The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-02-22
NATION IS MENACED
BY FOOD SHORTAGE
Country Facing Critical Pc.
Rod, Hoover Asserts.
CONTINUED From Page One.l

over 10000 Carloads--orer 20.0o0,oo
bushels and this further aggregated
by similar shortage outside the terml-
| nails.
Furthermore, this year we have the
largest percentage of soft corn In
many years. and though We have Il
record crop of corn, a considerable por-
ton of the soft corn viii be lost by
spelling unless 1t can be moved in the
next 50 days to tho drying terminals
The least amount OF grain that must
be loaded for the next 80 days is
100000 bushels per day-and we have
not yet attained that. Less than this
Will solve neither the allied nor our
domestic situation.
Big Potato Crop Spelling.
I'VE had about 900 carloads of
potatoes on November l. which should
have been moved from the principal
producing centers and up to the first
Of February we had moved about 2s-
600 carloads while we should have
moved over $4,000 in this period. The
result is that potatoes are spelling in
the producers hands and the consum-
ing centers have only been supplied by
virtue Of the summer gardens and
other stores carried over from last
year. There is a great deal of live
stock which has been ready for the
market for some time, but is still in
the farmers hands through inability
to secure transportation. These cat
tie are eating their heads off without
increasing their meat value and are
only adding to the cost of the farmer
and consuming the grain. ~~t-a
THE effect of this delayed move
ment has been manyS fold
Margins Are Too Great.
First. to jeopardize the safety of
great deal of the soft corn and per-
ishables such as potatoes.
Second, the strctured inflow of
distribution has entirely disturbed the
price conditions in the country, by
practically suspending the law of sup
ply and demand. The margins be-
tween the farmer and the consumer in
many commodities We're never wider
than they are today because the con-
Stunning trades are under supplied and
the farmers compete for transporta ton
Prices of the coarse grains have
reached unheard of levels. while the
limited transportation has diminished
the farmers returns.
Stock Left on Farms.
Third. the cost of grains for feeding
livestock has so increased to the feed =
ers of finished cattle that they face
serious losses. The costs Of the
dairying industries necessarily greatly
increased.
Fourth. through the large consum-
ing areas we have been living off re-
serves through the period of scant
supplies. These reserves are in many
sections approaching exhaustion.
! Fifth. we have been unable to
! transport to seaboard the necessary
! foodstuffs for the allies. This has
t not been due so much to the actual
inability of the railways giving pri-
ority to foodstuffs for allied shipping
as it has been TO bringing products
| from the farms to the terminal ma rkets
where it can be segregated. prepared
ana purchased by the allies.
/ Priority Must Be Given.
The economic ramifications of this
whole delay in the movement Of the
national harvest are almost countless
and they present the most critical OF
situations. of which no solution exists
but a continued expansion of the ef-
forts of the railway administration in
the movement of foodstuffs in every
direction to the exclusion of much
other commerce Of the country. Con-
siderable progress has been made in
the last ten days. but continued rise
in the price of cereal commodities and
the failure to secure sufficient sur
plus over immediate domestic con-
supmtion to feed the allies. are evidence
that there is still a deficiency in food
cars and that they need to be still
further increased.
No effort Is being spared to move
allied food as fast as ii can be accu
muiated in the interior and today the
railway directorate is arranging spe-
cial trains to carry meat and packing
! products from Chicago to load the
waiting ships"
| H>&&;nu Did IS Ha1de