New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-20
The Food Prohteers


suasion has not accomplished what II was
expected to accomplish. Undoubtedly ne
underestimate. and Congress also under
estimated. the force Of economic habit.
The mistake was made Of not recognizing
that proiteering, so ingrained IN our
nrcsent economic scheme of things, would
Weld TO nothing short Of actual legal
compulsion.
You can talk patriotism, or commu-
nitv efficiency or the greatest good OF
the greatest number to the average
nrofteer and still leave him uncon-
WINGED that he ought to surrender his
profits voluntarily. And it would hardly
be natural if he didn't remain uncon-
WINGED. As a nation we have accepted for
more than a century the extreme lndl-
vidualist theory of politics and economies.
We have followed Jefferson in one field
and the English laissez faire school IN
the other. We have put halo around the
head of the successful profiteer in trade
and industry, and have accepted, until re-
Gently, without much question the dictum
that it is bad politics ever to interfere
with business. That was Mark Hannas
motto; and Hanna was a very great
power in American politics only fifteen
years ago.
The food regulation law which Congress
passed put legal restraints on the big MD
dlemen-the operators on vast scale who
had made themselves the most conspicuous
examples of the evils of profteering
These men have bowed to the new law be-
cause there was nothing else for them to
do. But Congress, feeling that it would
be comparatively easy to control the mid
dlemen, and might be highly difficult as
well as unpopular to attempt to control
the producers and the small retailers,
shiftily decided to leave these last two
groups under no restraint beyond an ap-
peal to their sense of patriotism and COM
munity service.
What is the result? The producer and
the retailer, so far as they retain their
freedom of action, are still all for prof
iteering. For years they have seen the big
middeman absorb the bulk Of the profit
on food distribution. They now view his
elimination with glee, and hope to divide
between them the share which was for
merly his. They would be hardly human if
they didn't yield to this temptation, SC
long as the law puts no obstacles in their
wav other than their public spirit and
self-restraint.
MIR. Hoover says that retailers are
charging artificial prices for flour, sugar
potatoes and other necessaries Of life, ano
that many producers are boarding crops
1t is manifest that these practices vii
continue. for the small business man a.
we'll as the big business man, the farmer
as well as the food Spectator, has beer
taught for generations to think that bust
ness sagacity requires him to hold his out
nut for the highest attainable price anC
10 extract the largest possible profit in &
spirit of thanksgiving.
The people Of the big cities, who are II
closest contact with the retailer, see clear
", if Congress did not see it, that thu
profteer on a small scale may collect
plumber lust as effectually as the big fooc
speculator. The retailers have had tn,
habit Of laying all extortionate prices a
the door of the big middleman and posing
as Joint victims with the public Of the big
middleman's rapacity. We see now wha
the petty handler is ready to do when HI
gets the chance.
Human nature has not changed over
night, since war was declared or since
Mr.. Hoover was made Food Admins
traitor. In so far as the government ha:
been invested with power, and has usec
that power, extortion in food prices ha.
been stopped. But II is clear that thu
power given the food administration wa:
not extensive enough. 1t must now be ex
panded so as TO cover the profteerng pro
Queer and the profteering retailer.
War is a great teacher. 1t has already
opened the eyes of the public to the posi-
bility of getting rid of our overcostly dis
tribution machinery and Of cruelty ex
ccssive food prices Federal and state fooC
regulation is war measure adopted pri
marily for military reasons. But If Il
proves effective in military way it can
not but revolutionize all our inherited
economic practices.
If the present moderate regulative act
fails here and there. as it already prom
Uses TO do. and We have a temporary sugar
famine. or milk famine, or a wheat
bread shortage or excessive prices due to
boarding by producers and extortion by
retailers, then government control will be
pushed further and further, and price
regulation from the farm down TO the