SELECTIONS FROM:

 'WIN-THE-WAR SUGGESTIONS AND RECIPES,' 

SOLD FOR THE BENEFIT OF RETURNED SOLDIERS (WWI)

This is not a cookery book, only a few recipes and some sketchy hints to help those who want to do more towards economizing our food supply. That economy is one of the most important factors in the successful carrying on of the war, though only one woman in a thousand or so seems to be in the least conscious of the fact.

 Food must be conserved; the Government must have our money; women must sacrifice their vanity, their mean self-indulgence and criminal selfishness on the altar of their country's safety. They must do it in order to back up all those who are suffering, and striving, and in such dreadful anxiety at the front; above all, to make good the supreme sacrifice of all the beloved ones who lie forever in the fields of France and Flanders, and those, who, after going through hell, sleep at peace in German prison yards. Every ounce of food saved, every single solitary ounce, will do its bit. For every single cent, saved and given or lent to the Government, who can transmute it into munitions while you wait, will tell. "Mony mickles make a muckle," or, as those of us who have the misfortune not to be Scotch can say in a free translation, a mighty lot of nickels will make shells, bullets, guns, tanks, aeroplanes, warships -yes, and the clever magicians of munition can even make warm clothes and bully beef out of them. You save money and the Government does the rest. 

Without women's sacrifices there will be but little money, as men can't give if all they earn is squandered or carelessly wasted by their woman-kind. This little book may encourage and decide some women to do a little of their bounden duty, and to give their earnest help in getting a proper amount of food over to our own sons, and to that "tight little island" on whose shoulders the greater part of the burden of this terrible war now rests - the nation which has the safety of the world's future welfare in her keeping. She could not feed for a single month all her own hard working, brave, unselfish people, or for a single day, those millions across the channel who are fighting and dying for you, without the precious food you and her other faithful children send over to her. She doesn't even ask you for your comforts, your selfish luxuries (such things are too humiliating to ask for when not given up instinctively, as they should be by every decent-minded man and woman), but only for you to substitute other things for the foods without which no man can fight, or even keep in a working condition; bacon, the lack of which would mean a lowered vitality; without beef, of course, no army could fight, and bread is truly what it is called, the staff of life. As an army fights on its stomach, a full adequate supply of those three B'S is absolutely necessary for its very existence. 

Can't you understand and remember that there are 40,000,000 men fighting, 20,000,000 souls working at high pressure to supply them with munitions? That is, 60,000,000 who produce nothing but use just about five times the amount of food that you use, or that they have used in ordinary times. For there is not only the hideous loss of foodstuffs wantonly destroyed by the submarines - millions of tons - but there is the necessary waste in reducing the bulk and the almost unavoidable loss in perishable stuffs.

 All that wastage is inevitable, and it is up to you to make that good, for there isn't actual enough food in the world to send to the army and for you to go on consuming as you have done in the past - and, to their eternal shame, as so many are doing yet. There is not enough food in all the world for them, if you refuse to do your small individual share, and it is so very little that is asked of you. Only to do without beef and bacon on two days of the week, and to substitute the largest possible percentage of oatmeal, barley, rye, cornmeal or buckwheat for white flour. Cut down sugar to the lowest point. Buy no clothes whatever that are not absolutely needed for protection. Never mind shabby shoes, clothes, hats and furs. Wool is so scarce, there may be a great difficulty in keeping our defenders warm. Possibly a single unnecessary suit or overcoat may mean frozen limbs for one of your own loved ones; every new dress, woollen garment, those knitted jerseys women have been mad over, may mean for one of our heroes pneumonia, rheumatism, tuberculosis, sending them back to their cruelly selfish and meanly ungrateful country, pitiful, ruined, help-less wrecks of noble manhood.

 Every word of this is dreadfully true, not one particle exaggerated. All the stores are crammed with ignoble women spending precious money -and for what? Not merely for "nice clothes." All daughters of Eve crave those, and, though it is inexcusable to gratify that craving in the present hideous state of affairs, it can at least be understood. But no thinking, large-hearted man or woman can understand the wickedness of throwing away money in foolish little frivolities, utterly useless trifles of household articles: in short, cruelly, meanly, utterly selfishly spending for contemptible self-indulgence hundreds of thousands of dollars, refusing even to save and then lend (with wonderful interest and absolute security) to your harassed Government, money to be spent in your own country, and thus increase its and your own prosperity. The wonderful prosperity that has flooded the Dominion through war contracts. Blood money it is to the many greedy corporations, to many more individuals who of their 25 per cent, 50 per cent, and 85 per cent returns, give not even a tithe to help and comfort those who furnished them the cause for making their millions, until a belated law will force the selfish, wantonly ungenerous and unspeakably mean men to give a little of their usury back, often only to gain more contracts.

 Look at all the well-managed, hard working war charities - such as the Red Cross, without whose organization the agony. suffering and hideous pain and awful helplessness of millions, yes millions, would be unassuaged. unrelieved, unhelped, and the mortality increased a hundred-fold. How many of you have worked for that, as every woman should, or even given to it according to your means? The Y.M.C.A. is blessed by millions of soldiers; yet it must strive, work and beg for the inadequate funds it has to bring some comfort, some joy, some love to our boys at the front. The Soldiers' Comfort Committees are often disheartened, knowing of the suffering men they are unable to relieve or bring some little brightness and pleasure to, for want of the dollar you spent for a new and unneeded neck-tie, or some other trifle. The funds for the prisoners of war in Germany are pitifully inadequate, though these are the saddest of all our beloved heroes we talk so glibly about at "the dansants," at afternoon teas, at restaurants, and over the selection of utterly unneeded articles. One would think every expensive dish or selfish tea would, and should, choke you if you could visualize those gaunt, hunger stricken, forsaken forms, waiting like famished animals for the food you waste. One can scarce bear to even mention those millions scattered through every German-invaded district, who are actually, really starving, dying in the terrible,  long-drawn-out anguish of starvation, amid every humiliation, discomfort, and exposure. Still you spend on selfish indulgence, rich and poor (for all but the most unfortunate can save, according to their means), such immense sums that almost every shop has had a record season. 

