Daily Kennebec journal., 1917-10-20


.rasdss did not hold LID consumers for
hsxorbitsnt profits: but strikers strike,
operators operate to beat the govern
ment, and railroads "simply can't"
handle the coal needed.
After several months of this with
innunerabIe well mening commissions
named for this and for that IN all parts
Of the country. and no appreciable re-
suits. consumers feel their faith eozing
away.
Mr.. Hoover says:
I'VE have a potato harvest of 80 per
cent in excess of the crop last year
The price at the loading points varies
from $3.50 to $3.50 per hundred pounds,
depending on the section where grown
and the cost Of getting them to market
THE price, which is somewhat high
er than at this period last year, Is due
to . tendency on the part of the pro-
ducer to hold the potatoes for higher
prices than last year, despite the
greatly increased crop, and to the tenn
porary Inability of the railroads to
furnish equipment sufficient to move
from many sections the quantity avail
able at this time
We hope the potato spectators have
been scared out and that the unreason-
able pronts of iobbers and retailers
have been reduced to the fair profits"
standard But when Mr.. Hoover says
that farmers are holding for higher
prices than last year he must remem-
Der that seed cost 50 to 81 busbel
last spring and farmers were Urged To
plant them regardless of price. They
received no guarantee of profits or
even day wages for their work. such as
were SO generously conferred on COM
mercial concerns by government that
was appropriating billions as easily as
rolling off log.
We say that farmers are NOT hold
ing for higher prices than last year,
but are determined not to food the
market and demoralize it, as so com
mon in the past, to their own undoing
and no saving to the consumer. City
spectators, as Mr.. Hoover should
know. have fattened always on markets
that have fiattened out under free
shipments until storage houses are
filled with the farmers product at low
prices. then UP go the figures.
Can the farmer be blamed for want
ing to sell his product for at least one
half the price he paid for the seed
which the government fairly drove him
into planting In the spring? Mr..
Hoover should know that last years
short crop cost per acre, in seed, fer
tilizer and labor, less than ne-half
that of this year. In Maine, this fall,
are scores and hundreds of farmers
who did not get their seed back.
There are other hundreds who have
they receive as high prices as they
paid for seed, and still many others
who cannot pay for seed, fertilizer and
poison If they receive only a fair
price" as compared with the prices Of
other foods, fuels and clothings
| In good potato years 100 barrels
! fair yield. In the Aroostook potato
! garden this year good judges estimate
the average below 40 barrels, less than
40 per cent. of the accepted standard,
and that crop has cost more than any
crop ever raised in Maine-because of
last years short crop and record
prices in the spring, the shortage of
help and high prices for labor, doubled
prices for fertilizer, and outrageous
prices for poisons, machinery and
| sprays.
A few farmers would get handsome
profits at 50 per bu. for potatoes now,
but ten to each one of those would not
We believe that potatoes should re-
main as high as wheat. but they are
quickly perishable and the chances are
against the producer.
| Mr.. Hoover says this years crop Is
50 per cent. in excess of last years
crop, but last years crop was almost a
failure, and the governments insis-
tenoe in the spring increased the acre
age this year ITO SAVE THE MA
TON" Now the government is
preaching substitution Of other foods
for wheat ITO SAVE OUR ALLIES"
Are not the perishable potatoes a good
substitute. while they last7 Then why
the attempt to scare the farmers into
rushing their potatoes to market at
any price somebody else may then Ak?
! When farmers are guaranteed flair
profits" after they have done their best
undsr government advice (as manu-
facturers and labor unions are guaran-
teed fair profits, big wages and short
hours) and when the government (as
1t is empowdered to do) stops the
worse than waste Of food now convert
ed into beer, then the public will have
moro faith in the sincerity of food con-
troll and the fxinsr of prices.
After deliberating nearly six hours. q
supreme court jury at Bangor returned