Copyright Underwood & Underwood

A Food Riot in Sweden

News from Europe immediately following the armistice showed everywhere acute suffering from lack of food. A member of the Federal Food Administration reported that bread was practically the only food that anyone could afford.

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SUGAR DISTRIBUTION

Among the multiform activities of the American Food Administration, the distribution of sugar was most difficult. America had to supply sugar to the Allies and retain enough for the use of its own people. The matter of the feeling of personal self-sacrifice was difficult enough but there was the further question of how to organize and allocate distribution. The government had to decide the amount to be distributed to sugar-using industries. These industries had to be classified. For the manufacture of soft drinks it was decided to allow only one-half of the sugar used in normal times. Bakers were given a 70 percent. allotment and hotels were permitted three pounds of sugar to every ninety meals served, including cooking.

The sugar resources of the country, both cane and beet-root, were regulated by the so-called Sugar Equalization Board. The operation of this body was explained officially in the Literary Digest:

"This board is a part of the Food Administration and approved by the President. Its purpose is to equalize the cost of various sugars and to secure better distribution. It can also coöperate with the Allies in the procurement of sugar for them and in the adjustment of overseas freight rates. Through capital supplied by the President through his special funds, it is enabled, when desirable, to buy up all available sugars at different prices and resell them at one fixed and even rate.

"In other words, it provides a sort of vast storehouse of sugar, which may be doled out where it is most needed, at a price secure from the fluctuations otherwise inevitable in war time."

KEEPING DOWN THE PRICE