The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-10-04
The Merchant And
Compulsory RatioDing

Will lue lHLFHcdcleS OF our voluntary
system of rationing food stuffs, have
been apparently inclined to believe
the difficulties would be less if a
compulsory card system were intro
duced. 1t is interesting, therefore,
to contrast the system in effect in
this country with that now being us
ed in England, taking the observa-
tion from merchants standpoint.
The Food Administration and the
dealers in food stuffs here nave been
! absolutely together from the begin
: ming in their desire to bring about
the necessary conservation of food
with the least possible disarrange-
ment Of existing trade methods and
a minimum amount of disturbance to
! business in general. The compul-
sorry ration system looks simple at
first glance, but it has many phases
which are incompatible with the
! maintenance of trade on normal
! peace-time basis
| In the first place before any ade-
! quate compulsory rationing system
! can be carried out, the groundwork
must be laid, embracing, among other
things:
l. An absolute control by the
Government of all food stuffs.
2. Some practical method for the
arbitrary distribution of food by the
| Government based upon population.
| 8. The control by the Govern
ment of prices to prevent profteer-
! ing.
! 4. A very finely decentralized
food control machinery to reach ev-
! cry corner of every community.
| The difficulties attendant upon es-
itablishing such groundwork in
America are far greater than they
were in Great Britain, due to the
| fact that while Great Britain imports
66 per cent. of her food stuffs and
| is, therefore, able to control them
from the moment of entry, we pro-
duce in this country practically ev-
ierything we eat, making it necessary
to regulate the producers. Taking
| for granted, however, that these diff
| ficulties can be overcome, there still
remains the question of the proper
basis for distribution England first
tried the datum" system, basing the
amount of food available for each
dealer upon a certain percentage Of
the supplies he had received during
a special previous period selected for
this purpose. This was found illogi-
cal because it resulted in setting a
premium upon wastefulness. That is,
the communities which had consum-
ed the most food during the given
period were permitted to profit to
that extent under the rationed dis
'tribution.
The Food Ministry was, therefore,
brought to the conclusion that the
registry system would be preferable,
and it is under the registcy system
that food is being rationed in Eng
land today.
The registry system demands that
ievery buyer of food in England shall
register as customer of a food store.
The registry blanks are carefully fill
ed and stubs from his individual
customers books are used by the
food merchant as basis for obtain
ing supplies He is allowed a given
amount of food stuffs for each custo-
lmer and a small addition for emer-
igencies-no more.
1t will be readily seen that such
a system has its drawbacks. In the
first place, having registered as a
lcustomer of particular store, the
food buyer remains a customer of
that store except for extraordinary
reasons, such as removal from the
city rdeath. This naturally elimi-
mates all competitive business, all in
itiative on the part of the merchant
all desirability of appeal to the
transient trade. The merchant must
be content to mark time and to hold
his ground, if he can, until the war
is over.
This method has resulted in Eng
land in wiping out the little mer-
chant. Customers desire to avoid as
much trouble as possible, and there
fore register themselves as buyers at
stores which can supply all their
needs. 1t also lays the way open
for utilization by the stores of unra-
toned articles as bribe for trade.
Fortunate concerns which can obtain
Iby one way and another fairly regu-
lar supplies of tea, cheese and other
unrationed articles, are able to say
to their customers, ''If you buy your
sugar, meat and flour from US, we
will see that you get your half pound
of cheese every week, or your sup
ply of tea" The little store which
is not able to obtain these supplies
costly and scarce-is helpless.
The abuse of the unrationed arti-
cles is thereby exaggerated and en-
lcouraged, where as under the Ameri-
can system our people are put on
their honor to conserve all kinds OF
food and are guarded with all the
indigestion!