USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I > Part 68
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CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
matters of individual determination. It proposed to con- trol and direct manufacturers, jobbers,' retailers, and producers of all kinds of food, and it is not surprising that people did not like the curtailment of liberty of action which had always been enjoyed.
Rev. Dr. Alfred E. Randell, one of the members of the City Food Council of Jamestown, was made director of publicity of the local Food Administration. Dr. Ran- dell is pastor of the First Congregational Church of Jamestown. He is a preacher of rare power, ability, and accomplishments. Though born in England, his Ameri- canism and his love for and devotion to our institu- tions placed him in the first rank of those who sub- ordinated personal interests and convenience to the wel- fare of the country. His eloquent appeals to the pa- triotic impulses of the people were delivered from many platforms. His incisive and powerful addresses, pre- pared each week for the local Food Administration, did much to inspire and promote the co-operation and unity of action among the people of the county.
The first publicity feature inaugurated locally was a weekly letter sent out under the name of the County Food Administrator to every clergyman in the county of Chautauqua, to be read at the Sunday service in the various churches. The request made upon the clergy for their aid in this respect was met with a most cordial response, and with very few exceptions every clergyman in the county read from his pulpit every Sunday the appeal of the Food Administration for the aid and co-operation of the people. The newspapers of the county, without exception, gave generously of their space to the promotion of our work and met every request for publicity. The splendid work of the press and the clergy in disseminating information and educa- tional propaganda added very materially to the success of the work of the Food Administration. The attitude of the public, at first distinctly antagonistic, soon dis- played a radical change, and after the first few weeks the Food Administration had the earnest and cordial support of most of the people of Chautauqua county. Publicity was also obtained through communications to the fraternal orders, to the schools, and in public meetings held at various points. Mr. Fred J. Lowell, the master of Pomona Grange, was a member of the County Food Council, and played a conspicuous part in the work in carrying to the members of the Grange information regarding the necessity of intensified food production as well as of food conservation. As a result of the splendid cooperation of the farmers it has been estimated that Chautauqua county in the year 1918 pro- duced twenty times more wheat than in any previous year in its history, and this in the face of difficulties and obstacles greater than the farmer had ever before known. The production of other articles of food was also greatly increased.
Dr. R. R. Rogers, then and for many years thereto- fore superintendent of the Jamestown schools and known throughout the State as an educator of great ability, was in charge of the publicity carried on through- out the schools of the county. An acknowledgment of the cooperation of the district superintendents of the schools of Chautauqua county should be made. Their aid and support was of great assistance.
Another prime essential was the cooperation of job- bers and retailers in food stuffs and those dealing in stock feeds. These concerns forgot their personal in- terests ; they rallied to the standard; they devoted them- selves to humanity's cause and gave devoted support to the important work at hand.
A feature of the Food Administration with which the public became very familiar was that of restricting the
character of food to be used, and the enforcement of the rules which were from time to time promulgated. It was very soon apparent that the American people would be compelled to effect extensive saving of certain food staples such as wheat, sugar, meat, butter, and other articles, These articles were the ones chiefly required to supply our armies and the allied soldiers and their people.
The question of supplying bread stuffs was the most serious. While vast amounts of grain were produced in South America, Australia, and other parts of the world, the shipping between these countries and Euro- pean and American ports was almost wholly absorbed by munitions and the transportation of troops, and consequently there were no facilities for conveying food stuffs from those distant points. Therefore the re- sponsibility of supplying Europe with wheat fell almost wholly upon the United States. It followed that the American people would have to limit their consumption of this essential article and substitute the product of other grains, so far as possible, in their diet.
We were frequently asked why the so-called substitute flours-rye, oatmeal, potato, and other grain flours- could not be shipped to the Europeans and an added amount of wheat reserved for our use. That question will occur to many people in the future, as it did to large numbers during the war. The answer is, briefly, that first, the Europeans were not accustomed to the substitute grains; they had not been educated in their preparation, and were not possessed of facilities for grinding, and since much of the substitute grain flour does not keep well after grinding, these substitutes could not be shipped abroad except in the whole grain. Second, there was a psychological feature involved, particularly in the case of the French people. The Frenchman re- quires wheat bread. It has always formed a very large percentage of his diet. His morale could not be main- tained without it, although he might be deprived of practically every other article of food without sub- stantially diminishing his efficiency. Therefore it was deemed important to supply the fighting forces with the kind of food to which they had been accustomed, and in ample quantities.
The war was marked by such ferocity and terrors, due to the fiendish and horrible methods and machinery of destruction devised, that difficulty was experienced, even under the most favorable conditions, in preserving that spirit and morale which was necessary, not only among the fighting units, but among the supporting people as well. Physical and mental exhaustion of the people of the allied countries was a factor to claim the most seri- ous consideration of the American authorities, and there were many times during the great conflict when it was feared that the strain could not longer be endured.
