USA > Wisconsin > Racine County > Racine county in the world war > Part 16
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Twenty thousand pamphlets and bulletins were distributed to interest women. This liter- ature was obtained by Miss Helen Gorton of the Public Library, who acted as librarian for this department of the Food Administration.
Three Conservation shows were held, at which the fruits and vegetables canned by the High School and Vocational School stu- dents were sold. Demonstrations of economi- cal dishes were given by women of various nationalities, such as how to make Bohemian breads, eighty ways of preparing Italian spaghetti, etc., as well as demonstrations of wheatless breads and sugarless cakes.
Prizes were given for best assortment of canned vegetables, fruits and juices.
Invaluable service was rendered by the Girls' Motor Corps of the Woman's Commit- tee, carrying baskets of materials, demonstra- tors and bulletins to their destinations. The honorary member, Edward Stormer, 12 years
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Photos by Billings
Top Row-Frank Hensman, Paul Johnson, Edward Javne, Joe Wilfer, G. M. Hixon, Lee Homan, E. Elliott. Second-E. O. Sorensen, Peter Krogh, Geo. Porter, C. M. Cain, Arthur Zratzky, Sidney Wright, John Christensen. Third-Adolph Tandrup, Roy Howarth, Harold Brown. C. Anderson, M. F. Sorenson, Anthony Marsch, Peter Skandor. Fourth-Peter Mickelsen, John Usik. Howard Sumpter, Joe Jirush, Joe Garbo, P. W. Paulson, Wm. K. Alcorn. Fifth-Fred DeBroder, I. L. Pratt, John Skriver, A. J. Rowley, W. J. Nissen, Wm. Weyres, Geo. Sorenson. Bottom-Walter Butzine, G. Micheloni, E. Sargen, A. E. Nielsen, S. Hughes, E. F. Schowalter, W. C. Peterson.
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old, drove 5,000 miles while helping in this work.
The sugar deputies were selected by the Woman's Committee, and their names appeal in the chapter devoted to that organization. Mrs. E. J. Stormer was chairman of the Home Economies division and as such had charge of the important work of planning for co-opera- tion between the public and the Food Adminis- tration.
By July, 1918, most of the rulings of the Food Administration had become thoroughly understood by all, but there was a great amount of detail work in connection with the County Administrator's office. To take care of the many questions coming up, Mr. Harvey appointed Walter Uebele and Walter Keebler deputies for Burlington, and John Gittings and A. S. Titus for Union Grove and Water- ford, respectively. Miss Louise Bolton volun- teered her services in the main office, and she assisted Mr. and Mrs. Harvey for the remain- der of the year. Mr. Harvey had turned one of the rooms in his residence into an office, and from 6 o'clock in the morning until 9 or 10 o'clock at night there was an almost endless series of visitors and telephone requests for information and instructions. The correspond- ence alone occupied several hours of the day for Mrs. Harvey and Miss Bolton.
The requirement that a merchant must show his record of sugar purchases for the previous year before he could buy his supply for 1918 caused much excitement for it developed that many of the smaller storekeepers had kept no records. They were in the habit of buying a few bags as they needed them, paying cash and destroying the receipt. Mr. Harvey had to use his judgment regarding the amount re- quired by them.
The deputies had many funny experiences. One had had to give a bit of a lecture to a woman who had declined to hang a food pledge window insignia in the window, be- cause she thought it was not an artistic deco- ration. She was given one of these as well as the card of instruction to hang in the kitchen and told that the government wanted all patriotic women to display the emblem. She agreed. A few days later the deputy was standing in front of the house, which was on a corner, and noticed that both the emblem and the kitchen card were in the front win- dow. The deputy had been waiting for a friend, and when the latter caught up they walked around the corner. To her surprise she saw the two cards in the side window. Her curiosity was aroused sufficiently so that she
went back after a few minutes, and found that the front window was empty. Apparently the lady of the house had wanted to be sure that the deputy knew she was obeying the letter of the law, if not its spirit.
