Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 281, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1917 — PEOPLE UNDERFED DY THE GERMANS [ARTICLE]

PEOPLE UNDERFED DY THE GERMANS

Weekly Ration Not Sufficient to Maintain Bodily Health and Vigor.. B OUNCES OF MEAT A WEEK Food Allowed to Germans and Inhabitants of Territory Occupied by Germans Is Lacking in Energy Producing Elements. Washington.—lnformation concerning the weekly ration now being allowed the German people and the civilian population of the occupied portions of northern France and Belgium have been received by the United States food administration. In food value the ration is insufficient properly to maintain bodily health and vigor. The German ration is as follows, the amount being those allowed per person per week: Flour, 3.45 pounds; potatoes. 7.05 pounds; cereals (oats, beans and peas), 7 ounces; meat, 8.8 ounces; sugar, 3 ounces; butter and margarine. 2.8 ounces; and other fats, 2.8 ounces. Stated in terms of American housekeeping, these Items amount to sufficient flour to bake pounds of bread; one-half peck bf potatoes; a cupful of beans, peas and oatmeal; one-half pound of meat; 12 dominoes of sugar; 6 individual patties of butter; and an equal amount of other fats. In Northern France. For the population of that portion of northern France occupied by the Germaps, the allowance is as follows: Sufficient flour for five pounds of bread; one-fifth peck of potatoes; one cupful cereal, 12 1-3 ounces of bacon and lard; and 10 dominoes of sugar. Here meat, butter and margarine are all replaced by bacon and lard. The allowance of flour and cereals are slightly Increased, but the allowance of potatoes Is less than half the German ration, while sugar Is also rebelow the meager German allowance.

The ration for the civilian population of the occupied portion of Belgium is similar to that of northern France, except bacon and lard are replaced by meat and butter. The German ration, compared with the ration used as standard for purposes of comparison by the food administration shows that in bodybuilding protein the Germans have .41 of a pounds and the standard ration 1.08 pounds. ‘ln fats, the German ration contains .43 of a pound, as compared with standard 7 pounds. In carbohydtates, the German ration contains 4.17 pounds, as compared to 9.9 pounds for the standard ration. In total calories, the German ration aggregates 10,542 as compared to 24,000 in the standard ration. The standard ration Is regarded as sufficient only for a person in a sedentary occupation, or one involving relatively slight physical labor; and yet it provides two and one-half times

as much body-building protein, and nearly twice as much fat, and nearly two and one-half times as much carbohydrates as the German ration. Ration Not Sufficient. In the ration for northern France, the substitution of bacon and lard makes the weekly allowance of protein equal only three-fourths of the German ration, and only one-third of the standard ration. In the whole, It may be said that for a person in an occupation requiring only a moderate degree of activity, these rations provide considerably less than the amounts requisite to maintain bodily health and vigor. The greatest efficiency, is in energyproducing foodstuffs, although the lack of body-building proteins is physiologically more lmportant, and liable to have more serious and more permanent results.