File No. 763.72112/2861
Dr. Edmund von Mach,
executive chairman of the Citizens’ Committee for Food Shipments, to
the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs, Department of
State (Putney)
New York,
July 14, 1916
.
[Received July 17.]
My Dear Mr. Putney: I enclose copies of the Taylor report with our notes to the
same, and also a copy of the notice I sent to the press yesterday.
When I returned to New York, I found that the publication of the report
had wrought havoc, and that it was necessary to send out a statement
with regard to it. In paragraph 5 of this statement, I had you
especially in mind.
It becomes necessary for me to send you the statement as I sent it to the
press, because we find that this morning’s World
refers to it under the very misleading heading, “Von Mach calls United
States milk report untrue.” It seems a pity that when people like you
and myself wish to discuss matters in a gentlemanly way, big newspapers
will either thoughtlessly or purposely misrepresent their actions.
I have no additional copy of the Dr. Paul Bartholow
letter, but after Mr. Polk has
finished reading it, I am sure he will be glad to let you have it. In my
interview with Mr. Polk, he
seemed to lay stress on the fact that the Doctor Taylor report was “approved” by the
German Government. In referring to Mr. Adee’s letter of July 6, I find the following statement:
“A copy of this report was submitted to the German Government which on
June 26 last approved of its publication in the United States.”
The observation of David Lawrence in the Evening Post quoted in Article 2 of my general
observations, in the enclosed notes to Doctor Taylor’s report; appears to me to be
pertinent.
Very sincerely yours,
[Enclosure]
Notes to Doctor Taylor’s report on the milk situation in Germany
prepared by the Citizens’ Committee for Food Shipments1
General Observations
Dr. A. E. Taylor, who seemed
to be known to the officials of the State Department, enjoys,
according to information we have gathered, “a very great reputation
as a fearless and impartial man.”
This report has been published in the press as “approved by the
German Government,” but to quote the New York Evening Post, “It develops now that the German Government
was merely asked if it had any objection to the publication of the
report. This is not necessarily tantamount to approval any more than
consent to publish notes on the submarine issue constituted
acquiescence by Germany in the American point of view.”
[Page 966]
And as if in answer to the mistaken interpretation of the report by
the American press, the Associated Press sent for the papers of July
13 the following dispatch:
Bremen agents of the submarines’ owners declare the new submarine
enterprise was prompted mainly by humanitarian feelings, as
German babies are dying because of the shortage of milk.
The report is dated April 17, and can not therefore be the reply to
cables sent by the State Department on June 13 to Ambassador
Gerard for a report on
the milk supply of Germany. The report is utterly at variance with
the statements by the mayor of Berlin, published in the American
press on April 9, by the German Foreign Secretary, published here on
May 28, and the president and secretary of the German Red Cross,
published here on May 31 (collected in Milk for
Babies by Dr. Edmund von Mach in
evidence submitted to the State Department).
- 1.
- The German milk production has never been large enough for
the growing need of the country. There have been enormous
importations from the surrounding countries in previous
years.
- 2.
- The consumption of milk as a beverage of healthy adults in
Germany is much more restricted than in America. According
to the figures of the London Board of Trade the average
consumption of milk in Germany, before the war, as ca. 55
quarts per person per year. In Boston it is 200 quarts per
person per year, and in Cleveland it is ca. 180 quarts.
These figures seem to be characteristic of the other large
cities in the United States.
- 3.
- Doctor Taylor
omits to mention the enormous reduction, or rather complete
cessation, of imported milk-producing fodder—cottonseed
meal, oil cakes, etc.—on which Germany relied for its milk
production. The import amounted to several million
tons.
- 4.
- This has been the contention of the Citizens’ Committee
for Food Shipments. How Doctor Taylor starting with this premise could
reach his own conclusions is incomprehensible.
- 5.
- Doctor Taylor does
not discuss one of the factors of the very low birth rate
which is found in the insufficient foods, especially milk,
available for prospective mothers. Compare here Doctor
Kettner in the Zietschrift für Säuglingsschutz, February 1916.
Speaking of the babies latterly born, Doctor
Kettner says: “They are very small
children, generally defective in growth, delicate, and
remarkably thin. Their skin is wrinkled owing to the
complete absence of fat. They therefore often remind one of
very old people. Another and very essential indication is
their continual unrest.”
- 6.
- It does not appear whether these figures are for Berlin
only, or for the Empire. The report as a whole it would seem
is based exclusively on investigations made in some
institutions of Berlin. So far as we know, moreover, only
the Berlin figures have been published. These show a
decrease in infant mortality to November and October of
1915, when the figures fell to a little over 11 in 100. (In
New York these figures are about 10 in 100.) In December the
figures rose to the enormous figure of 16.5 in 100. Doctor
Taylor does not
mention this.
- 7.
- This would seem to show that the so-called lower death
rate has been achieved in spite of the milk shortage. Notice
the agencies described on the next page.
- 8.
- This is contrary to the information published in the North German (Official) Gazette, for Strassburg, for
instance, and for Charlottenburg, a suburb of Berlin, where
only recently a young mother was without milk for two days.
Our authority for this is Dr. A. N.
Davis, an American dentist in Berlin. Doctor
Davis is the Emperor’s
dentist.
- 9.
- If these figures are only normal in spite of the
additional precautions described above, there would seem to
be some cause that prevented an improvement, and that cause
probably is the shortage of milk.
- 10.
- How about Leipzig, e. g., or Upper Silesia, where we know
that conditions are very bad?
- 11.
- Why does Doctor Taylor not discuss
the “sick of all ages” independently? If he had done so, he
would have mentioned that recently the young lady in Mr.
Gerard’s own
office was ill with a cold attacking her lungs, that the
physician prescribed milk, but that it was impossible to
fill the order, because there was not enough milk in Berlin.
Congressman Conry is in possession of a letter from Germany
where a mother writes of her two little children that had
been
[Page 967]
critically
ill but were convalescent now. Their convalescence, however,
was greatly retarded by the lack of milk.
- 12.
- This seems incredible. If it were true, it would mean that
Germany had no need either of the enormous imports of
concentrates, milk-producing fodder for her cattle, or of
the enormous import of milk, cream, and cheese, from
Holland, Denmark, and Sweden, that went on before the
war.
- 13.
- Same as subject 12.
- 14.
- How are “more normal conditions” possible so long as the
milk-producing fodder is not to be had
- 15.
- This assumption appears to us to be altogether wrong,
especially in view of the description of the babies born
to-day quoted under No. 5.:
- 16.
- This has reference to pork fat and has absolutely nothing
to do with
- 17.
- the question of the milk supply.
- 18.
- This is contrary to the evidence collected by the
Citizens’ Committee for Food Shipments and submitted to the
Department of State; nor does it seem to be the necessary
conclusion from the report submitted by Doctor Taylor, especially in view
of his statement commented under No. 4.
For further difficulties in the way of accepting Doctor Taylor’s report as correct for the
whole German Empire, see Dr. Paul Bartholow’s
letter. Doctor Bartholow is a member of the New
York Academy of Medicine.