The canning-sugar regulations caused a great deal of labor in the food administrator's office. Record was kept of the names of all purchasers of sugar, together with the amounts received. There were many thousands of these cards. Several school teachers donated their time in spare hours to help keep these ac- counts. They were the only means possible for finding "repeaters."
One housewife applied for a third 25-lb. lot of sugar. The sugar deputy thought that the numher of glasses of jelly reported as made ought to be enough for the winter. The ap- plicant appealed to Mr. Harvey, who said that he agreed with the deputy.
"You can't eat more than that amount of jelly," he said. "That should last all winter." "All winter!" she exclaimed. "Why it's al- most all gone now. We like it fresh!"
She then learned to her surprise that the sugar rationing was not for the purpose of providing tempting morsels at the time, but to aid in preserving the food supply until later.
As a rule, the poorer families and the for- eign element of the population caused but little trouble and obeyed the regulations without a murmur. Most of the violations were the acts of owners of automobiles, who could go from store to store and even town to town and establish their trade sufficiently to get a few extra pounds of sugar. One family was shown to be buying sugar in three counties-Racine, Walworth and Kenosha. When the three County Food Administrators got on their trail it proved to be pretty expensive sugar.
A woman who was quite prominent in war work was found to be buying sugar from a store, although she boarded out. A letter was sent to her asking that she call at Mr. Har- vey's office. She ignored it. A few days later Mrs. Harvey was surprised to see her come briskly up to the door and knock. Upon being admitted, she said she was soliciting funds for some patriotic scheme and wanted a dona- tion for the cause. Mrs. Harvey said, "I will speak to Mr. Harvey." The visitor gasped and said, "Does Mr. Harvey live here ? 0h I thought this was someone else's house." And she beat a hasty retreat. A second letter mailed that day brought her to the office again, when she reluctantly admitted that she had been getting extra sugar to carry to the
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Photos by Grant-Leonard-Billings
Top Row-Wm. Juranck, Norman Anderson, Frank Speiker, Henry Vandermeier, David Stone, Jas. Clausen, E. Giordano. Second-John Tauskela, Harvey Mattery, G. A. Case, J. N. O'Brien, W. F. Richow, Joe Holy, Earl Harding. Third-G. W. Jones, Geo. Smollen, Eugene Morelle, Joseph Kubek, C. P. Nelson, Percy De Brier, Anthony Shinski. Fourth-C. H. Ouimette. G. A. Dase, P. Szimanski, M. Ohly, F. C. Fisher, E. Breckenfield, John Scholzen. Fifth-J. A. Forsman, Clar. Wagner, G. Deshais, L. J. Cisco, Martin Nelson. C. O. Schimelpfenig, Wm. Jensen. Bottom-A. B. Quella, C. B. Klippel, G. F. Mrotek, T. W. Harris, G. F. Erbe, Paul Palazzo, Harold Van Bree.
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boarding house table, as she and her husband liked plenty of it with their meals. She later contributed the value of the sugar to the Red Cross, by request.
A baker whose report showed that he had not been using the proper amounts of substi- tutes for flour was asked for an explanation. He sent by mail a statement that the recipe he had would not make bread, and enclosed as evidence a loaf so hard that it could not be nicked with a butcher knife. He said he had tried to feed it to his chickens, but they could get no nourishment from that batch of bread. Mr. Harvey found a new formula for him which produced a more edible form of bread and pardoned the first offense.
The Home Economics department of the Woman's Committee gave valuable assistance to the Food Administration. Mrs. E. E. Storm- er was chairman, and the advisory committee was composed of Mrs. Stormer, Mrs. John F. Clancy and Mrs. H. M. Wallis. A group of members, consisting of Mrs. Anna Prostrednik, Mrs. Raffoni, Mrs. Polk, Mrs. Harry Mann, Mrs. Bullis and Mrs. Zagora volunteered to demonstrate a number of economical foreign dishes at the domestic science kitchens of the schools. They accomplished such feats as pre- paring macaroni in eighty different ways; serving burdock stems so that they resembled asparagus; baking Bohemian bread, etc. In Octoher, 1917, a War Garden exhibit was held at the Commercial club rooms under direction of the Council of Defense. Mrs. Claney had charge of the daily cooking demonstrations there. Among the exhibits at that show was a single barrel filled with earth in which nearly a bushel of potatoes had been pro- duced.