The appeals for conservation did not accomplish the results which were desired. Many thousands of people, it is true, readily observed the requests which the gov- ernment made in this respect. Many more, however, through indifference, selfishness, or a lack of under- standing of the crisis through which we were passing, failed to conform to the conservation program which was put forth. It was therefore necessary to take a further step.
A definite rule was made in the case of wheat flour, that twenty-five per cent. (later increased to fifty per cent.) of wheat substitutes, such as cornmeal, oatmeal and other grain flours, must be used. That rule was observed by only a portion of the people. The next step was a re- striction upon sales, to the effect that the required amount of substitutes would have to be sold with every order of wheat product. It was unfair to the large
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U. S. FOOD ADMINISTRATOR-CITY ORGANIZATION, JAMESTOWN
1-C. A. Pickard, Chautauqua County Food Adminis- 9 trator.
Mrs. Alice I. Moynihan. Secretary and Deputy. Axel C. Johnson, Jamestown, N. Y.
4 George F. Clark, Jamestown, N. Y.
13-Prof. Wm. A. Torrance, Jamestown, N. Y.
5
Edith Farman, Jamestown, NY
6 Rev. Dr. A. E. Randall, Jamestown. N. Y.
7- -Theo. E. Hopkins, Jamestown, N Y.
0. N. Barger, Jamestown, N. Y.
Frank A. Wilcox, Jamestown, N. Y.
10-Carl O. Wood, Jamestown, N. Y.
11 Rev. Felix V. Hansen, Jamestown, N. Y.
12 Benj. H. Gardner, Jamestown. N. Y.
14 Michael Ferrara, Jamestown, N. Y.
15 George A. Harris, Jamestown, N. Y.
16-D G. Ogilvie, Jamestown, N Y.
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UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRATION IN CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY
body of people who voluntarily met every requirement to have others in the same community living bounti- fully as in times of peace.
The law creating the Food Administration did not confer the power of direct enforcement against the in- dividual. Enforcement, however, was necessary if the food stuffs required were to be provided. The means of enforcement centered largely in the power of licens- ing manufacturers and dealers as provided for in the Lever Act. It was necessary for every jobber in food products to possess a Food Administration license to transact business. This also applied to bakers and vari- ous manufacturers of and dealers in food stuffs. The retail grocer was prohibited from selling any wheat flour without at the same time selling to the same customer the required amount of wheat substitutes. The re-
tailer was not required to have a license. But if he were detected in a violation of a rule of the Food Ad- ministration, he was summoned to appear before the Food Administrator. He was given a fair hearing; if found guilty, he was requested to donate to some of the organizations, engaged in war work, a designated sum, and in some cases his place of business was ordered closed for a definite time with a placard upon his door indicating the cause of his temporary suspension of busi- ness. There was no power residing in the Food Ad- ministration to enforce these decrees. The individual charged could have successfully resisted them. Re- sistance, however, meant a great calamity to the of- fender, for upon a refusal to comply with the request of the Food Administrator, the wholesaler from whom he procured his supplies would have been notified at once to cease selling to him, and in case of his (the wholesaler's) disobedience, his license would have been revoked and he would have been put out of business for the term of the war, or for such a period as the Food Administrator would have determined to be a suitable punishment for the offense. By that means the Food Administrator possessed the power to put the retailer out of business, and therefore during the life of the Food Administration there was no case in Chautauqua county of the refusal of any offender to respond to the edicts of the Food Administrator. There were pro- visions with drastic penalties against hoarding, and these applied to all. The Food Administration, by authority of the President, promulgated rules from time to time as to the quantity of food commodities which an in- dividual could at any time have on hand. Such rules were also made as to manufacturers of various foods. Hotels and eating houses required licenses to prosecute their business, and their regulation was therefore com- paratively easy, as recourse could have been had directly to the revocation of the licenses which they held. That branch of business, therefore, submitted most grace- fully to whatever penalties were invited from them for such infractions of the rules as they were found guilty of.
At the outset, the fear of a food shortage, particularly in flour and sugar, led a great many people to secure considerable supplies against a time of need. A large number of very honorable, patriotic people pursued that course. Upon the organization of the Food Administra- tion, requests were made through the press to all people who had provided stocks of flour and sugar beyond their immediate needs, to surrender them so that an equitable distribution might be made among all of the people. These requests were repeated from day to day. There was a very limited response to these appeals. Informa- tion concerning the hoarding of flour and sugar came constantly to the office of the Food Administrator. In- dividuals who were observing the law and the rules
were irritated by the fact that some of their neighbors were highly stocked with flour and sugar. It was in- teresting to find that almost every person who had in- dulged in these accumulations had betrayed the fact to one or more friends, and of course it was then a secret no longer. Finally, discouraged by the lack of a re- sponse to the appeal for the surrender of hoarded stocks, the Food Administrator, in wide-spread publicity through the newspapers, announced that the laws upon the subject of hoarding provided severe penalties, a heavy fine and imprisonment, and that all persons hoard- ing sugar or flour were given a last opportunity of sur- rendering these surplus stocks, and in the event of their failure to do so the law would be vigorously and im- partially applied. The morning following this announce- inent there was almost a stampede of people with stocks of flour and sugar which had been accumulated. These stocks were sold to retail dealers, and were a very sub- stantial addition to the supplies required by the people of the various communities.
