Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1916-09-28
rI1En AMERICA EIRsT,

FEED AMERICA FIRST
In New York and other places the
bakers have decided to raise the
price of the small loaf of bread from
to cents. In addition the bakers
Of the country and other dealers in
foods are going to petition the Presi-
dent to place an embargo on wheat.
The New York Commissioner Of
Weights and Measures, Joseph Har-
tigan, says on that subject
Thirty thousand bakers have al
ready placed petitions to the Presi-
dent for a wheat embargo in their
stores for customers to sign, and the
butchers, grocers and other trades
people are demanding that the en-
barge be extended to every product.
he demand will be made all over
the country with a slogan of Feed
America First The petition calls
for a special session of Congress to
pass the embargo and demands inn
mediate Investigation Of food prices
by the Federal Trade Commission.
"Our wheat crop is 100000, 900
bushels short this year. We have
only 600,000,000 bushels, half of
which is being sent to Europe, and
$4,000, 900 OF which is used for seed.
Unless there is an embargo at once,
bread will rise 100 per cent. by
January. We can get no wheat from
Canada and Argentina.
Already large baking companies
in New York City have added one
cent to the price If a loaf of bread.
They say the raise has been renuered
necessary on account of war price for
flour and other ingredients. This
additional cent will mean that New
Workers win have imposed upon
them an additional tax Of $16.000,-
600 for their bread bill. Instead Of
paying $45, 100000 every year for
bread, the city viii spend SCI, ,6O0,-
600. 1t Is estimated that 100000
persons in New York consume, on
an average, six ounces Of bread every
day. The annual bread bill for each
individual is 1912. With an increase
of l cent a loaf the individual ex-
penditure annually would be in
creased by $1.83-or to $10.95."
The raising Of the price for bread
by the bakers, and also the move
ment among the milk dealers to adj
vance the price for milk Is alarming
the Administration in Washington.
The District Attorneys all over the
country have been instructed to in
vestigate and see If they can detect
any kind of a secret understanding
among the bakers and also among
the milk dealers to raise the prices.
In other words: they are instructed
to hunt for plots, and we should
not be surprised, If German plots"
are meant, as great many of the
bakers and Of the milkdealers are
Germans or of German extractionl
But it will be very difficult for
District Attorneys to bolster up a
charge Of German plotting" in this
Instance The evidences are too
plain that the movement for raising
the price Of bread and milk is the
natural consequence of our unpre-
cedented export of wheat and con-
denced milk In the fiscal year, end
ing June 80, 1914, we exported 92
million bushels of wheat; in the first
year of the war our export Of wheat
jumped to 26O millions of bushels,
and in the second year of the war
our export OF wheat was 173H "a mil
lion bushels. In the last year be-
fore the war we exported 16 million
pounds of condensed milk; in the
first year of the war the export of
condensed milk amounted to 81 mil
lion pounds and in the second year
Of the war 1t jumped to the astonish-
ing high figure Of 155,334,322
pounds. These figures suffice to show
the reason for the present high price
of wheat flower and the movement
among the bakers and the milk deal
ers to advance the price Of bread and
u, fc N q
one. There is no plotting" The
government can stop the further ad-
vance of the prices for foodstuffs by
providing for America first" by
feeding America first.