Going Vegetable-wise

"The public doesn't seem to care whether it gets dyspepsia or not. You have to give them what they want," Stockholder L. A. Mathey lectured the Childs Co.'s management at last week's annual meeting. Applause from stockholders was in all the greater contrast to the silence of the management. President and General Manager William Childs was absent. Neither were the du Pont interests (large stockholders) represented at the meeting. Vice President S. Willard Smith, facing the barrage of stockholders' criticism alone, in the absence of all the Childs--William, Luther, E. Ellsworth, William S., all directors--admitted that January, 1928, earnings were one-half of those of January, 1927. Stockholder Mathey said the loss was due to the restaurants' failure to serve meat, their pushing of vegetables and "health foods" (savita, salt substitute). Miss Charlotte Currie, downtown businesswoman stockholder, spoke for business womankind, now refusing to "Go Vegetable-wise," eating elsewhere than at Childs. Other stockholders complained of "stores fitted out like palaces" unable to draw trade; lack of display of the Childs' name; "water should be served with meals as in the past;" "Childs should advertise;" Childs' prices were too high; the New Year's Eve (1928) $1 minimum check "did the company more harm than good."

Vice President Smith replied: "Our outlook in the near future seems good." Nevertheless the stockholders adopted a motion of adjournment to some date within the next three months when President William Childs would be on hand "to answer queries."

Author William Childs summed up, in a recent pamphlet, to his patrons:

"It is generally known that dietetic authorities minimize the use of meat, and a great many exclude it from the diet altogether. The least one can do, in justice to himself, is to minimize meat. Accordingly, we, through research and on the advice of eminent authorities, are disposed to offer to the public a list of foods that are chosen for their dietetic value and scientifically prepared, in order that we may have the ultimate satisfaction of seeing that the public benefits by this highly intelligent doctrine. Therefore, we repeat the phrase which has already been stated--Man is made of what he eats. Eat for efficiency; go vegetable-wise."