There were numerous women volunteers who went wherever asked to demonstrate the use of wheat substitutes. Among these were Mrs. Angus R. Callender, Mrs. Edward Hoernel, Mrs. Louis Hahn, Mrs. George Kettelson, Mrs. George Lynch, Mrs. F. B. Stafford, Mrs. F. A. Kamerer, Miss Angela Hegner, Mrs. H. J. Cad- well, Mrs. P. H. Connolly, Miss Margaret Ro- han and Mrs. A. G. Miller.
A woman who had been watching a demon- strator in a downtown store was much inter- ested and said she would like to do that work. She was told to get in touch with Mrs. Storm- er, who told her where she could take a week's course of intensive training. She did this, and provided herself with the uniform apron used by demonstrators, and then at her request was told where to go to address a meeting the next day. At that point she asked about the amount
of salary paid. She was told that this was all volunteer work.
"Good night!" she exclaimed. "Do you think I am going to do this kind of work for noth- ing ?" And she swept out of the place while the other volunteers looked on in astonishment. The instructors had taken it for granted that she understood the situation and were as much surprised as she was at the climax.
Women who were skillful cooks cheerfully gave their services as instructors in preparing and preserving foodstuffs. Teachers in do- mestie science were especially in demand and most of them devoted all their spare hours to this task. Miss Alice Brown of the staff of the County Agricultural school at Rochester was one of the most active of these, and trav- elled from one end of the county to the other for many weeks, demonstrating the "cold pack" method of preserving, and other devices for canning food cheaply and effectively.
Never in all history was so much canning done in any country. Every fruit and vege- table not required for table use was "put down" for the winter. If sugar was not available for making jelly, the fruit juice was kept in air- tight jars until the sugar could be obtained. Sweet corn was parched. String beans and beets were canned by the bushel in most homes. Root cellars were constructed and used. Stated briefly, each household tried to put itself upon a basis which would not re- quire the purchase of canned goods imported from other parts of the country. The wild nut crops were carefully saved. Pumpkins were not used for Hallowe'en celebrations. Home grown apples replaced fancy southern and imported fruits. Public markets were es- tablished to enable farmers to dispose quickly of their products, and housewives to obtain them while they were still in first-class condi- tion.
Besides raising some wheat, every farmer was asked to raise some sugar beets to help reduce the sugar shortage. Every foot of till- able land was expected to be used to produce food or forage.
It was the custom of Mr. Harvey, the County Food Administrator, to provide the newspa- pers every day with a list of fair prices for staple products, and it was urged that all citi- zens refuse to pay more than these amounts. Examination of these shows that despite the shortage of food throughout the world, the prices in Racine during the war were main- tained at much lower figures than in the period following the signing of the armistice. The following is the price list published on April
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Photos by Billings-Leonard-Hood
Top Row-John Korosos, Harry Johnson, C. J. Hille, W. S. Taylor, Wm. J. Clemens, Alfred Bohn. Second-E. F. Johns, Leo Hollmaier, Rube Duda, Leo Krebs, A. D. Jepeway, Frank Davies. Third-A. N. Johnson, Herbert Haudek, E. F. Behrend, Clarence J. Jensen, Theo. Christiansen, Curtis Hall. Fourth-C. Bellaire, M. Selbach, John Baker, Getmer Weiter, Christopher Pugh, R. L. Fiedler. Fifth-David Chandler, R. C. Jennings, Marius Jensen, A. Laatz, Leo Scholzen, Geo. Admadt. Bottom-R. B. Allen, Harold Johnson, R. A. DeMint. John Proost, Fred Thomas, Ingo A. Rickeman.
