Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1916-11-28
NEW SOUTH WALES
OFFICIAL TELLS
OF FOOD CONTROL
Growers and Dealers Allowed
Fair Profit But No More
Than That
MANY PRODUCTS SOLD
FOR HALF OF COST HERE
Government Sets Prices Of
Staples Every Monday and
/: Those Prices GO"
By George Martin.

New York, Nov. 2S.-Formal appeal
for government regulation of the coun'
try's food supply was forwarded to
President Wilson today by the represen-
tatives of two million women of the Ma.
tional Housewives league.
simultaneously Patrick +. Quinn,
government commissioner for New
South Wales, explained the Australian
system of food control to the United
Press and recommended its adoption by
the United States. The plea OF the
housewives and the remedial system out
lined by Quinn dovetail with Governor
Whitman's s move for the regulation of
New York s food supply by a state
food commission. Both Quinn and Mrs.
Julian Heath, president of the House
wives league, praised Governor Whit
mans action.
The housewives rebellion, adopted by
the state chairman of the league from
every state in the union, bases its ap-
peal on the assertion that "the people
of the United States are suffering from
exorbitant prices due to shortage of
crops, increased exports, decreased i'm
ports and speculation.
The leagues appeal urges the gov
ernment "to determine by all possible
methods the food supply needed to feed
the people of the United States and to
take measures to limit sales for export
to the surplus over domestic require
ments.
Egg Boycott Spreads.
At the same time an egg boycott was
spreading rapidly and promised to be-
come countrywide.
"With spectators holding gun to
the heads Of the American people, your
situation seems to demand drastic meas
ures," said Quinn, telling why he
thought the United States should es-
tablish government control of food
prices.
"The storing of eggs, Nutter, meat
poultry and like foodstuffs to boost
prices is only less criminal than the de-
struetion of food to keen the market up
such as / have seen in San Francisco.
"I don't want to appear nosey about
the affairs of a country whose guest
am. but when see high prices in the
United States where there is no regula-
ton, and compare it with the reasonable
prices and legitimate profits obtaining
in my home country of New South
Wales, where food prices are controlled
by the government, it is strong temp
tation to say 'go thou and do like
wise.'
"Every Monday morning the pre-
vailing prices for staples are announced
by the government. If the announced
price is &c cents for butter, the house
wife knows she will pay 36 cents and no
more without ample warning. In the
United States the housewife reads quo.
tation of Al cents for butter and prays
all the way down town next morning
that it won't have jumped nickel a
pound over night.
Consumers Are Robbed.
"Thanks to our control system, house
wives in Sydney and other large cities
pay about 25 cents dozen for the best
eggs. Can you imagine that for fresh
eggs herel No, but there is no legiti
mate reason why it shouldn't be.
"Your American egg barons would
like to hit me with some of their stor.
age goods for saying it, no doubt, but
the reason eggs are not 25 cents here is
that the spectators are holding pistol
to the consumers head.
"At home we provide n reasonable
profit for the producer, one for the
wholesaler, and one for the retailer, and
yet sell many articles of food at half
and less than half what you pay here.
"The solution of your storage specu-
lation problem seems to me simple
Legislation prohibiting the sale of cold
storage products altogether is the solu-
tion.
Some Forcible Comparisons.
"There is plenty Of food of all kinds
in the United States. The spectators
have got dealers-and consumers by the
throat. They have raised the false cry
of heavy exports on account of the
war; and then have boosted prices on
that articficial theory. This is "a situa-
tion that could not exist in New South
Wales
''In Australia we believe that o gev-
ernment which cannot control prices for
the benefit of the people is not living
up to its obligations as democracy.
scan you imagine two pound loaf
of bread selling in the United States
for seven centsf / think not. Yet