The Price of Food

From The Halifax Courier, 20th January 1917.

SOME SHOPPING SUGGESTIONS.

Four suggestions have been sent out by the National Service Department with a view to obtaining the criticisms of retail traders, and, judging by the local feelings we have heard expressed, the criticisms will not be lacking. Conditions of trading in the provinces are much different to those prevailing in London, and for this reason two of the proposals would — in Halifax and a great many other places — have little application.  One suggestion is that window dressing should be partly or wholly discontinued.  In the principal London shops window dressing takes place daily, and much labour is involved, but in most Provincial towns the windows are changed only once or twice per week.  To prohibit window dressing altogether apparently means the abolition of window displays, which is regarded by many as a ridiculous idea, inasmuch as little or no national gain would result thereby, for windows can usually be set out in quiet hours by the serving staffs of the shops.  The second proposal is that no retail tradesman must directly or indirectly call or send to any place of residence to solicit orders for any article of food.  This hits chiefly at grocers, butchers, greengrocers, and the like, and it is regarded as unfair that they should be prohibited from this practice whilst drapers and other non-food providers are not debarred.  Since the war, the practice of soliciting orders in Halifax has considerably declined, the canvassers being required for more important inside work.  Thus the introduction of that idea would be no great hardship, though it is not clear why the restriction should apply to food only.  Food is a necessity, and whether an errand boy be sent in the early morning to take the order, or whether the customer be compelled to personally go to the shop, it will have to be purchased.

Then there is the remarkable suggestion that it be compulsory on every retail purchaser of foodstuffs to take away at the time of purchase all articles less than 14lbs. in weight!  What a prospect for house-wives buying in!  A few groceries, a lump of beef, goods from the drapers, and a few sundries all to carry home.  There now many complaints that the tempers of tram conductors and conductresses are sorely tried, but what a prospect for Saturday shoppers returning home by car, should such a suggestion be adopted!  The final proposal is that credit accounts as between the retail trader and the public should be temporarily discontinued.  Whilst traders generally would be glad if all accounts could be settled on a cash basis, such an ideal does not seem practicable.  By such a stringent rule many hard cases would ensue, and no trader objects to short credit where he knows the money is safe.  To carry out the proposal in its entirety would produce startling results – in many cases for example, funeral arrangements could not be made until insurance money had been received

FOOD: ITS USE AND PRICE.

The above suggestions will fortify the growing belief that some of the powers that be are wasting much effort on poor causes.  Practical schemes will have practical responses, but the commonsense individual is merely irritated by some of the war-time legislation, and the continual chopping and changing associated with it.  The 50 per cent railway fare advances are not yet changed (they will be), but the failure of the limited meals in public eating places is admitted.  We have always argued that the two-course and the three-course device might save labour in hotels and restaurants, but that it would mean a greater consumption of the essential foods.  It was merely silly to rank a sardine as a course, and a plate of beef with accessories as another.  People have chosen the substantial foods and made their meal from courses of that character.  Moreover, as most hotels (through force of habit maybe) do not give very hearty servings, the second helping has grown in favour.  The individual has profited by satisfying his appetite on fewer but nourishing foods; the country has lost what it strove to save.  A solution would seem to be to adopt the a la carte system, each plate of food being charged at a fair figure.  But this, of course, would not touch the domestic table.  There, for the present, the patriotic appeal stands alone—that care should be taken in the choice of foods and that the consumption should be cut down to reasonable proportions. Lord Devonport is understood to be preparing schemes to control in every direction the use and distribution of the staple foods.  In the meanwhile, we are given a few economy hints—to eat green vegetables when in season, to be sparing with potatoes, to learn the value of haricot beans, dried peas and cheese as substitutes for meat, and to cultivate broad beans and peas in the spring.

How important it is to study the dietary in every home is shown by the announcement that the average increase of food prices on Jan. 1 over those of July, 1914, is 87 per cent.; a year ago the increase was only 45 per cent.  It means that £1 17s. 5d. will now go as far as £1 in pre-war days.  The principal advances have been in butchers' meat, bacon, fish, bread, butter, potatoes, cheese, and eggs.  But few families are actually paying the additional 87 per cent. in their food accounts.  They have remodelled their purchases, and this is a point to watch constantly.  Thus, if eggs be eliminated, margarine substituted for butter, and sugar and fish reduced by one-half on the pre-war consumption, the increased cost would be only 45 per cent.