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23, 1918, when the situation was more grave than at almost any other time:
EGGS
Strictly Fresh 37-40c per dozen
HAMS
Whole
.32-36c per lb.
Sliced .
40-50c per lb.
BACON
Whole Pieces 35-50c per lb.
Sliced 40-55c per lb.
LARD
Best Kettle Rendered
In cartons 31-34c per lb. Standard Pure
In bulk . 30-32c per lb.
Substitutes
In bulk 26-28c per lb.
BUTTER
Creamery . 44-48c per lb.
Brick 46-49c per lb.
OLEOMARGARINE
Standard Grades
In cartons
_32-35c per lb.
In rolls 26-30c per lb.
PEANUT BUTTER
In bulk 25-30c per lb.
MILK
Evaporated (Unsweetened)
7- 8c per can
Condensed (Sweetened) 14-15c per can
CHEESE
Brick
27-33c per lb.
American
30-36c per lb.
POTATOES
No. 1 White 11/2-2c per lb.
RICE
Fancy Head
13-14c per lb.
Blue Rose 10-12c per lb.
BEANS
Navy, Hand Picked 17-20c per lb.
Lima
19-20c per lb.
SUGAR
Granulated in bulk
9c per lb.
FLOUR
Wheat 1 /8 bbl. 1.50-1.60
Graham
In 5 lb. bag's Te per lb.
Rye
In 5 lb. bags 8- 9c per lb.
Barley
In 5 lb. bags 7- 8c per lb.
CORNMEAL
Bulk
8c per lb.
OATMEAL
Bulk 7- 9c per lb.
All hotels and restaurants co-operated with the Food Administration and although it was feared at first that measures might have to be adopted to force compliance with the rules, experience showed that public eating houses actually met the requirements of the govern- ment more promptly than many private citi- zens. The fact that they did so was of great assistance to the Food Administration and not only helped to advertise the regulations re- garding food but prevented people from evad- ing the rules meant for homes by going to restaurants to cat. It probably will prove of interest to people of future generations to read one of the summaries of general orders issued to restaurants, and carried out by them to the letter:
"For the purpose of the following general orders, public eating-places shall be defined to include all hotels, restaurants, boarding houses, clubs, dining cars, and steamships and all places where cooked food is sold to be con- sumed on the premises.
"The following general orders have been issued by the United States Food Administra- tion governing the operations of all such public eating-places, these orders to be effective Oc- tober 21, 1917. It has not been deemed advis- able or necessary at the present time actually to license the operation of such public eating- places, but in cases where the patriotic co-op- eration of such public eating-places can not be secured by other means, the United States Food Administration will not hesitate to se- cure compliance with its orders through its control of the distribution of sugar, flour and other food supplies.
"A failure to conform to any of the follow- ing orders will be regarded as a wasteful prac- tice forbidden by Section Four of the Food Control Act of August 10, 1917.
"General Order 1-No public eating-place shall serve or permit to be served any bread 01 other bakery product which does not contain at least 20 per cent of wheat flour substitutes, nor shall it serve or permit to be served more than 2 ounces of this bread, known as Victory Bread, or if no Victory Bread is served, more than 4 ounces of other breads (such as corn bread, muffins, Boston brown bread, etc.). Sandwiches or bread served at boarding camps, and rye bread containing 50 per cent or more of pure rye flour, are excepted.
