Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-03

Diy CIuei 10 De given serious con.
of bushels of /: already are wet and be-
ginning to rot and the coming of warm
weather, which cannot be much longer
delayed, will complete. its ruin The
whole difficulty has been one of trans
portation. or rather the lack of trans
portation Cars could not be obtained
for moving the corn from the country
Elevators to the elevators at the western
gram terminals, nor from the grain
| terminals to the eastern market and the
Iseaboard for overseas shipment
Nor could cars be had for moving
corn from the western corn states to
the mountain and coast states farther
west, where corn is not grown hut
Wnere II Is In large demand for feed
ing. Until the corn could be moved east
ana west from the terminal elevators
the country elevators could not be emp-
TIED. Until the country elevators were
could not be gotten in out of the
weather.
Antedates NcAdoo Period.
Mr.. McAdoo didn't like 1t when Her.
bert Hoover called attention to ths
serious situation which had resulted
trouble antedates Mr.. McAdoois sd-
lministration Of the railroads. II roen
back to last 0efober and Noyernbers
The corn should have started moefux
l(ss Ihsx tsrminsls - seOn as Nse
the soft corn. Of which there were near
lly q billion bushels and which required
te be dried But the corn didn't move
DeoemSer. chsistmss found noa the Is buiR m
Of It stfll en- the farms and In country
elevators.
when Mr. McAaoo took over the
railroads he found the country in the
av,A -
coal had to have first consideration II
was not Ontil February that any or
ganized effort was made to move the
corn crop. Then II was too hate to save
many millions of bushels of IT,
This situation resulted in the great.
est disparity ever, known between the
producing and the consuming prices Of
corn. In the corn belt farmers would,
have been glad to get $l.25 or even 81
a bushel for their corn. In the east it
brought 81 and $2.25 a bushel. and at
times was almost impossible to obtain
even at these exorbitant prices. In the
Tar west. because farmers could not
get corn for their live stock, they fed
precious wheat to their hogs and cattle
They had the hogs and cattle on hand,
they couldn't get cars to ship them to
market and they couldn't let them
starve.
High-Price Evils in East.
brought a whole train Of hiRh-prfco
evils 1t made milk dearer in every
city east of Pittsburgh Corn itself
does not enter largely into the feeding
son the price of dairy feeds always goes up
and down with the price Of corn. The
scarcity and price Of corn made poultry
and eggs high, and it made the finish
ing OF eastern hogs for market almost
out of question.
All winter long corn meal for human
consumption has been 2 cents or mere
q pound dearer than in normal years
and at times has been almost impos,
sible to obtain at all. This has resulted
in a larger use of wheat and is re-
sponsible in no small degree for the .
wheat shortage. Housewives, urged to
substitute corn meal for wheat nour
found it SO scarce and high that they
became discouraged and by thousands
they abandoned the effort at conserva-
tion.
That there still is a scarcity of corn
available for the market is shown by
the fact that the visible supply at the
principal points of accumulation is less
than half of what IL was a year ago
at this time The latest report at hand
is for February last. when the WIS.,
ible supply was placed at 5,443.0o0
bushels. on the same d0y a year ago
it was 1l.ss5.oOo bushels. and this de-
spite an increase of soc, ,0oo, 900 bushels
in the crop.
Decreased Overseas Shipments.
Inability of the railroads to bring the
corn to the eastern seaboard has re-
suited in a marked decrease in the
amount shipped overseas From Oc-
tober 29. 1917, to February 9, 1918, the
overseas shipments amounted only to
3.0S7.0O0 bushels. In the correspondents
period last year ear the overseas shipments
wanting less corn the allies were beg
ging for more. That deficit of 6,0oU. .000
bushels had to be made up somehow.
and 1t was made up largely by in.-
creased shipments of wheat.
The story>of potatoes is less tragical
than the story of corn only because
large: The losses to potato growers
Will be proportionately as great In
the great potato-growing sections po-,
tato cellars still are full while The
principal markets are -undersuppfied
and prices almost double what they
potato farmers grew an enormous crop.
And, like the corn-planters, they are
going to pocket a heavy loss Still
the potato farmers must be persuaded
to grow. q big crop again this year
II they do not there will be potato.
famine next winter.
Could Not All Be Consumed.
In one way the potato situation is
worse than that of corn. Whatever
properly dried corn is under cover
will keep over until another year. Po-
tatoes will not keep Unless the cell
lars are emptied before warm weather
comes the potatoes viii rot and -.
unit even for feeding to hogs. Ef-
e~rt. nn- eve 1,nfn@ vseaAA - ,~..reS