Part 2: Women organize to support the World War I effort through food production and conservation

by Don Audette, Fall 2008

In June 1917, a Virginia Division of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense (WCCND) organized 64 women's groups in Virginia to support the war effort. Their first task was to carry out Food Registration Day on July 1, 1917. This was a national recruiting effort to have food-pledge cards signed by the women of the United States to be sent to Herbert Hoover, the Food Administrator in Washington, D.C.

The card read as follows:

TO THE FOOD ADMINISTRATOR,
WASHINGTON, D.C.

I am glad to join you in the service of Food Conservation for our Nation, and I hereby accept membership in the United States Food Administration, pledging myself to carry out the directions and advice of the Food Administrator in the conduct of my household, insofar as my circumstances permit.

Name _____________________________________________________
Address ___________________________________________________
Number in Household _________	Do you employ a cook?____________
Occupation of Breadwinner ____________________________________
Will you take part in authorized neighborhood movements for food conservation? ______________________________________________

There are no fees or dues to be paid. The Food Administration wishes to have as members all of those actually handling food in the home.

DIRECTIONS

Return signed card to Local or County Chairman, who will send all cards to Food Administrator, Washington, D.C. You will receive FREE your first instructions and a tag to be hung in your window.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch of July 8, 1917, noted that, according to Hoover, the primary purpose of the registration "will be to see that the people of this county eat a sufficient quantity of food, but not to excess; and that they stop waste; also to reduce to the consumption of staples, which must be exported to the Allies to keep them effective, so that a larger amount of these staples may be shipped abroad. In particular, the free use of vegetables and perishable foods where they are produced, the perishable and semi-perishable vegetables and other foods; the substitution of other cereals to large extent for wheat, and a material reduction of the consumption of meat, will be among the first things taken up. This country must do these things voluntarily. The women of the country must be relied upon to accomplish the major part of this necessary work."

To obtain signatures, the state divisions of the Woman's Committee used house-to-house canvasses, or regular polling places were opened to lend a more official sense to the registration, or policemen on a beat were used. In some rural areas, the assistance was from rural mail carriers. Although the registration drive started on July 1, 1917, the completion date was subsequently extended to September 5. The nationwide result of this first drive was that of 5,223,850 cards distributed, 1,915,859 signed pledges were returned to Washington, D.C. A second pledge drive was held in October 1917, and a total of 6,360,090 names were obtained.

One aspect of the registration task was that not all women were that enthusiastic about signing a pledge card for food conservation. A great many women resented that they were being asked to give up, say, white flour, while men were not being asked to give up alcoholic beverages that made use of part of the wheat supply. There was also German propaganda spread amongst the poor that said the whole food-conservation program was against the poor and that the rich were not being asked to save food. Foreign women in the United States who could not read English were told that they were signing up for war service. Many women in Minnesota and Wisconsin refused outright to sign the registration cards.

Registration for the Service of Women

In the fall of 1917, the federal government initiated the Registration for the Service of Women. The registration effort was carried out by each state division of WCCND. The purpose was to determine what service women might perform in the war effort. The registration card asked information about a woman's personal qualifications, if she had training or experience in any of more than 150 different occupations, if she wished to serve in that occupation, or if she desired training in an occupation. One set of occupations was devoted to agriculture and contained six categories: dairying, farming, fruit raising, gardening, poultry raising, and stock raising.

The registration procedure was widely publicized as voluntary and was described as a privilege. It was to take place according to school district or voting precinct. At each site, five to eight trained women would be available to guide women in filling out their registration card so as to avoid any misinterpretations. For example, poultry-raising was a business. Throwing some feed out the back door to a few hens in the backyard was not deemed a business. To make things appear more official, registration was to take place at a fixed location instead of going from home by home. A letter from WCCND of September 22, 1917, among other things, listed nine objectives of the registration:

To give every woman an opportunity to offer to her country such service as she is best fitted to render.
To interpret to the government the possibilities of the woman power of the county.
To furnish accurate information to the government of the capacities in which women are now serving, whether in their own homes or in paid pursuits, trades, or professions.
To have in every community lists of women carefully classified, who are willing to be called upon for trained or untrained service to the state or the nation.
To ascertain which women are available for service outside the home, and which are not.
To list the women who wish to take training in order to give more efficient service.
To be able to furnish women for local paid positions, whether in the government service or not.
To be able to place women who can volunteer their services in positions of usefulness in many fields.
To have a registry of the capacities and training of the women of the country as a basis of the work of WCCND.

The training of the registrars was elaborate, conducted in groups, and questions were encouraged. There was also actual practice in filling out registration cards. Under points to be emphasized, one sensitive aspect of the registration was that "women will not be forced to give their exact age, but are advised to do so, as certain Government positions are open only to women between certain ages. The age should at least be given in decades ‘over 30 or under 40,’ etc."

Inventory of Food in the United States at the End of 1917

Another interesting investigation undertaken by the government during World War I was an inventory carried out by the Bureau of Markets of the U.S. Department of Agriculture of all food available in the United States on December 31, 1917. It covered between a 500,000 and 750,000 establishments as well as 40,000 representative family pantries, so the latter figures could be extrapolated to the 20,000,000 families in the U.S. The U.S. population in 1917 was 103,268,000.

Establishment included grain elevators, common and cold storage concerns, meat packers, carriers, exporters, wholesale and retail grocers, bakers, confectioners, butchers, and other dealers. Also included were the inventories retained by schools, hospitals, asylums, and other institutions; the larders of hotels, restaurants, commissaries, military bases, immigration stations, purchasing agents for foreign governments, and a slew of mom-and pop shops in cities; and small stores at rural crossroads. The purpose was to find out if U.S. citizens and the military could be fed before harvest time, what was available for allied armies, and how much was available for citizens of friendly neutral nations in need of food.

Part 1: "Eat Local" movement has roots in history

Part 3: Home gardens in World War I

Part 4: School gardens in World War I

Part 5: Community gardens in World War I

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