary Not Only as Humanitarian Obligation
Means of Self-protection.
of Washington, before die Cou
Administrators, at their conference on
November 20th, was as follows:
We meet under different conditions
today from any previous meeting of the
Food Administration workers in the
United .States, and I think It wise, under these conditions, always to look
back a little in order to get our bearings afresh.
Four years ago, all of us who in
peace and utmost contentment had banished from our minds the possibility of
war were suddenly awakened. We discovered that the very things we thought
made civilization apparently were its
wreckage. We in America felt the war
almost as a blessing in some ways. We
grew righ and richer as a nation, and
fat and fatter out of the suffering and
chaos of Europe. Suddenly awakening to the fact that it was not right
that we alone of the world should
profit, that those things we hated
should triumph, we took our part. Instantly upon taking our part, the Food
Administration was organized. It had
its origin in the fact that transportation facilities the world over had been
ruptured and industries destroyed;
that without help from overseas, our
Allies must starve.
I think that we may fairly take
unto ourselves a certain amount of
congratulation,  the  Food  Adminlstra-
.'.u  a  part
work, upon
we have achieved tne task laid out.
There is no question but that the motto
we took at the inception of the Food
Administration, "Food Will Win the
War," did not overshoot the mark. The
news that comes out of Europe, now
that the war is won and the bars of
censorship are down, demonstrates
most forcibly that the war was saved
for the Allies in the spring of 1918
solely by the food supplies shipped to
sustain the morale of the British and
French, who would perhaps have answered the German terms of peace as
early as the month of June.
It has been further emphasized by
the news that now comes of the reasons of Germany's radical and sudden
breakdown. Germany and Austria
went through August this year on very
short rations. They had three consecutive meatless weeks. The entire
rations of the German people were five
caligrams of bread and ten of potatoes per w7eek, with half of that for
children. They bore it because in August there was still lingering a feeling
of the Importance of news from the
front. But when in September the
fact bore In upon their consciousness
that no matter how long they might
struggle and however they might go
through the winter without food, heat,
Continued on page 3)