The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-06-20
THE DRASTIC PROVISIONS

| The bills already enacted authorize | the President to make a survey of the | food supply, to force railroads 10 grant priority in shipping any mate
 rial which might be designated and to prevent. if necessary, eXportaton oi 1 food products.
 The pending bill would authorize | the President to force diversfcation; l to supervise distribution; to regulate 1 prices even to the point of guaran- l teeing minimum and maximum; to require exchanges to abandon their | custom of speculating in food prod
 ucts: to check foreign competition
 by the establishment of elastic inn port duties to prevent exportation; to | buy ill the name of the government | and store products; to requisition food l supplies when possessed by firms or | corporations to regulate the mixture of wheat and other products in the 1 manufacture of bread to prevent the l conversion of grain into alcoholic 1 liquors; to delegate authority to lndl-
 viduals and agents, and finally to ex' pend in carrying out the foregoing | $152. 100000.
 Under the measure the President would regulate the bill of fare for ev- l cry family in the United States.
 BASIS OF OPPOSITION
 The opposition to the bill is identi- | cal with opposition to the creation 1 of a dictator. It is contended that even ] in time of war such unlimited power 1 should not be given any one man. It l is also pointed out that the President | will not be the man to discharge the duties imposed by the bill-that Her bert Hoover. whom none of us know, l in the language of Senator Reed of 1 Missouri will be the man-"H Herbert
 Hoover, an engineer, who had spec l tacular adventures in Belgium. | Congress, it appears, is willing to l make the President dictator In time
 of war. It is pointed out that the con l stitution makes this government ill | time of war a one-man government. l In the debate a senator declared that 1 he would even be willing to Prussian- | ize America for a limited period in or der that Prussia might be destroyed. While the farmers will be forced to | grow what they are told to grow, to 1 sell where instructed to sell and at a price fixed by the government, It l is contended that they will be guar 1 anteed a ready market and a high | wage. Representatives of certain ag- ricultural districts in Congress, on the other hand, oppose the bill on the l ground of their contention that it bears more progressively on the farmer | than on any other producing indi- f vidual.
 PROHIS ARE GREEDY | From one provision of the bill the | prohibitionists might secure vic tory The great bulk of the grain | which annually goes into alcoholic | beverages is converted into whisky. | There is possibility that the adminis- l tration will prevent the consumption ! of the greater part of the total. | Whisky manufacturers will probably 1 be put out of commission. l But the prohibitionists are not sat isfied. Barley, which goes into beer, l is not a food product for men. Beer, as result, will probably not be in- terfered with by the government The prohibitionists want the destruction of 1 breWeries. They will endeavor to amend the food bill by making the l suppression of beer and whisky inaii- 1 datory
 They argue that, whereas, man does
 not eat barley, on the ground where barley grows, corn and wheat could be grown. As to whether or not in | grasping for all the bread they will lose their half loaf remains to be
 seen Their contentious will neces-
 sarily greatly prolong debate on the bill.
 THE FIGHT BEGINS
 Representative Lever. chairman of the committee on agriculture, initiated the debate in the House Monday. He declares that he will secure the pass age of the bill by July I.
 Opposition to immediate consfdera- tion of the bill in the Senate was
 based on the fact that the bill in
 appropriating money is an appropria- tion bill and therefore must be passed | by the House before 1t can be pre-
 scented to the Senate. It is regarded
 as probable that in order to save time
 the Senate will temporarily strike
 from the bill the appropriation sec
 tions and later, following the pass
 age of the bill through the House, viii
 re-establish them. This would save two weeks in time.
 1 Opposition to the bill in the Sem late is led by Senators Hardwck and
 Smith of Georgia. Alabama senators
 have not up to the present time stated
 their position. Like the majority, how
 ever. it is probable that they will con-
 slider the fact of war sufficient ex-
 cuse for an abandonment of normal l convictions.