Bridgeton pioneer., 1917-07-12
H0ARDINC IS FOLLY
Increases Prices and Makes All
Food Products Scarce.
ENGLAND HAD ITS LESSON.

Newspapers Held up to Scorn Both
Hoarders and Merchants Who Had
Catered to Them, and Government
Threatened Penalties-Many PERISH
able Foodstuffs Spoiled.
New York.-The government is wor-
ried over boarding of food supplies by
individuals. So run the dispatches
from Washington. Can it be that we
are going to witness the same dis
graceful exhibition of selfish folly that
marked the opening days of the war In
England?
/ hate to believe that our country
men are so dull or so heartless. But
selfishness, like patriotism, knows no
country, and 1t may be necessary to
shame the self centered into decent be-
havior here, as was done in England
in August, 1914. Just to wake up those
who act in mere thoughtlessness it
may be pertinent to mention the expe-
rience of an American couple in the
first days after England entered the
war, says Charles J. Rosebault of the
Vigilantes.
They were living in a tiny village
twenty-four miles north of London,
and their main food supplies came up
daily by motor truck from .Sne of Lon
don's large department stores. Rumors
that there might be a scarcity had PEN
etrated even to their backwater re-
treat, but they declined to be ruffied
thereby.
So the order for the morrow went to
the department store as usual, only
bit larger than ordinary, as it was
for the week end and guests were ex-
pected 1t included fish and meat and
variety of fruit and vegetables, as
well as some canned goods. The fol
lowing day the big truck rolled up to
the door at the usual hour and dis
charged-a package of washing soda
and some clothes pins!
The motorman was apologetic, but
the department store had to admit it.
self beaten. The day before a horde
Of panic stricken Londoners had ar
rived in motorcars and had simply
swept clean the counters, shelves and
reserve bins of that huge shop. The
other shops had met with the same
experience.
All the greedy ones had acted as with
one impulse. It was as though Lon
don was already besieged and the en-
emy had it in it's grip. First come first
fed appeared to be the slogan of those
with money to buy and no regard for
their fellows.
The senseless fright was short lived.
The newspapers held up to scorn both
the hoarders and the merchants who
had catered to them. The government
took hand and threatened penalties.
The shopkeepers, stung by the al
most universal condemnation visited
upon them, took their revenge by re-
fusing to take back anything. Many
perishable foOdstuffs spoiled on the
hands Of the purchasers. The flavor
departed from others long before they
could be used. There was some poetic
justice, after all.
But there was also O darker side to
the incident. Prices Of food had jump
ed overnight, and those of slender
purse were the sufferers. Anxious
housewives found themselves with
empty larders and lacking means to
replenish them. There was much hard
ship and nobody, not even the guilty
ones, a gamer.
If there is one proposition which can
not be gainsaid it is that boarding al
ways has only one result-to increase
prices and make scarce the articles
boarded. If everybody will be sensi-
BILE and purchase only what is required
for immediate use there will be neither
scarcity nor inflated prices.