Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1918-01-23
WAR, FOOD AND PRICES.

service OF the Federal Food Admins
tration for Ga.)
Did you ever stop to wonder why
food prices are high in war times ?
Or have you just complained about the
fact that they are high, and then
| wondered why in the world the gov
ernment hasn't stepped in and brought
them back to the ante-bellum level?
The next time you complain about
prices, stop to think of the farmer
who grew the things you are buying.
Do you know that he is paying $3.50
or $500 a day for labor he could get
before the war for 81 or $1.25-and
that he is having mighty hard time
getting anybody at all? Do you
know that every railroad in the coun-
try Is congested and it is much more
difficult to get farm products to mar
ket than 1t was a year ago? Do you
know that the man who buys food
from the farmers and then distributes
it to the wholesale dealers, has to
LAY much more for his labor than he
did before the war And do you know
that all of his necessary expenses have
been on the ascendant? Do you know
that the wholesale dealer is paying
wages and salaries that he could
scarcely have dreamed of a few years
ago and that the same thing is true
of the retailers?
And then, on the other hand, when
you wonder why the government
hasn't taken a hand, have you Stop
ped to consider that prices have risen
on much lower scale than has ruled
in other wars? Have you thought
when you paid nine or ten cents for
sugar, with the country going through
an actual sugar famine, that it would
have gone much higher had not the
government, through the United States
Food Administration, taken measures
to stabilize the market? Have you
stopped to wonder why the Wholesale
price of -four is less than 81 bar
rel, when 1t went as high as SIS last
summer and threatened to keep
mounting? Have you remembered that
the farmer Is getting moro money out
of $40 or 81 flour today than he got
out OF $14 or SIS -four six months ago /?
No, you haven't thought of these
things, You must know that prices
are high, and that you wonder why
somebody doesn't do something
about it" If you stopped to think,
maybe your tone would change from
complaint to wonder Prices are high,
but the wonder is that they are NO.
far higher, when you come to think
OF it,
People complain about war time
prices. They complain because they
are asked to reduce their consumption
CT meats, wheat, sugar and fats. They
complain because some OF the substi-
tutes cost more than the food they
are asked to save for their associates
on the other side of the ocean.
All right, suppose that we grant
their complaint about prices But
then let US look at things from another
angle. Prices are high. There is no
way to get around that. War time
prices have always been high. They
always will DO high. But If we ate on
ly the things we liked fully as we'll as
the things we must save, and if we
ate only the substitutes that were
cheaper, how much of sacrifice
would We be making in order to help
win this war?
Suppose that the men who are sup
plying eur ammunition said it was
disgraceful to pay high prices for steel
when wood was 80 much cheaper.
And then just suppose that they used
the wood to make our guns and our
shells-it's much cheaper and could