THE GERMAN NATION IN ARMS
Sixteen months after this war organization was effected, General Ludendorff said that when the great spring offensive of 1918 opened the Germans were superior to the Allies in every form of war supplies. There was a speeding up all round; the output of shells and cannon was double. This meant the doubling of the coal and iron production, and could be done only by increasing the workers necessary to double the output of basic war materials. Adequate food had to be supplied to the workers; there was what is known as the Hindenburg "Fat Fund" to which contributions were sent in from German peasantry and agriculturists. General Gröner, the head of the German War Office, outlined optimistically the future of German war industrial production as quoted in the New York Times of December 14, 1916:
Photo by P. Thompson
A War Time Warning
Dairy production among the Allies decreased 30 per cent. during the war. The lard supply was also decreased. Kitchen economy in fats was never more important. Fats were so scarce in Germany during the latter part of 1917 that a "Hindenburg Fat Fund" was organized to which contributions were sent in from German peasantry and agriculturists.
![[Click for a larger image.]](#5476920433579063293_ill-081.jpg.id-467002734878831012.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
"German locomotives are running to the Taurus in Asia Minor; we are operating practically all the Serbian railways with German rolling stock; we have thousands of cars in Transylvania and Rumania, to say nothing of other occupied territories. After the transportation problem, we are taking measures to double the production of the auxiliary raw materials and semi-finished products. As one example, we are doubling our efforts for the manufacture of nitres from the nitrogen of the air. Not only of the basic raw materials, coal and iron, but of auxiliary raw materials we have no lack.
"The brains of our chemists and technicians are supplying the missing imports, and will continue to do so. Only when we have accomplished all this will we proceed to the last step of doubling the production of shells and cannon. Such a war is not to be won by looking ahead from month to month, but only by thinking of the distant future. After we have doubled the pyramid, we shall proceed to treble it.
"By spring we shall be going full steam ahead. After that our production will increase from month to month; and we have the labor and raw materials for keeping up the pace indefinitely.