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Photos by Leonard
Top Row-Allen F. Gere, Emil White, E. R. Fick, R. L. Fidler, Ralph Millar, Glenn DeMars, John F. Devitt. Second-Laurits Molbach, J. M. Compty, W. R. Christenson, A. Hay, Lowell C. Wadmond, S. Thravalos, P. L. Johnson. Third-Art Miller, Geo. Bronson, Natale Giardina, D. A. Vigilien, H. L. Mapes, R. R. Green, E. P. McConnell. Fourth-Armand Prudhomme, Lars C. Pedersen, Steve Steihel, H. W. Kranz, Walter Henry, Geo. Hansen, G. R. Ratchford. Fifth-Joe Adamski, Vincent Longo, C. A. Fancher, O. J. A. Furrenes, W. C. Lohse, Ernest Ludwig, Carl O. Neuman. Bottom-James P. Peterson, Louis Bartlett, Einer Knudsen, J. Van Eimeren, S. F. Overson, H. Christenson, H. E. Raush,
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RACINE COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
"General Order 2-No public eating-place shall serve or permit to be served bread of toast as a garniture or under meat.
"General Order 3-No public eating-place shall allow any bread to be brought to the table until after the first course is served.
"General Order 4-No public eating-place shall serve or permit to be served to one pa- tron at any one meal more than one kind of meat. For the purpose of this rule meat shall be considered as including beef, mutton, pork, poultry and by-products thereof."
Later on this rule was amended to permit the serving of liver and bacon together.
"General Order 5-No publie eating-place shall serve or permit to be served any bacon as a garniture.
"General Order 6-No public eating-place shall serve or permit to be served to any one person at any one meal more than one-half ounce of butter.
"General Order 7-No public eating-place shall serve or permit to be served to any one person at any one meal more than one-half ounce of Cheddar, commonly called American, cheese.
"General Order 8-No public eating-place shall use or permit the use of a sugar bowl on the table or lunch counter. Nor shall any public eating-place serve sugar or permit it to he served unless the patron so requests and in no event shall the amount served to any one person at any one meal exceed one tea- spoonful or its equivalent.
"General Order 9-No public eating-place shall use or permit the use of sugar in excess of two pounds for every ninety meals served, including all uses of sugar on the table and in cooking, excepting sueh sugar as may be allotted by the Federal Food Administrators to hotels holding a bakery license. No sugar allotted for this special baking purpose shall be used for any other purpose.
"General Order 10-No publie eating-place shall burn any food or permit any food to be burned and all waste shall be saved to feed animals or reduced to obtain fats.
"General Order 11-No public eating-place shall display or permit to be displayed food on its premises in any such manner as may eause its deterioration so that it cannot be used for human consumption.
"General Order 12-No public eating-place shall serve or permit to be served what is known as double eream or cream 'de luxe;' and in any event, no cream containing over 20 per cent of butter fat shall be served."
Of course, numerous other orders were is-
sued from time to time. For instance, people were asked to reduce the amount of coffee used so that so many ships would not be need- ed for importing this staple. The same was true of tropical fruits.
Everyone was asked to devise ways for using all left-overs, and the gospel of the elean din- ner plate was preached everywhere. Children were taught "to help liek the Kaiser" this way. As a result of the tremendous savings effected through the co-operation of all of our people, it was seldom necessary to ask the substitu- tion of one foodstuff for another excepting in the case of wheat flour for bread. The rule became a general one: "Save all foods." One of the minor results of the Food Administra- tion laws was a universal saving of money due to decreased budgets for the table. Another was a more general effort on the part of housewives to learn the relative food values of various dishes and plan their meals more intelligently from this standpoint.
