Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-06-21
ASSA|LS
FOOD CROOKS"
President Appeals TO Congress
to Pass Control Bill
POPULAR INDIGNATION RISING

President Says Nation Will Hold Foes
of National Measure to Account as
Prices Mount-Not Measure to Con-
troll, He Says, But to Release Ma.
TONS Supply.
Washington, June 19.-That much
criticised bill creating the office of
food controller has begun it's stormy
passage through congress. Determin-
ed attack was directed against it in
the house. In the senate was present
ed the unusual spectacle of the chair
man OF the agricultural committee
saying he could not conscientiously
support the measure.
Nevertheless the administration is
behind the bill with all it's might
President Wilson addressed a letter
to Representative Borland making it
plain that ne would hold congress re-
sponsible for any unheards of rise in
food prices. The house will hold day
and night sessions until the bill is
disposed of.
Hoover Goes Before Committee.
So anxious is the administration to
pass the measure and so DESTROYS Of
impressing upon congress the need
of the situation, that Herbert C. Hoov-
er, presidential choice for food con-
troller, personally addressed the SEN
ators at an informal meeting. He not
only explained the bill, but submitted
to searching questions.
In the house, Lever of South Caro-
lima, chairman of the agricultural com
mittee and author of the measure, de-
dended it. Young of Texas, member
of the committee, led the attack
against it. In the senate, Gore of Ok
lahoma relinquished care of the meas
ure to Chamberlain of Oregon Hard
wick of Georgia criticised the con-
stitutionality of the measure, terming
it ''in some respects the most danger
Gus bill ever presented to the Ameri-
can people,
To Drive Gamblers Out.
e,
Lever said:
eve intend to drive from the es-
tablished agencies of distribution the
market manipulation, the gambler, the
man who buys as cheaply as he can
and sells as dearly as he may, the
shylOck of commerce who would rob
| the widow and orphan. or. fitch pen
MES from the blind man with as much
unconcern as he would evidence in or
dering a meal at a downtown restau-
rant"
mo honest business man need be
hurt by the power conferred in the
BILL" declared Mr. Lever. ut is the
crook that shall suffer in the sunlight
and it is the unpatriotic, selfish and
greedy that we are after
81 admit the bill is unprecedented
and remarkable But we are engaged
in an unprecedented and remarka BILE
war that is shaking the foundations of
the world. We must either confer this
so-called autocratic power upon the
constitutional head of our government
or we must be prepared to have this
power assumed by the German kaiser
''The utter chaos that has character
lied marketing and the distribution of
the necessities of life during the past
few months, the hysteria which is
driving men to hoard, the wild specu-
lation which has thrown wheat up or
RI in
be attributed to the lack of control Of
the situation at the hands of some one
with power and complete view Of
the necessities"
To Release, Not Control, Says Wilson.
President Wilson in his letter to
Representative Borland declared the
object of the administration was not
to control the food of the nation but
''to release it from the control of the
spectators and other persons who
will seek to make inordinate profits
out Of it, and to protect the people"
"a certain disservice has been done
the measure by referring to it as the
food control BILL" the President said
Ill cApld1uIuS LudL IuG puIpOSo WdS W
protect the public against extortions
by spectators and hoarders.
ut seems to me that those who op-
pose the measure ought very serious
ly to consider whether they are not
playing into the hands of such persons
and whether they are not making
themselves responsible, should they
succeed, for the extraordinary and ex-
cessive price of food in the United
States Foodstuffs will of course be in
evitably high but it is possible by per-
fectly legitimate means to keep them
from being unreasonably and oppres-
sively high.
II believe and hope that congress
will see the measure in this light and
that it will come to an early passage
for time is Of the essence The legisla-
ton should be secured by the first of