One feels in Germany that the great drama of the war is the drama of the food supply—­the struggle of a whole nation to prevent itself being exhausted through hunger and shortage of raw materials.

After six months of war the bread ticket was introduced, which guaranteed thirty-eight ordinary sized rolls or equivalent each week to everybody throughout the Empire.  In the autumn of 1915 Tuesday and Friday became meatless days.  The butter lines had become an institution towards the close of the year.  There was little discomfort, however.

For seventeen months Germany laughed at the attempt to starve her out.  Then, early in 1916 came a change.  An economic decline was noticeable, a decline which was rapid and continuous during each succeeding month.  Pork disappeared from the menu, beef became scarcer and scarcer, but veal was plentiful until April.  In March, sugar could be obtained in only small quantities, six months later the unnutritious saccharine had almost completely replaced it.  Fish continued in abundance, but became increasingly expensive.  A shortage in meat caused a run on eggs.  In September egg cards limited each person to two eggs per week, in December the maximum became one egg in two weeks.  Vegetables, particularly cabbage and turnips, were plentiful enough to be of great help.

In Berlin the meat shortage became so acute in April, 1916, that for five days in the week preceding Easter most butchers’ shops did not open their doors.  This made it imperative that the city should extend the ticket rationing system to meat.  The police issued cards to the residents of their districts, permitting them to purchase one-half pound of meat per week from a butcher to whom they were arbitrarily assigned in order to facilitate distribution.  The butchers buy through the municipal authorities, who contract for the entire supply of the city.  The tickets are in strips, each of which represents a week, and each strip is subdivided into five sections for the convenience of diners in restaurants.

Since the supply in each butcher’s shop was seldom sufficient to let everybody be served in one day, the custom of posting in the windows or advertising in the local papers “Thursday, Nos. 1-500,” and later, “Saturday, Nos. 501-1000,” was introduced.  A few butchers went still further and announced at what hours certain numbers could be served, thus doing away with the long queues.

Most of the competent authorities with whom I discussed the matter agreed that the great flaw in the meat regulations was that, unlike those of bread, they were only local and thus there were great differences and correspondinng discontent all over Germany.

One factor which contributed to Germany’s shortage of meat was the indiscriminate killing of the livestock, especially pigs, when the price of fodder first rose in the last months of 1914.  Most of this excess killing was done by the small owners.  Our plates were heaped unnecessarily.  Some of the dressing was done so hurriedly and carelessly that there were numerous cases of pork becoming so full of worms that it had to be destroyed.