Food Administration
Title
Food Administration
Creator
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Identifier
WWP19236
Date
1917 October 27
Description
Woodrow Wilson calls on individual Americans to support the food conservation efforts of the Food Administration in order to provide an adequate food supply to meet the relief needs of the war.
Source
Hoover-Wilson Correspondence, Hoover Institution, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
United States Food Administration
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924--Correspondence
Language
English
Text
The chief part of the burden of finding food supplies for the peoples associated with us in war falls for the present upon the American people, and the drain upon supplies on such a scale necessarily affects the prices of our necessaries of life.
Our country, however, is blessed with an abundance of foodstuffs, and if our people will economize in their use of food, providently confining themselves to the quantities required for the maintenance of health and strength; if they will eliminate waste; and if they will make use of those commodities of which we have a surplus and thus free for export a larger proportion of those required by the world now dependent upon us, we shall not only be able to accomplish our obligations to them, but we shall obtain and establish reasonable prices at home. To provide an adequate supply of food both for our own soldiers on the other side of the seas and for the civil populations and the armies of the Allies is one of our first and foremost obligations; for if we are to maintain their constancy in this struggle for independence of all nations, we must firstalso maintain their health and strength. The solution of our food problems, therefore, is dependent upon the individual service of every man, woman and child in the United States. The great voluntary effort in this direction which has been initiated and organized by the Food Administration under my direction offers an opportunity of service in the war which is open to every individual, and by which every individual may serve both his own people and the peoples of the world.
We cannot accomplish our objects in this great war without sacrifice and devotion, and in no direction can that sacrifice and devotion be shown more than by each home and public eating place in the country pledging its support to the Food Administration and complying with its requests.
WOODROW WILSON
Our country, however, is blessed with an abundance of foodstuffs, and if our people will economize in their use of food, providently confining themselves to the quantities required for the maintenance of health and strength; if they will eliminate waste; and if they will make use of those commodities of which we have a surplus and thus free for export a larger proportion of those required by the world now dependent upon us, we shall not only be able to accomplish our obligations to them, but we shall obtain and establish reasonable prices at home. To provide an adequate supply of food both for our own soldiers on the other side of the seas and for the civil populations and the armies of the Allies is one of our first and foremost obligations; for if we are to maintain their constancy in this struggle for independence of all nations, we must firstalso maintain their health and strength. The solution of our food problems, therefore, is dependent upon the individual service of every man, woman and child in the United States. The great voluntary effort in this direction which has been initiated and organized by the Food Administration under my direction offers an opportunity of service in the war which is open to every individual, and by which every individual may serve both his own people and the peoples of the world.
We cannot accomplish our objects in this great war without sacrifice and devotion, and in no direction can that sacrifice and devotion be shown more than by each home and public eating place in the country pledging its support to the Food Administration and complying with its requests.
WOODROW WILSON
Original Format
Speech
Files
Citation
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924, “Food Administration,” 1917 October 27, WWP19236, Hoover Institute at Stanford University Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.