If you refuse to save and give now some terrible calamity may force you to do what a nation of noble and fine souls would do of their own free will - give up all and every extravagance and selfish luxury. Each Canadian can and should begin now, immediately, to take the extra trouble and time to save in little things, ounce by ounce, nickel by nickel, leaving the many millions of precious ounces saved at the disposal of the authorities for your saviours and your starving fellow human beings and your almost equally precious nickels for the helping of the prisoners, the soldiers at the front, the sufferers in hundreds of hospitals, the returned veterans who have stood the heat and burden of the day, and are all more or less handicapped for their future livelihood. Don't, for the love of your womanhood and manhood, go on talking glibly and futilely of "your boys," and "your fine heroes," your "noble defenders of your home and daughters," and - take it out in talking, as many thousands of you do.

 Talking with tears in your voices in public is a mighty cheap soft-snap, as our latest and most beloved Allies say, and, as you yourselves say, "soft words butter no parsnips." They certainly don't.

If only every woman that may see the following suggestions, rich and poor, will truly try to follow them patiently for a month or so, to give them a fair trial, and gradually increase the use of them, you will see that the saving for your food controller has been immense. Suppose your family don't like a certain thing, "just hate brown bread," "can't eat porridge," won't even try to get used to cornmeal - then ask them if their fathers, brothers, cousins and friends simply love bully beef 365 times a year, or even the everlasting plum and apple, which they apparently have three times a day the year round. Could your family refuse mutton, kidneys, liver, pigs' feet, tripe, or fish, thoroughly understanding that a short-age of muscle and strength-giving beef would mean a weakened, inefficient army, anaemic, incompetent munition workers?

 Not one beefless day, but one beef day is what every patriotic man and woman in all this wide Dominion should try for, when beef is not a needed form of food for the work engaged in. Are your families, even the little children, willing to see the dreadful Hun over-run the world because they insist they will eat precious beef, bacon and wheat, because they don't really care much for substitutes? This sounds incredible, but it is just exactly what unthinking Canadians are doing at this moment. 

All governments hopefully, though very foolishly, first wait for the patriotic, right-feeling, unselfish and wise inhabitants to answer to the call of their country; but all have found there "ain't no sich person," at least not enough to make the least appreciable difference.

 Our loyal neighbours have profited by our hopeful, but sadly mistaken and optimistic rulers, who so flattered us - and, with their usual push,  have started right in at a point we have not yet reached after three and a half years. We would be a proud nation if our rulers' ingenuous faith in our innate nobility of soul were justified, and if we Canadians, whose boys have stood so grandly self-forgetful before the hideous German storm of fire, would take the infinitely less difficult stand against our own contemptible foes - against our pitiful indolence, selfishness, indifference, laziness and cruel unhelpfulness - and mow them down as our sons mow down the enemy of the world.

 There are numbers and numbers of books giving detailed and valuable facts concerning what might be called the science of saving - the saving and economy that will not in the least lessen the nourishment of the food of the new regime, but will answer all bodily requirements of grown-ups and growing children, especially our boys, who must try to fill the place of our many dead and totally disabled. There are four classes of food required by our body: ( I ) Fats, which turn into fat and make heat and energy - found in potatoes, bread, sugar, honey. syrup, butter, dripping and meat fat. (2) Those that form muscle -fish, lean meat, eggs, skim-milk, cheese, brown bread, beans, peas, lentils. (3) Those needed for bone, most necessary for all children - milk, fruit, vegetables, brown bread and oat-meal. (4) To keep the body in a proper condition, laxatives are absolutely necessary, and are best sup-plied by apples, prunes, figs, and other fruits and green vegetables. Any housekeeper with a little study and thought can manage to combine all these properly, and, for less money and no more work, feed her precious family infinitely better and more healthily than she has ever done. to the immense benefit of their future. It is not a question of time, but of patience, to get a start.

 White flour bread should, even without consideration for war needs, be used very sparingly, especially for children of any age as it has comparatively little real value as a food by itself. All other breads can fulfil its use and many other requirements at the same time. Oatmeal is more valuable as a food than almost any other article, excepting milk. The food values are based on the present cost, as a dollar's worth of one of really less food value, being cheaper, will give the same nourishment, or more, for the same money. So, as far as possible, find out the real value. Class 2 are good substitutes for meat, especially beef. Oatmeal, cornmeal mush, hominy, cracked wheat, rye, in one form or other should be used constantly, varied by cornmeal breads and battercakes, rice, buckwheat and whole flour battercakes for breakfast. Frying apples is one of the best ways to prepare them for breakfast, as they lose less bulk and go farther than if prepared in any other way. Milk must be counted as a necessary, as well as the use of a little more sugar than is strictly necessary for those who really find it hard to eat cereals without it. Do with less of almost any other foods so as not to cut down the milk and sugar bills. Milk is a sort of fairy godmother in making, adding to, and helping out such an unending variety of valuable dishes. Both skim-milk and buttermilk are as valuable, in some cases actually more valuable than whole milk; especially as a diet for some invalids, buttermilk is in a class to itself. They only lack one thing - the butter-fat - and by some chemical change develop other qualities more valuable. The hardest race in the world, the Scottish Highlanders, have been raised largely on oatmeal and milk and herring, and have plenty of bone, muscle and brain, as most Canadians know....

SAVERS WILL BE SAVIOURS

P.A.C. Library.  Pamplet number 4435

.