The crowning success of the whole British Supply system during the World War is undoubtedly the fact that not only were the troops, in spite of their great number, the best fed that the world has ever seen, but from a cost point of view possibly the cheapest fed, considering the enormously inflated world prices; and throughout the whole course of the war, for the first time in British military history, there was a complete absence even of rumours of corruption in connexion with the feeding of the army.
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United States
Upon its entry into the World War, the U.S. Government was confronted with the fact that the previous heavy demands upon the country's markets had drained the grain reserves and diminished other important basic stocks, such as the number of breeding hogs. This situation was aggravated by the fact that the 1917 wheat harvest was far below normal and the corn crop failed to mature properly. The Government therefore found food control one of the first of its war problems. This control required measures which, without unduly disturbing the normal economic conditions within the country, would (1) increase American exports, particularly of breadstuffs, meats, fats and sugar; (2) maintain such stability in prices as would encourage the domestic producer and thus increase production, while protecting domestic consumers against speculation and profiteering; (3) regulate the distribution of food exports and imports so that only the necessary minimum should go to neutrals, that the maximum should be properly divided among the Allies, and that leakage to the enemy should be prevented; (4) enable the Government to regulate buying in the home markets so as to further all these policies.
The Government Agency for Food Control.—To give the executive branch of the Government the necessary powers, Congress passed as war measures the Embargo Acts (June 15 1917 and Oct. 6 1917), the Food Control or Lever Act (Aug. 10 1917) and the Food Survey Act (Aug. 10 1917). The Embargo Acts gave control over imports and exports, with power to license and fully regulate export and import operations. The Food Survey Act gave additional powers to the Department of Agriculture to enable it more effectively to assist the farmers.
The Lever or Food Control Act conferred upon the President the following powers:—(1) To license those engaged in the importation, manufacture, storage or distribution of foods or feeds, and to issue rules and regulations governing such licensees (retailers doing less than $100,000 business annually being especially exempted from this provision); (2) to buy and sell wheat, flour, meal, beans and potatoes; (3) to requisition foods and feeds for the army and navy and for public uses connected with the common defence; and (4) to create agencies for carrying out the purposes of the Act. The Act also prohibited under severe penalties the hoarding of foods and feeds, or their destruction for the purpose of enhancing their price, or conspiracy for that purpose. Other practices such as making excessive charges for foods or services in connexion with foods were made unlawful, but no penalty was provided. The Act gave no powers for price-fixing, but Congress itself fixed a minimum price of $2.00 per bus. for the 1918 crop of wheat, and gave the President power to fix minimum prices for subsequent wheat crops.
By executive order of Aug. 10 1917, the President created a governmental agency designated the U.S. Food Administration. This order appointed Herbert Hoover, food administrator, and delegated to him the powers granted to the President by the Food Control Act. Mr. Hoover, since the outbreak of the war in Europe, had been chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, where he had demonstrated his ability as an economist and organizer and gained unrivalled experience in war-time food problems. The Government had called him home soon after the United States entered the war in order that he might give his advice as to the measures to be taken.
The Food Administration had thus become, by Act of Congress and executive order, the special war agency of the Government for food control. Although it worked in coöperation with the Department of Agriculture, it was a distinct agency, and the food administrator was responsible directly to the President. Because it was a war emergency agency, the food administrator could arrange that those who were associated with him in the direction of the work should, like himself, serve without compensation. As volunteers they could without reservation seek the voluntary coöperation of households, farmers and the food trades, and upon such coöperation the achievements of the food administration were principally based.
With the approval of the governor a federal food administrator was appointed in each state and territory, and he, in turn, selected a local administrator in every county and large city. In all, some 8,000 volunteers gave their whole time to the work of the Administration, and part-time service was given by some 750,000 members of the various committees, chiefly women. About 3,000 persons, chiefly clerks, received salaries. Two great governmental corporations were also created to assist the Food Administration. The first of these was the Food Administration Grain Corp. (which after July 1 1919 became the U.S. Grain Corp.), which eventually was given a capital of $150,000,000. This corporation acted as the buying and selling agency for the Government chiefly in the matter of wheat control, though it dealt to some extent in practically all the commodities in which the Government was authorized to deal by the Lever Act. The other corporation was the Sugar Equalization Board, capitalized at $5,000,000, and authorized to coöperate with the Allies in the purchase of sugar. It was through the Sugar Equalization Hoard that the distribution of the 1918 and 1919 sugar crops was controlled.
Food Conservation.—The problem of increasing American exports involved the reduction of both the waste and the consumption of all commodities, and the substitution at home of certain surplus commodities for those particularly required abroad. This was the basis of the appeals for food conservation, which became the most familiar incident of food control. The European Governments had adopted rationing (see Rationing) as the basis of food conservation. Mr. Hoover and his associates, however, relied chiefly upon the spirit of self-sacrifice of the American people for this war service, and in America conservation was achieved mainly by the voluntary action of individual citizens, stimulated and directed principally by influential women who volunteered their services. With the coöperation of the entire press, an intense educational and patriotic appeal for conservation was made throughout the country. Days which became popularly known as “less” days were established. One day of the week was designated by the Food Administration as that on which a certain important food should not be served or eaten; for example, there was in each week a meatless day, a porkless day, and more than one wheatless day, and these were almost religiously observed by practically the whole population as a patriotic duty. So effectively was conservation impressed upon the public mind that a new verb, “to hooverize,” came into common use to describe food saving, and was soon used to designate saving in other commodities as well.
The most effective measure for securing national observance with uniform and definite rules for saving was the pledging of housewives, hotel and restaurant keepers, and retail dealers to the voluntary observance of “less” days and other standardized methods of saving. As a result of campaigns for signed pledges, some 14,000,000 families, 7,000 hotels and public eating-places, and 425,000 retail dealers were enrolled in the United States as definitely pledged to the observance of the food conservation programme. Retail dealers in food were eventually required to limit their sale of wheat flour and to require the purchase of a certain specified proportion of substitutes as an accompaniment of every purchase of wheat flour. Wasteful commercial and industrial practices such as faulty loading of railroad cars with perishable foods and the acceptance by bakers of bread returned when stale were prohibited.
In the Lever Act, Congress provided that after Sept. 10 1917, foods, fruits, food materials or feeds should not be used in the production of distilled liquors, and further gave the President power to prohibit the use of these materials in the production of malt or vinous liquors when he should determine a necessity therefor existed. On Dec. 10 1917, the President issued a proclamation limiting the consumption of foodstuffs by brewers in the production of malt liquors to 70% of their consumption in the year 1917. Maltsters and near-beer manufacturers were also licensed and subjected to rules limiting their use of grain. In Sept. 1918, the grain supply outlook called for further restriction on consumption and on Sept. 16 1918, the President issued a proclamation prohibiting the use after Oct. 1 1918, of any food or feed, except malt already manufactured, in the production of malt liquor, including near-beer. This proclamation brought into operation full restrictions against the use of food-stuffs in the production of any distilled or malt liquor. Since these were measures taken for the conservation of food-stuffs only, they did not, however, prohibit the sale of intoxicating beverages, although a “War Time Prohibition Act,” passed by Congress Nov. 21 1918, did provide for
