Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-10-30

Denent OF the FOOD administration tC
the people can as yet probably be bet.
ter measured In that which has not
happened rather than in that which
changes and on the curbs, and actual
|prof1teering In foods, has been or soor
will be stopped on the staple com
modities which go to sustain life. Wal
has heretofore, In all nations and
with all peoples, meant unlicensed
speculation in foodstuffs. For the first
time in history an attempt, which nov
seems assured Of success. has been
made to curb the greed Of speculatore
during a time Of national peril.
During the Civil war there was
never any actual shortage In food
stuffs. and yet prices not only went up
very rapidly, but they continued
ascending in the latter SOS. The crest
era prior to 1864, and then on only
q few commodities. Some prices stop
ped advancing at the close OF the war
in 1856, and some commenced de-
clining only in 1857 and 1858. Prob
ably 1857, two years after the war
had closed, marked the highest prices
of this era. It raj to prevent q repe-
tition of this disastrous experience
that the United States food admins
tration RAJ created and Hoover made
it's chief.
A very notable instance now in the
public mind is the case Of sugar. When
1t Is remembered that during the Civil
war era sugar went up to $50 per
barrel, with no real sugar shortage
in the world, one can only guess what
cept for the s%tabilizing influence of
the food administration and its agree
ment with the sugar producers, re-
finers and jobbers, now that there is q
confessed shortage of this staple not
only in the United States, but through
u the world.
No Advance in Sugar Price Made
By Wholesaler to Retailer.
It is to the credit Of the jobbing and
wholesaling houses throughout the
United States that the food admins
tration has been unable to hnd one
single instance wherein during the
present shortage the price has been
advanced to the retailer by the whole
saler. It is true that the food i'd
ministration gave warning to the
jobbing and wholesale people that II
its attention was called to any ad-
vance in price during the present
panicky condition Of the public mind.
forfeiture of license under which the
jobber or retailer will be operating
after November 1 would be made.
The actual saving in dollars and
cents to the people Of this country
because Of the agreement obtained by
the food: administration with the pro-
ducers and refiners Of sugar would be
hard to estimate, but 1t unquestion-
ably runs into many millions Of dol
lars, ever IL tho possibilities Of the
present critical situation be not con-
sidered. 49,.
Wheat is another instance Of what
might have happened. q
Between the time when this gov
eminent declared that a state Of wal
existed, on April 6, and the appoint
ment, without governmental power, OF
Hoover as food administrator, on May
II. the price Of wheat and flour more
than doubled. This was a purely
speculative increase at a time when
there. was only a rather vague under
standing of the wheat demands to be
made this rear upon the United States
Perhaps nothing more remarkable
has ever been recorded in commercial
history than the fact that Hoover
without actual legal powers, called the
grain exchange people of the coUntry
to Washington to inform them thai
speculation in wheat must cease, and
the spirit Of acceptance that met hi
declaration.
It should be remembered that ut ne
time in the history of this countr.
had there ever been such. opportuni'
ties for speculative profits in whea,
and flour. Not only all the wheat II
this country had become necessary 70,
the ~s1letenaNca NJ tina world h,,f %h1