Families got in the old fashioned habit of having but one big meal a day. Suppers or luncheon frequently consisted of one or two dishes, such as soup, or salmon and a vegetable. Many housewives discovered the merits of a food made by boiling small pieces of meat with corn meal, and then serving this sliced when cold. Desserts became a rarity, almost extinct. Here are some of the recipes for bread issued by the government and used by almost all American families, although the methods were varied with practice:
Bran Bread
"Soak 1 cake of compressed yeast in 14 cup of warm water and add to the following batter:
12 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon molasses
114 cups cooled, scalded milk
1 cup raisins soaked and seeded
2 tablespoons shortening
212 cups whole wheat flour
112 cups bran
Barley Bread
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 cups barley meal or barley flour
1 cup water
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons molasses
16 yeast eake (compressed )
1 teaspoon salt
"Boil milk and water and cool. Add molass- es, salt and yeast mixed with a little cold water. Stir in flour and barley meal (or barley flour) which have been sifted together. Knead to a soft dough, adding more flour if necessary. Cover and let rise until the mix-
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P- No 3
Top Row-Alexander Salagin, T. Fredericksen, A. C Monty, Wm. Sigwart, H. Bedvilen, H. Bagdissian, B. M. Kuehnert. Second-Otto F. Luedke, Mike Kachickian, Arthur Patzke, Gianni Jennello, J. Schleck, C. Petavina, H. E. Hanson. Third-John Theos, Giuseppe Greco, Erling J. Septon, Martin Rasmussen, Geo. F. Studey, John Riolo, Karabet Bokosian. Fourth-Paul F. Wolff, R. H. Esson, John Biluk, Giacento Farno, Max Budko, Mike Gougisian, John Kuspudis.
Fifth-Mike Shimeta, Kaspar Sabastian, Dominic Sister, Joseph Leitner, James Giolli, Archie Berlin, Antonio Caruso. Sixth-Jacob Jacobson, M. Simeoni, Mihren Bashirian, Henry Barsamian, David Collins, S. C. Anderson, R. H. Leissner. Bottom-Wm. J. Beller, Clifford Valley, Albert Mixdorf, Felix Gliniecki, Vincent Wacker, L. W. Daniels, Wm. L. Ulrich.
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ture is double its bulk. Knead a second time, form into loaves, place in well-greased pans and let rise a second time until the dough has doubled its bulk. Bake in a hot oven from one-half to one hour, the time depending on the size of the loaves.
Rye Bread
"Use any method for white bread but be careful to use 2 cups of rye flour for each cup of wheat flour mentioned in the recipe. Rye bread should be softer than white bread but well kneaded. When light, form into loaves and allow to rise to double their size. Brush over with water and egg and bake in a slower oven than for white bread.
Rolled-Oat Bread
"Scald one cup rolled oats in 1 cup boiling water and allow to stand one hour. Make a sponge of
1 cup water
1 cake compressed yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons shortening 34 cup flour
"Add rolled-oat mixture to sponge and then flour to make medium soft dough. Form into loaf and let rise to double its bulk and bake.
Cornmeal Bread
"Use either white or yellow cornmeal. Pro- ceed as in the case of rolled-oat bread. Sub- stitute two teaspoons of sugar for molasses and use the same method.
Rice Bread
"Follow directions for rolled-oat bread but use 11/2 cups cooked rice instead of the scald- ed oatmeal.
"All the preceding recipes may be made into rolls. When the dough has risen the first time, form into rolls of desired shape and al- low to rise until very light. Bake in hot oven. If desired. the amount of sugar and shortening used may be increased.
Potato Bread
1 enp mashed potatoes
12 cup potato water
12 teaspoon salt
12 cake compressed yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons melted shortening 12 cup flour
"Make into a sponge. Keep warm. When light, add sufficient flour to make a medium soft dough. Let rise to double its bulk and hake."
Housewives were all asked to sign a eard
containing a pledge to conserve food, and these were kept on file so that in case of violation of the Food Act the culprit could be confront- ed with her previous promise and properly re- buked. Later on a food pledge insignia eard was provided and this was displayed in the windows of homes where the pledge had been signed. Celluloid buttons were also provided which could be worn on the gown or coat lapel to signify the same thing.
In homes and hotels it was nrged that the use of ehina, silver and table linen be limited so as to reduce labor. Rigid economy regard- ing ice was asked. This was especially true in the South. Ammonia, which is used for making artificial ice, was needed in the manu- facture of munitions.
In all sections of the country, people were asked to eat local and seasonable foods, as these did not require abnormal use of railroads and steamships to transport them, at a time when all ships and cars were needed for war purposes. This was one of the factors in the popularity of the "war gardens" in back yards and vacant lots in all cities and villages.
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