The conservation of wheat required the imposition of regulations as to the use of wheat flour by bakers. They were directed to use a percentage of wheat sub- stitutes in bread, cakes, and other foods in which wheat flour was commonly used. To insure adherence to the rules every baker was required to make reports to the County Food Administrator cach week. Those re- ports included purchases of flour and of substitutes and the amounts of each which were used. These reports had to be checked in the office of the County Food Ad- ministrator to determine if the proper percentage of wheat substitutes had been actually used in the prepara- tion of their goods. Investigations were made at times of various baking establishments, particularly those which seemed to produce bread of a higher quality than would be expected if the required amount of substitutes were utilized. A few were detected in cvasions of the law and were penalized. In one case the infractions were so flagrant that a large money penalty was in- flicted, and in addition the bakery, which was a large concern, was closed for a period of three weeks.
The County Food Administrator received very valu- able assistance in his administration in connection with the bakers, from Mr. George F. Clark, president of the Clark Baking Company of Jamestown, the largest in- stitution of its kind in the county. Mr. Clark has at- tained a prominent place in that business, is a man of large experience, is thoroughly patriotic, and his aid and counsel were invaluable. By reason of Mr. Clark's prominence in his field of activity, his counsel was sought by the State Food Administrator and the Fed- eral Food Board. He was designated Chairman, State Service Committee of the Baking Industry, of a large territory, and rendered most important service to the government in that field.
Restrictions were placed upon the use of butter and meats. These were only enforced, however, in hotels and other eating places. The families were requested as a patriotic measure to observe "meatless days" as well as "wheatless days," and the request was generally complied with. In the case of public eating houses these rules were rigidly enforced.
The public in general read from time to time of penalties imposed upon hotels and restaurants for in- fractions of the rules, but they did not learn of the other side of the story. It was not known that we assisted in the preparation of their menus; that appeals were made to us to aid in securing the necessary sup- plies to which they were properly entitled, and that many problems affecting the rules applicable to public eating houses had to be worked out.
304
CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
While a large amount of work on the part of the Food Administration was applied to regulatory measures, yet those activities of the administration having to do with the conservation program, the education of the people in food values, the preparation of foods by preserving carried on in what were called the canning centers, the education of the people in various ways in the use of substitutes and their values, the assistance in procuring the various essentials used in producing and manufac- turing foods, the inspiring of increased production of wheat and other farm products, the promotion of the production of maple syrup to be used as a substitute for sugar, the affecting of an equitable distribution of food essentials among the dealers and the public, and vari- ous other activities of a similar character were the most important features of our work.
Speak to almost any citizen of the activities of the Food Administration, and the almost instant response will be something upon the subject of sugar. It was the shortage and rationing in connection with sugar that attracted the greatest public attention and discussion. The sugar shortage had begun before the Food Ad- ministration was organized. The shortage became acute early in the year 1918, and it presented problems of the most complex character to those having in charge the regulation of the distribution of that important food element.
The United States produces a small percentage of the world's supply of sugar, which is insufficient for even its own requirements. Cuba produces a much larger amount. Much sugar is produced in Java and other portions of the Far East, and considerable quantities are produced in Europe from the sugar beet. Because of the interruption of ocean traffic, importation of sugar from the Far East was entirely stopped. The production of sugar in Europe was very largely cut off. The burden of furnishing a sufficient amount of this com- modity to serve the most of the world fell upon the United States and Cuba. It was a matter of prime importance that the armies be furnished an adequate sugar ration, although unfortunately that was not always accomplished. It was apparent that the consumption by the civilian population of the United States must be substantially reduced if the armies were to be given an approximately essential amount of sugar.
