potatoes once grew rosy-cheeked children. But bread and tea is the general
diet now. War rations? Ireland was not put on war rations. To regulate the
amount of butter and bacon per family would have been superfluous labor.
Few families got even war rations.[7] Charitable organizations doubt if
they should give relief to families who are able to have an occasional meal
of potatoes in addition to their bread and tea. In a recent pamphlet[8] the
St. Vincent de Paul Society said: "A widow ... who after paying the rent of
her room, has a shilling a day to feed herself and two, three, four or even
more children, is considered a doubtful case by the society. Yet a shilling
a day will only give the family bread and tea for every meal, with an
occasional dish of potatoes. By strict economy a little margarine may be
purchased, but by no process of reasoning may it be said that the family
has enough to eat, or suitable food." The Irish wage would have to be a
high wage to buy the old diet. For that is not supplied by Ireland for
Ireland any more. When Ireland became a cow lot, cereal and vegetable crops
became few. But milk should be plentiful? The recent vice-regal milk
commission noted the lack of milk for the poor in Ireland. Why? The town of
Naas tells one reason. Naas is in the midst of a grazing country, but Naas
babies have died for want of milk, because Naas cattle are raised for beef
exportation. The town of Ennis tells another reason. Ennis is also in the
center of a grazing country. Until the Woman's National Health Association
established a depot, Ennis poor could not get retailed pitchersful of milk,
for Ennis cows are raised to supply wholesale cansful to creameries which
make the supply into dairy products for exportation.[9]

Bread-and-tea, and bread-and-tealess families get on the calling list of
tuberculosis nurses. "The nurses often found," writes the Woman's National
Health Association, "that a large number of cases committed to their care
were in an advanced stage of the disease ... in a number of cases families
have been found entirely without food. This chronic state of lack of