The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-05
THE SUGAR "sHoRrAGE,p

Topeka grocers are refusing to sell
in excess of one pound of sugar to
each customer What the local con-
ditions are which make it necessary or
| advisable to enforce this restriction
are not known. but it is certain that
the general situation does not call for
such action.
In recent issue of the Christian
Science Monitor the alleged short
ages" of commodities are discussed.
under the caption, why Things Are
Scarce" as follows:
There is no famine" or sign of
famine" or excuse for anticipating
or talking about famine" of anv
kind in the United States. The coun-
try is a land of plenty, and it should
be TOO grateful for it's blessings to lis
ages" of supply in their efforts to hide
or excuse economic laundering or
wrong intentions. If the products of
the soil, the mines, and the forests
were conserved and distributed as they
should be, there would be no need. in
the United States today, for food or
fuel commissions. Products are scarce
and high either because they are cor
nered or boarded, as cotton and sugar
were recently found to be, or because
they are excluded from the natural
channels of trade and from the mar
kets by a wholly inadequate distribu-
ton system.
Let us pass over the 100000 bales
of cotton found hidden, the other day,
while a cotton famine" was being
proclaimed, and the 100000 pounds
of sugar found to have been concealed
while a sugar famine" was being her
| aided, turn away generally from econ
omic crimes against the public, and
face economic shortcomings for which
the public must, whether it will or not,
take its share of responsibility.
Never were greater quantities of po-
tatoes grown in the United States than
were produced this year. Yet there
was a potato famine" in certain parts
of the east last week, which, however,
| in response to the indignant demands
of consumers, was relieved" by the
timely arrival of several trainloadS.
There has been a sugar famine" in
the country recently. Housewives have
as rule, been unable to purchase this
| commodity for some time, save from
! hand to mouth. Many consumers of
sugar have been on the verge of a
panic. They have been told that the
that, unless relief should come from
| abroad, or from Cuba, or Hawaii, it
would give out completely. Now it is
learned that 2OO,00O,O00 pounds of
Louisiana cane sugar was contracted
| for on Wednesday, and that this i'm
mense purchase will begin moving
within a week to relieve the sugar
famine" in the eastern states.
| Recently the price of eggs, in New
York and in other cities, has been
shooting up to midwinter attitudes
| because of their scarcity. On We'd
| nesday, six carloads of eggs arrived in
New York just in time to avert a
] threatened famine" in this commOd-
| ity. And so it goes, all along the line.
There is always, in these late days,
threatened scarcity" and threat
ened famine" in foodstuffs. but the
time has very seldom been known,
since these fashions set in, when any
/ thing needed could not be bought by
/ those who could and who would pay
the price.
There are minor and incidental
| causes, of course, for "scarcities" and
''famines'' in the most fertile and pro-
ductive agricultural country in the
world, but the one principal reason
for them is the failure of the nations
| distributing system to bring products
expeditiously and cheaply to consum-
ers. There is plenty of grain and
meat; there are plenty of vegetables;
there are plenty of sugar-yielding
plants; there are plenty of eggs; there
| is plenty of butter and milk; there is
plenty of everything; but it is neither
regularly, eXpeditiously, nor evenly
distributed
The distribution system which the
United States puts up with, besides
failing utterly to keep the prices OF
foodstuffs at anything bordering on a
common level, or at anything like q
reasonable standard. affords constant
temptation and inducement to the
speculator, the manipulation, and the
monopolist.
It would pay the United States tc
invest a billion dollars in the estab-
lishment of a distribution system that
would effectually distribute. It would
nav the United States government tC
give the railroads of the country g
billion dollars, on a guarantee thai
they would furnish such a system.