Meat Eater

Meat-loving patrons, profit-loving stockholders, encompassed the downfall, last week, of the "Vegetable-wise" policy of the Childs Co. Devoted to vegetarianism, President William Childs had offered patrons of his 120 restaurants every conceivable substitute for meat. He had invoked the experience of the heroic Greeks, meat-haters. Statistics of calories and vitamins filled his menus. But gross sales for five months of 1928 showed a falling off of 9%, while the common stock sagged from a high 74 in 1925 to a 1928 low of 38. And last week he yielded, but without grace. Inept, as a bid for popularity, were the advertisements inserted for the first time in the newspapers. They read:

NEW BILL OF FARE Freedom of Choice MEATS For the Meat Eater FRUITS CEREALS FRESH VEGETABLES DAIRY PRODUCTS For Health and Economy.