Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-01-25
Var, Food and Prices.

This editorial space has been given by this
paper for this issue to the service of the Federal
Food Administration for Georgia.
Did you stop to wonder why food prices
high in times? Or have you just COM
planned about the fact that they high, and then
wondered why in the world the government hasn't
stepped in and brought them back to the ante-bel-
lum 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
for 81 or s1.25-and that he is having q
mighty hard time getting anybody at all? Do you
know that every railroad in the country is con-
geSted and that it is much more difficult to get
farm products to market than it year ago?
Do you know that the man who buys food from
the farmers and then distributes it to the whole
sale dealers, has to pay much more for his labor
than he did before the And do you know that
all of his necessary expenses have been on the as
cendant? 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 won
der why the government hasn't taken a hand,
have you stopped to consider that prices have ris-
en- on a much lower scale than has ruled IN otner
wars? Have you thought when you paid nine or ten
cents for sugar, with the country going through
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 won
der why the wholesale price of flour is less than
$11 BARREL when it went as high as $50 last sum
mer and threatened to keep mounting? Have you
remembered that the farmer is getting more money
out of $40 81 flour today than he got out OF
$14 or SIS flour six months ago?
No, you haven't thought of those things. You
just know that prices are high and that you won
der 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 NOT far
higher, when you come to think of it.
People complain about time prices They
complain because they asked to reduce their
consumption of meats, wheat, sugar and fats They
complain because some of the substitutes cost
than the food they are asked to save for their as
sociates on the other side of the ocean.
All right, suppose that grant their
plant about prices. But then let us look at the
thing from another angle. Prices are high. There
is no way to get around that. War time prices have
always been high. They always will be high. But
if we ate only the things we liked fully as well
the things we must save, and if we ate only the
substitutes that were cheaper how much of a sac
rifice would we be making in order to help win
this war?
Suppose that the men who are supplying
our ammunition said it disgraceful to pay
high prices for steel when wood was so much
cheaper. And then just suppose that they used the
wood to make our guns and shells-it's much
cheaper and could be painted and smoothed down
to look like steel.
How long do you think our armies could stay
IN the trenches with wooden guns and wooden
shells? They could stay just about long as they
could if we made prices the for taking food
out of their mouths. ...
Prices or prices, they must eat to win this
war. Those people need beef, pork and mutton
wheat, sugar and fats If we fail to save in order
that they may have them, we could Just as we'll
close down our steel plants and send them shells
made of wood.
Where there is war food cannot be produced
As steel pillow helps production but steel is NOT a
good cultiVator when it breaks the land in the
form or she'll. That has been shown in France
italy Belgium and all of the other countries shat
tered by battle But nation can be at war and
still maintain production, if the battle lines do not
encroach on the farms That has been shown in
Germany and is being shown in the United States
we have been charged with the tremendous task
of feeding our associates in this war; of maintain
ing production on scale that will our actual
needs and still leave enough to fill the gan be-
tween Europe's production and consumption The
only solution is to reduce own use of the foods
most needed abroad. We must employ substitutes
for beef pork and mutton; wheat, sugar and fats
This war is as much ours it is Europe's and
there is no reason why should ask Europe to
bear all of the sacrifices and deprivations.-Fro
the Federal Food Administration for Georgia