The enemy's burden is very much greater than ours.  It is difficult to arrive at a sure basis of averages, for they have artificially fixed maximum prices for some foods, others are adulterated and "substituted" almost beyond recognition, and for others there are practically no prices, the foods, being almost non-existent.  But the average increase, in November, in Berlin, was 111 per cent., a sovereign being thus worth £2 2s. 2½d.  Rice had increased in price by 420 per cent.; eggs by 357 per cent.; lard by 315 per cent.; and bacon by 249 per cent.  November prices in Vienna were approximately 177 per cent. above those of July, 1914—so that it cost £2 15s. 5d. to buy what was in peace time a sovereign's worth of food.  In Norway the average rise in prices since the beginning of the war has been rather over four-fifths.  In the United States there has been an advance of 18 per cent.— less than one-fifth.

Women For Munitions

From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 16th January 1917.

WOMEN FOR MUNITIONS. 

ANOTHER HALF MILLION WANTED, AGED FROM 18 TO 45. 

Two hundred photographs prepared by the Ministry of Munitions showing women at work in the munition factories are on view at Harrod’s, London. Filling shells, stoking nitric acid stills, assembling fuses—a work as delicate as making a watch—acetylene welding, electric wiring, and making the wings of aeroplanes are but a part of the work they perform.

Women are engaged to-day on hundreds of different processes on which only men have worked before. Not all have the physical strength for manual labour, but there is any amount of gauging, testing, and inspecting to be done, and in this responsible work well-educated women specially excel. Whether they are working in trousers and tunics, as some of the operations require, or in khaki or asbestos overalls, all the women look thoroughly happy.

Half a million are already engaged in the munition factories. Another half a million are required. An appeal is therefore made to every woman who is physically fit between the ages of 18 and 45, who is not already engaged in productive labour, to offer herself as a worker to a munition factory. Application may be made either to the local employment exchange or to one of the munition training centres in London or the provinces.

Sweaters And Mufflers

From the Yorkshire Post, 11th January 1917.

SWEATERS AND MUFFLERS.

To the Editor of The Yorkshire Post.

Sir,—It has been my good fortune to transmit to the men in the field some 32,000 sweaters since the war broke out. Sir Edward Ward, the Director-General of Voluntary Associations now asks if, without letting the sweater industry go down, I could "do the same for the men's mufflers, of which a very great quantity are wanted at once."

The sweater pattern, easy and economical, is to be had here for asking, but the War Office formula for mufflers is so short that I hope you may find room for it at once. The muffler should measure 58in. by 10in., and be made on two No. 7 needles, taking 10oz. of fairly thick drab or khaki wool.

One knows of the enormous amount of well-considered work that has been done for the men all over the country. I feel, however, that one has but to name the incredible numbers that our armies have recently reached to justify asking this further effort.  I am authorised, then, to state that the need for sweaters, mufflers, and all other hall-marked comforts is great and immediate, and that these should be sent either to the Voluntary Organisations Depots throughout the country, or to the D.C.V.O.'s depot at 45, Horseferry Road. S.W., or to me as below.—Yours. etc.

JOHN PENOYRE. 

8. King's Bench Walk, Inner Temple, E.C., Jan. 9. 1917.

Abergavenny Tobacco Fund

From the Abergavenny Chronicle, 29th December 1916.

OUR TOBACCO FUND

(The district branch of the Newspapers Patriotic Tobacco Fund).

OUR SPLENDID LOCAL REGIMENTS.

How our Tobacco Fund is Cheering the Men.

Not a single man in our local regiments or battalions need be without the comfort of a cigarette or a pipe of tobacco, if only our readers will continue their support of our Tobacco Fund and explain to their friends the advantages and privileges we have obtained for their convenience.

Not only continued support is wanted, if we are to accomplish our object, but increased support also.  We want more of our readers to take advantage of the arrangements we have made, which enables them to send a small supply of cigarettes or tobacco at regular intervals, duty free and post paid, to their own friends and relatives at the front.

These fine fellows want a smoke every hour of every day.  They don't want a lot of cigarettes or tobacco sent to-day and then to wait for weeks before the next parcel arrives.  They can't carry a lot around with them—their kit is cumbersome enough already—but they want a small supply regularly and often.  This is just what you can arrange through our Tobacco Fund.

Moreover, we want our readers to remember—when arranging to send parcels of smokes through our Tobacco Fund to their friends—that there are many friendless soldiers in our local regiments, and battalions, friendless in the sense that, unlike other fellows, they have no one at home able to send them regularly the smokes for which they are constantly clamouring.

And so, when you send your remittance with instructions for parcels for your own friends, please include as large a donation as you can for sending 1/- parcels containing 50 good cigarettes and a packet of splendid smoking tobacco to such friendless soldiers.

