e
will be food enough to win the war. Imperative necessity compels me
to cable you in this blunt way. No one knows better than I that the
American people, regardless of national and individual sacrifice,
have so far refused nothing that is needed for the war, but it now
lies with America to decide whether or not the Allies in Europe
shall have enough bread to hold out until the United States is able
to throw its force into the field...."

I remember very well the thrill and the shock that ran through the Food
Administration staff when that cable came. It seemed as if no more could
be done than was already being done. The breathless question was: Could
Hoover do the impossible? I suppose his question to himself was: Could
the American people do it? He did not hesitate either in his belief or
his action. His prompt reply was:

"We will export every grain that the American people save from
their normal consumption. We believe our people will not fail to
meet the emergency."

He then appealed to the people to intensify their conservation of wheat.
The President issued a special proclamation to the same end. The wheat
was saved and sent--and the threatened breakdown of the Allied war
effort was averted.

Hoover felt justified in July, 1918, in making an attempt to indicate
the results of food conservation during the preceding twelve months by
analyzing the statistics of food exports he had been able to make to the
Allies. It was, of course, primarily for the sake of providing this
indispensable food support to the Allies that food conservation was so
earnestly pushed. The control of these exports and the elimination of
speculative profits and the stabilization of prices in connection with
home purchases were the special features in the general program of food
administration that were pushed primarily for the sake of our own
people.

In a formal report by letter to the President on July 18, 1918, Hoover
showed that the exports of meats, fats and dairy products in the past
twelve months had been about twice as much as the average for the years
just preceding the war, and fifty per cent more than in the year July,
1916--June, 1917. Of cereals and cereal products our shipments to the
Allies were a third more than in the year July, 1916--June, 1917.

"It is interesting to note," writes the Food Administrator, "that
since the urgent request of the Allied food contr