COMPULSORY ECONOMY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16377, 23 November 1918, Page 5

COMPULSORY ECONOMY.

WHAT THE WAR HAS TAUGHT EUROPE. (From Tyondon Correspondent of "'Melbourne Age.") The wai", which has waited thousands of millions of pounds, and has devastated thousands of towns and villages, has taught the belligerent nations the need of economy. It has taught them that cnly by rigid economy, by abandoning the careless methods acquired in years of peace, can a great war, with its prodigious waste, l>o vigorously prosecuted. But the end or this wasteful ■war will not mean the ond of compulsory economy among the nations of Europe. The necessity for economy in all directions will continue for years. It is possible thut most of the benefits of the lessons in economy emphatically taught by the war will be permanent; it is certain that the old careless methods acquired in years of peace will not be revived for a, generation at least. Food rationing was the first form or compulsory cconomy in Great Britain, and it carried its lessons to every home in the country. In peace times food has been so plentiful and so cheap that much food was wasted. But the shortage of. food and the shortage of shipping to carry food cargoes, compelled the nation not only to avoid waste, but to eat loss. New methods of cooking, in order to get the utmost valiio out of foods, were devised, and cooking recipes aiming at the same result were circulated by a paternal Government department. Wiieu potatoes were scarce in the first half of 1917, housewives were told how to eliminate them from the domestic menu, and next year, when potatoes were in .abundance as a result of the Government's appeal to the farmers to extend"their areas under potatoes, housewives were given thirty different ways in -which potatoes can be cookfed. They were urged to use potatoes as much as possible in order to save bread. The shortage of meat supplies, followed by the rationing of meat on a basis of about lib per head per week, gave scope, for the culinary art in the form of meatless dishes. Here the paternal Government department assisted with recipes from its newly-recruited staff of culinary experts. and patriotic chefs from famous restaurants and hotels. •

Never has economy in food been so extensively preached and practised in tlio homes of Great Britain as it is today. The need of "this economy will continue after the war. ends, for the shortage of food will riot end with the arrival of peace. It is the opinion of some authorities that the world's food shortage will become more acute next year, and will Teacli the famine stage in the first year of peace. "When the war ends, the famished nations of Germany, Austria, and Hungary will compete for a share of the world's food supplies, this will reduce the supplies that. other nations of Europe have been obtaining during .the war frotai America and other countries. ICot tilt the second or third vear of peace will the area of land under food crops reach the standard of the years before tho war, and supply tho world with its ful! requirements of food. British housewives will have had at least six years' experience of economy in cooking before food becomes plentiful and cheap. How many years will pass hefore they lose the benefits of what they havo learned in these lean years of economy ?

Coal rationing is also teaching economy to British housewives. Every house in tho country i» rationed in coal jiccording to tho number of roomß in use. Ms»ay thousands of coal-miners liavo bosn taken for military service, and this has naturally reduced the output of coal. But, oven if tho output had # not been reduced, the supplies available to the British public would be considerably bolow their normal requirements. The railways, with their depleted staffs and their depleted rolling stock (for railway engines and! trucks have been sent to the Western front, as well as railway men), canrot handle coal ou the old scale. And, in addition, large supplies of British coal go to Italy and France, for some of tho best coal fields 'in France have been in the hands of the enemy for four years. The coal rations of British householders for the coming winter are little more than half their normal requirements in peaco time. Thero can bo no doubt that in peace time many well-to-do householders wasted coal, but this year everyone will have to exercise the greatest economy in order to provide warmth in their homes. Gas for cook- i ing and lighting, and also electric light, j are rationed, because coal is required to produce them. The Coal Controller has issued, for the benefit of housewives, some domestic hints on how to economise coal in cooking, and experts are considering how to make the oldfashioned grates in English, homes less prodigal in their consumption of coal. Tho gas companies, who in normal times encouraged people to burn gas recklessly, have issued hints on the economical use of gas in cooking. Thero are many minor directions in which economy is being impressed on British housewives, besides the most important ones of food and coal. The reduction in the sizes of newspapers, and the great increase in tho price _ of stationery havo emphasised the scarcity of paper. Ordinary typewriting paper used in offices is extremely hard to get, and some qualities hay© increases aver

1000 per cent, in pricc. The general reluctance of shopkeepers to wrap up goods in paper—particularly goods in tins, packets, and boxes —is duo to tho shortage of paper. Tho shopkeepers aro also extremely careful in th«l use of string, as it is hard to get. There is no actual shortage of clothing, but the supplies of woollen and cotton goods aro not extensive, and the rango of choice is extremely limited. Tho great shortage in raw materials of all kinds has affected almost every industry, and this shortage will continue for sonio years after tho war ends. 'Manufacturers, therefore, are practising economy in the use of raw materials, and are devoting attention to the discovery of substitutes. "Before the war we lived in an age of careless waste," states the ''Daily Mail. ,; ltaw materials wero abundant; free 'imports from German factories compelled our own manufacturers to cut prices down to the lowest limit. The result was that commodities wero cheap, and, being cheap, were squandered. \Ve squandered coal, petrol, paper, metals, textiles, bread, meat, and oijher foods. Tho age of wasto has gone because the a <40 of plenty has gone, not to return in our generation. Tho world food shortago will last much longer than the war; tho shortage of metals and other materials will see our time out. J-ho reconstruction of lliurope s shattered cities, the replacing of sunk shipping, and the restoring of worn-out railway lines, engines, carriages, and trucKs will have first lien for many years on metals, timber, and many other, raw materials." , . r "The waste of metals m our age or waste was as great as the waste of coal. We wasted tin, every household throwing away its empty tins. Wo wasted glass, as if bottles grew like gross We wasted iron prodigally, as m testified by miles of needless iron railings in front of houses and gardens, of which London's iron forest alone nught furnish our munition works with iron for a year. Faced with the problem of retting tho utmost efficiency out of scanty materials, we must find new methods of dealing with materials."