The Co-operative news. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1917-1918, 1918-01-10


pany, testifying before the Senate
committee to investigate the sugar
situation" is likely to destroy what
little confidence the people may have
had in the United States Food Adj
ministration as a cost of-living re-
Queer or as a protector of the work
ers against the notorious exactions
of the food profiteers.
In common with the organized enc
mics of the people known as the
United States Chamber Of Commerce,
Hoover believed that with the en-
trance Of the United States into the
war the government would be com
PEELED to make broad excursions into
the field of price fixing.
Plans to Forestall Disaster
Familiar with the activities in this
direction of the Labor Governments
of various Australian States, short
ly after the general declaration Of
war in August, 1914. where bona
hide price fixing policy in the m
terest Of The consumers and admin
istered by the representatives Of the
consumers dispossessed capitalists,
organized or unorganised, Of their
power to plumber the people and re-
onee the purchasing power of wages
by rocketing prices-familiar with
the activities Of these governments
and the loud protests Of the plumber
bunders over the labor invasion Of
their traditional rights, Hoover de-
termined TO forestsll any such dis
aster in the United States.
Price fixing. tragedy in itself
to the interests Of the capitalists, If
delegated to he real representatives
of the consumers, but nevertheless
necessary to the successful prosecu-
ton of the var, would become
lever FOR price boosting under the
guise OF price stabilizings,p provided
the price fixers were the capitalists
Waeee commodities were to be fixed
At the outset, 1ti.erefore, Hoovsr's
1sliey Ord. ass p4see, 81. %lse--asbos.
exploitefs and profit exacters COM
posing big business, was to staff the
various departments Of the United
States Food Administration with the
representatives Of business instead of
the representatives Of the consumers
and the working people 90 sorely hit
by var time excess pyofit prices.
Forsooth, If prices were to be
fixed, who were better equipped with
the information requisite to deter
mine fair and reasonable profits"
than the gentry who had been en-
gagged in plundering the workers on
the one hand with low wages and the
consumers on the other hand with
soaring prices ever since the ruling
classes in Europe threw the work
ers at each others threats in 1914?
Dickers With Profiteers
Malodorous as was the reputation
of the so-called Sugar Trust, known
in Wall Street as the American
Sugar Refining Company, tried and
convicted in the courts many times
for violations of the antitrust laws,
with the Department of Justice even
then engaged in prosecuting it for
such violations and seeking to dis
solve it into its constituent parts; in
spite of these well known facts,
Food Administrator Herbert Hoover
selected the leading officials of the
Sugar Trust, from its president right
down the line to its lesser officials,
to administer the sugar department
of the Food Administration and pro-
tect the people against high sugar
prices.
In this protection policy Food Ad-
ministrator Hoover selected Earl
Pabst, president of the Sugar Trust,
to head the sugar committee of the
food administration. Among the
functions of The sugar committee
was that of reaching an agreement
with the owners of the sugar plan
tations in Cuba, most of whom are
American corporations, including the
American Sugar Refining Company,
for the price which the American
refiners should pay for the 1917
rs crop now being harvested. The
Others Xembers of the sugar commit
tee WEN likewise sugar refiners, the
consumers not being represented.
Planning Nthe High Price Campaign
Mr.. Spfeckels charged that the
sugar committee of the food admin
istration 4 mere adjunct of the
sugar truA that the sugar commit
tee is stafSd with officials and en-
ployes of IN Sugar Trust; that the
Sugar Justified Sugar committee of
the food administration has used its
power to fbrce competing refiners
like Mr.. Spreckels Federal Sugar Re
filming CompanyN into accepting the
price fixing dictates of the food ad-
ministration adjunf of the Sugar
Trust bao,t;I,, ;,t1ko,+oJ tb,,, ,+a,1-