Various plans looking to the curtailment of sugar consumption in this country were put into operation. Appeals were made to the people through the news- papers, public meetings, the churches, and otherwise, without obtaining the results which were sought. Rules were promulgated, at first limiting the amount which any individual could purchase to five pounds, and efforts were made to thwart the tendency toward hoard- ing which was prevalent. Soon the individual pur- chases were reduced to two pounds, and grocers were given definite instructions as to keeping records of their sales, with the idea of preventing the citizens, so far as possible, from repeating their purchases too fre- quently. All of these plans failed in accomplishing the necessary results. A plan was finally evolved by which sugar was rationed to both the wholesalers and retailers. The retailers were compelled to submit applications for sugar certificates which would indicate the amount of their normal sugar sales, and from that the Sugar Division of the New York Federal Food Board would compute upon a percentage basis the amount to which the retailer was entitled under the regulation seeking the curtailment of consumption. Sugar certificates were thereupon issued to the retailer monthly. He could buy no sugar from the jobber except upon the presentation of sugar certificates covering the amount of his order.
The jobber, on the other hand, was compelled to fur- nish these certificates to the sugar refining companies in order to secure his supply.
The difficulty with the last plan, however, was that many retailers exaggerated the amount of their normal sales. It was frequently found that some very small obscure grocer, with a very limited trade, would have several times as much sugar as the large grocery store with an extensive patronage. As a consequence it be- came necessary for the Food Administrator to in- vestigate large numbers of dealers and make thorough examinations as to the extent of business done, in an effort to arrive at an approximately fair and reasonable figure concerning the amount of sugar to which the retailers were entitled under the restrictions which had been imposed. The sugar certificates for the dealers throughout the county were supplied by the Sugar Division of the Federal Food Board to the County Food Administrator, who in turn furnished them to the retail dealer. The Food Administrator, through the sources of information open to him, was privileged to curtail, or, with the approval of the Sugar Division, in- crease the amounts of sugar to the retailer as the facts warranted, and the problems and difficulties in that field were obviously enormous. This plan did not work with entire satisfaction. While it succeeded in regulating the amount of sugar consumed, it did not realize an equitable distribution among the people. Some citizens, unmindful of their duties and obligations in support of the nations at war with the enemies of civilization, would duplicate purchases in various stores, notwith- standing the positive regulation of three pounds per month per person (later reduced to two pounds per month per person), so that a part of the people had secured ample supplies of sugar, and others were unable to get even the meager allowance per month which the rules permitted. The amount of sugar al- lotted to a county, not including sugar for manufactur- ing purposes, was based upon the two pound per capita consumption, so that where considerable numbers of people procured an excess amount, others were com- pelled to submit to a corresponding shortage.
It seemed to be, and it was, a serious injustice to that element of our population who conformed strictly to every rule that was made, that they should be de- prived of their proper ration while others were getting more than their allowance. In consequence of the mani- fest injustice in that situation, the County Food Ad- ministrator of Chautauqua County inaugurated the plan of the distribution of sugar by means of sugar cards. The consent of the superior authorities could not be obtained, but it was finally indicated that no interference would be made with it, and therefore in the summer of 1918 the card system was put into effect. It entailed a vast amount of labor. The city of Jamestown has a population of 40,000. Many clerks were busy for many days in issuing the consumers' cards. One card was issued to the head of each household, and that card entitled the holder to purchase sugar weekly on the basis of two pounds per month per member of the household. In the smaller communities the cards were issued by the dealers, who were required to report to the Food Administrator, who made duplicate cards which were furnished the County Food Administrator in whose office they were duly tabulated and indexed. In the city of Dunkirk, as in Jamestown, the cards were issued from a central point, in each place the Thrift Kitchen.
The consumer was compelled to present the card to his grocer when purchasing sugar, and the amount pur- chased (which had to be limited to the amount to which the holder was entitled) was punched in the margin
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UNITED STATES FOOD ADMINISTRATION IN CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY
of the card so that each dealer to whom the card was presented could readily ascertain from the punch marks whether the holder was entitled to the amount he re- quested. The tabulating and indexing of the sugar cards was done in the office of the County Food Ad- ministrator by a force of volunteer women under the direction of Miss M. May Briggs, of the city of James- town. It was an arduous task but was accomplished most efficiently.
There were some abuses under the card system. Some people misrepresented the number in their household. Many such cases were investigated, and in some flagrant cases sugar cards were taken up and the holder deprived of any supply. On the whole, however, the plan worked with entire satisfaction, not only to the public, but to the retailer who theretofore had been greatly em- barrassed and annoyed by the importunities of people wanting sugar in excess of the amount provided by the rules. The card system generally effected a fair and equitable distribution, and it was subsequently adopted by a large majority of the Food Administrators in the State of New York as well as in many counties in other States.
The card system could not be applied to hotels and eating houses. Regulation of these places was effected by means of reports showing the number of meals served, and a rule providing that the ration for each customer be put into an envelope and that the use of sugar bowls be discontinued.
Two pounds per person per month is of course very much less than the normal consumption of sugar in American families. It was looked upon as a serious hardship by a great many people. Many substitutes, however, were available, and there was quickly developed a market for glucose and other corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, etc., which furnished the sweetening re- quired for cakes, pies, and various other foods.
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