El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-06-22
FOOD PRICE CONTROL HAS NOW
BECOME VITAL NATIONAL ISSUE

|oEGRESS is entering upon hard fight over the food
control bill, administration which proposes
to place in the hands Of the president the power II
regulate the distribution and sale Of foodsI and TO fz
prices There are many other provisions but those men
toned chiefly interest the public It IS proposed to place
the executive power the hands the president
sctual administrator viii be Herbert C. Hoover whose great
ability was proved IN the work Of relief in Belgium and
northern France.
Mr. HooveS says that the present high prices Of food
the United States only in part justified by export de-
mnds He says spectators getting large share of the
dollars pay out for meat flour, sugar and other food
staples; that spectators have been taking S50ooooo
month from the American people for five months for which
return has been made This does not the specua-
tors have not been taking their toll for than five
months Nj Hoover merely giving the figures he has at
The evidences of artificial initiation Of prices are plain
When wheat being quoted the Chicago market at
nearly Sc bushe farmers protested they had received only
$40 bushe for their crops No fair profits could account
for the difference Three hundred percent added
TO the price of meat between the stockyard and the
suner The Arizona grower gets 2H cents pound for
zprcots which sell in FL Paso at IS cents pound. Trans
Potaton charges account for part OF the difference but
only small part.
Flour made from American wheat bought in the United
States and shipped across the Atlantic at the high
freight rates prevailing is less expensive in England
than IN the United States while meat and several other
prime commodities only slightly higher These only
few Illustrations chosen at random, of conditions with
which the American public is painfully well acquainted and
which is making living increasingly difficult for mil
insisted upon by the president his supporters
ress as one of The most ipoant reasons for oic action
tors Borah and Reed and of the house members
TO be based belief that food control will inure the
farmers and result In decreased production They cannot
VIII not that not the farmers only but the whole great
of the consuming public needs consideration The
suing public has been making decided sacrifices In the
effort TO make income the constantly mounting cost
Of food but the opponents Of the bill prefer that the pub
lie should to any end Of sacrifice rather than that the
farmers should suffer any curament That must be their
position if they sincerely the champions of the farm
they would have themselves appear though reality
they making themselves the champions Of the
middlemeu and Of the spectators than Of the farmers
Food control does aim to discourage the farmer,
Rather It is necessary that by Of fixed minimum
prices he be encouraged to the fullest production II aims
by fixing minimum and, possibly maximum prices, to end
speculation and reduce the margin Of profit between the
producer ard the is intended also regulate
transportation that carload of potatoes cannot be
shipped all the east from city to city, attracted from
place place by offers of higher prices and finally sold
With mountain of freight charges added It would regu
distribution that commodity viii not be drug
the market in place while in another famine prices
prevail.
hard understand the opposition Of senator Gore
his colleagues Il is difficult to believe they would
Intentionally deliver up their countrymen to further whole
ala robbery 1t is hard TO believe they have sympathy
ih the poor who forced endure the difference
b7en five loaf at five cents and five cent loaf
5 cents, for the IS cent loaf Of today little any
ge- than the five cent loaf Of few years ago 1t is