FOOD AND DRINK. [Communrcemsn.]
WHILE Germany with her usual thoroughness has from the beginning of the war made such arrange- ments for the conservation of her food supply that at the present time she is actually able to lower prices, our Government have given only a perfunctory attention to this all-important question. It may be urged that so long as we possess a Fleet of such preponderating superiority our food supply requires no attention. But the development of submarine attack, which is as yet in its infancy, should warn us that there is the possibility that it may assume such dimensions as seriously to interfere with our imports and to lead to actual shortage of food. In one direction already such a shortage is being felt. The fisheries of our country under normal conditions yield each year over a million tons of fish—a stock of food sufficient to afford all the muscle-forming material required by an army of three million men, a stock of food which is bred and fed and grown without cost to the country, and which is gleaned from the sea by perhaps the bravest and hardiest of our manhood. As a result of want of protection, of limitation of fishing, and of commandeering of vessels—all inevitable for the safety of the State—this supply of food has become very seriously reduced. The enormous demands of our armies have raised the price of both animal and vegetable foods, the former to such an extent that the very poor are almost forced to reduce their supply to a minimum. Fortunately in the various cereal grains—wheat, oats, and barley—we have an abundant supply both of the flesh-forming and of the energy- yielding constituents. It therefore behoves us to conserve our supplies of these grains, and to see that the best possible use is made of them to maintain the health and 'vigour of the people.
The purpose of this article is to call attention to the enormoue waste of these valuable foods in the manufacture of beer and spirits. Every year over a million and a half tons of grain are Mot in the preparation of alcoholic drinks. In other words, an amount of food capable of feeding about four million men is thus annually wasted, and this leaves out of account about one hundred and eighty thousand tons of sugar—an energy-yielding food of great value— which are also destroyed. It must be remembered that alcohol is used as a luxury, or to dull the sense of fatigue by poisoning the nervous system, or, in too many cases, for the peculiar pleasure of getting drunk. It is of no nutritive value, and no sane man takes it as a source of energy. It can be used only to a small extent for this purpose, and all beyond the amount so used acts as a poison to the tissues. An unlimited supply of energy may be got without such a danger, and at a small fraction of the cost, from sugary and starchy foods. The country spends £166,000,000 a year on drink, money which at such a time as the present might be better spent on what is capable of increasing the work-doing power of the people, which alcohol undoubtedly tends to limit. No one has attempted to refute the evidence of the Government's Report. All that has been done is to contend that it neglects contributory factors. But in spite of these facts, because the liquor trade is in the hands of a great and wealthy "Trust," the Government have been unable to limit the manufacture or consumption of alcohol except to the absurdly small extent of making regulations for the sale of drink in specified areas, and that only with abject promises of full compensation to the publican for monetary loss. Why should the workers of Tyneside and Clydebank be blamed for bad time-keeping owing to over-indulgence in drink and be stigmatized as little better than traitors ? They, poor fellows, but carry on the " convivial " customs learned from their fathers. They but act upon the too common creed that a Briton cannot be happy unless he is drinking. It is the liquor trade who are unwilling to accept a loss in order that the food of the people may not be wasted or the cost of living raised—a loss which the fishing trade has had to bear. The fisher-folk have accepted their fate like men, and have gone forth as mine-sweepers or to fight their country's battles.
The Government have been completely beaten by the trade in their attempts at prohibition. But are they justified at the present time in allowing this great waste of food to continue ? Even if in this the trade is strong enough to beat them, as it probably is, the people of the country can do what the Government cannot do to check this abuse. They are unable to face the question of compensation, but if every loyal citizen followed the example of the King and refrained from alcohol during the progress of the war, the compensation question would be answered in a way eminently satisfactory to the nation, however unsatisfactory to the trade. The writer has never been an advocate of prohibition. He does not believe that people can be made virtuous by legislation. But there is no doubt that the present is not the time for converting the necessaries of life into a mere luxury, and certainly more work could be got out of our workers were they saved from the tempta- tion to drink. Nor does giving up the use of alcohol mean any sacrifice. Those who, like the writer, have been accustomed to take it daily for many years may fear some evil effect from its discontinuance. But they may rest assured that they will experience no inconvenience. It is a most trivial act of self-denial. The well-to-do have talked much about the virtue of self-denial. Will they practise it in this, and thus help the country in its life-
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