The Hartford republican., 1918-12-20
To HEAD Off
FOOD SPECTATORS
Methods Being Sought
To Regulate Prices
After War
By Robert w. Hobbs.

Washington, Dec. 17.-Some meth
cd of continuation of government su-
pervision of retail food prices is be-
ing sought to prevent an outbreak
Of food profiteering at the conclusion
of peace.
Immediately on the signing of the
armistice, it is charged, retailers be-
gan to jump in prices, feeling that
the war was over and that the decks
were again cleared for business as
normal, which they are said to have
Interpreted to mean "all that the traf-
fic will bear"
The enforcement division of the
food administration was at once flood
ed with complaints. 1t proceeded
to hurry a warning to all state ad-
ministrators and their assistants that
the fair price lists were to be con-
tinued and the margins of profit al
lowed retailers on staple commodities
would not be varied while the ad-
ministration was in existence. This
will be until the President proclaims
peace.
The final message of Herbert
Hoover to his confidential assistants
before he left for Europe contained
a warning to them of the necessity of
activities against profiteering:
I'VE should at once begin to relax
the regulation and control measures
of the food administration at every
point where they do not open a
possibility of profiteering and specu-
lation. This we can not and will not
permit so far as our abilities extend
until the last day that we have au-
thority under the law"
Plans understood to have received
approval at the White House before
the President went abroad looked to-
wards an extention of the Federal
trade commissions activities and
their assumption of the fair price ac-
tivities of the food administrations
and it's enforcement division. No
steps have been taken toward such a
transfer, however, and w. B. Colver,
chairman of the commission, points
out the constitutional difficulty.
The constitution authorizes the
federal government to regulate in
terstate commerce, but the business
of the average grocer or butcher is
not only intrastate but usually in
tracity.
Suggestions that these activities be
transferred to the Department of La
Dor, which for years has maintained
force of trained examiners to report
the rise and fall of the cost of living
CASUALLY rise) meets with the objec-
ton from the department that the
value of this reporting service lies
entirely in it's being absolutely di-
vorced from any administrative func-
tions which might color it's judicial
attitude.
In any case the constitutional limit
would affect the labor department and
also the bureau of markets of the De-
partment of Commerce, which is an
other place to which the activities
might be transferred.
Members of the food administra-
tion point out. however, that the ad-
ministration was successful through
public opinion in enforcing its rulings
before its defnation of profteering
was accepted as a lawful dictum. IL
believes that a continuation of its
community fair price boards under
some other authority would force re-
tailers to accept their price basis. for
consumers would refuse to trade with
such as exceeded these.
A slogan of the food administra-
tion would be the ruling regulation
on which all others would depend.
II follows:
For the farmer, a reasonable re-
turn for the dealer, a living profit;
for the speculator, not one cent: for
the consumer, the lowest price con-
sistent with fair dealing"