By reason of our association with the Newspapers Patriotic Tobacco Fund, of which our fund is the branch looking after the fighting-men for our own district, the distribution of our General Fund parcels is made through Sir Edward Ward, the Director-General of Voluntary Organisations.  This ensures our Tobacco Fund parcels going just to the local men who are most in need of them.
Sir Edward Ward is the supreme head of a special department appointed by the Government to control all patriotic funds, and is doing all he can to see that the distribution of comforts from home is fairly and equally made between all the fighting men on Active Service.  Our men must be as well looked after as those from other districts.

And so it is we appeal to our readers for renewed help.  With the increased number of our local men at the front, the demand for cigarettes and tobacco is increasing and particularly insistent.  We know we shall not call in vain upon the generosity of our readers.

Exhibition of Hospital Supplies

From the North Wales Chronicle, 22nd December 1916. 

RHOSNEIGR.

HOSPITAL SUPPLIES: EXHIBITION OF WORK.

On Wednesday there was a particularly interesting exhibition of work at the R.W. Hospital Supply Depot, which has the distinction of being the first of its kind opened in the county.  It is affiliated under the scheme of the Director General of Voluntary Organisations, is recognised by the War Office and is duly registered under the War Charity Act of 1916.  Although it was only in October last that the organisation took its present form, the enthusiastic members, numbering forty-one, had, on Monday, no fewer than one thousand two hundred and eighty-five articles ready for dispatch, exclusive of some thousands of swabs.  The exhibits included all kinds of woollen comforts and hospital dressings, besides many of the pretty cretonne “treasure-bags” so much appreciated by the wounded.  Many of the members devote several hours daily to this good work.  The president (Mrs. Johnson, Windigate) and her allies (Mrs Barff, hon. Secretary, and Mrs Slack, hon. treasurer) are much to be congratulated on the all-round success of Rhosneigr’s excellent lead in this urgently needed work.

The “Flashlight” Habit

From the Dundee People’s Journal, 2nd December 1916.

The "flashlight" habit seems to have been acquired by the majority of Dundee folk, but unfortunately a number of these seem unable to use a flashlight properly.  Evening after evening girls are observed walking along with a lamp held straight in front of them, and the consequence is that any one approaching from the opposite direction is momentarily blinded.

When this happens the person who is approaching, not being able to see in front of him, generally collides with the owner of the lamp, to the no small indignation of that individual.  Just the other night I witnessed this happen, and heard an elderly gentleman receive abuse which he certainly had not earned from two young women. 

All this unpleasantness could quite well be avoided if those who carry torches would, instead of holding the light straight out, let it strike downwards against the wall at their side.  In this way the rays are cast on to the pavement, and act as a guide for both those who carry the lamp and those who are approaching. so that both parties can clearly see each other.

[Pedestrians were carrying flashlights because the street lights had been turned off for fear of air-raids, I assume.]

Knitting Fortnight In Dundee

From the Dundee Courier, 29th November 1916.

KNITTING FORTNIGHT IN DUNDEE.

At yesterday meeting of the Dundee Women's War Relief Fund Committee, held at the Town House, Miss Kynoch presided....... Requisitions for the past week—all of which were passed—were received from: — The D.G.V.O. [Director General of Voluntary Organisations] for 370 pairs of sox, 40 shirts, 16 helmets, 3 waistcoats, and one pair of gloves: the Washing and Mending Committee, for 6 shirts; Mrs Miller, Red Roofs, Broughty Ferry, for 50 pairs of mitts and 50 mufflers for the R.N.D. [Royal Naval Division]; Lieutenant Gordon. for 200 pairs of sox for the A. and S. [Argyll and Sutherland] Highlanders, B.E.F. [British Expeditionary Force]: Lieutenant Lowson, R.N.R. [Royal Naval Reserve], for 25 pairs each of mitts and sox, and 25 mufflers for the men of H.M.S. Heroic.

Miss Duncanson read a letter from the D.G.V.O. referring to the great need for winter comforts for the men at the front, and suggesting that a knitting week or fortnight should be arranged.  On the motion of Mrs Steven (Barnhill), it was decided that the first fortnight of December, beginning on the Monday, be set apart as knitting fortnight, and that the Central Office be supplied with four spindles of wool to begin with for giving out to workers in the district.  ....Miss Duncanson intimated that the number of articles sent to the Central Office during the past week was 1055, making the grand total 152,816, while Mrs Kerr stated that the balance at the Central Office was £139 l6s 9d.