The Mena weekly star., 1918-07-25
vULAItRS Ot FOOD
 LAWS PENALZED|
In Fourteen Counties Sixty-Six Con victions Are Reported to Hamp Williams-No Violations in
 Thirty-Three Counties.
(By Walter M. Ebel).

Little Rock, July 20.--No more con- vincing evidence of the power of the United States Food Administration to enforce it's rules and regulations, and the determination of County Food Ad- ministrators to penalize those who fail to comply with such regulations, has been offered than that submit ted in reports to Hamp Williams, fed eral food administrator for Arkansas, from forty-seven of the seyenty-fve counties in the state.
 About two weeks ago question naire was sent to County Food Ad- ministrators, at the request of ofii- cials at Washington, for information concerning the number of violations in their district from January to- June 15. The replies prove beyond doubt that, generally speaking, all who come under the rules and regula- tions are making a sincere effort to comply with the same, but there have been numerous violations, however, which have received prompt attention from County Food Administrators and their executive committees.
 Sixty-Six Convictions.
 Out of the forty-seven counties that thus far reported, tbirty-three Coun- ty Food Administrators state there have been no violations of the rules and regulations. Fourteen others, tho, report total of sixty-six convictions. In all, there were sixty eight hearings given in these counties where viola tions were reported.
 The majority of violators were pro- prietors or managers Of retail stores selling flour and sugar. In all thirty five such places have been penalized for illegal sales of those products, closing orders against such stores be- ing as follows:
 Six for two days; 1, ten days; 1, three days; 1, two days, I thirty days; l, ninety days; 2, seven days. These nineteen stores were closed for bObdl peTlOu OI l4O udyS.
 Twenty-Five other stores, all of them located in Lee county, for violat- ing the rule governing the sale of sugar and flour, were denied the right to sell flour until September and paid an aggregate fine of $400.00 to the Lee county chapter of the Ameri- can Red Cross.
 One other store, located in Phillips county, has been closed for the period of the war, the proprietor being charged with refusing to issue re- ceipts for the sale of sugar and flour. Five for Hoarding.
 Five charges for hoarding resulted in conviction. Of this number three defendants gave the Red Cross an ag- gregate of over 400 pounds of flour, one was fined $100, which was paid to the Red Cross, while the case against the other defendant is still pending with the Enforcement Divis- ion of the United States Food Admin istration, Washington
 Five restaurants violated the rules and were penalized. One was closed l for three days; one for two days; two for one day and one proprietor repri- manded.
 One merchant was convicted of sell ng short weight flour and paid $100 to the Red Cross A druggist in Wash ington county, after swearing to his statement for sugar, changed that document. His sugar certificate was very promptly confscated He is now in danger of being denied sugar for the remainder of the year.
 The Red Cross was the beneficiary of fines levied by County Food Ad- ministrators and their committees An aggregate of $840 was paid to that organization in that manner.