Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-11-03
HOOVER TELLS
REASON FOR THE
PERMIT SYSTEM
Tells Why the Control Plan for
Corn Is Necessary; He
Sees No Other
Solution.
Washington Bureau of The Omaha
Bee.

washington, ~. l., NOV. Z.-(Spe-
cial)-Considerable misunderstood
ing having arisen among the farm
ers of Nebraska over the permit
system as the food administration
applies it to corn and oats, Senator
Hitchcock, at the suggestion of
Governor Neville, took up the mat
ter with Food Administrator Her
bert Hoover personally and the fol-
lowing letter from Mr.. Hoover to
the senator cannot fail to attract
wide interest throughout the prairie
state because of its large corn hold
ings. Mr.. Hoover says:
'In respect to your letter of Octo-
Der "a, it seems to me that some
one has got the farmers of Ne
braska absolutely misinformed. The
permit system has been put in as an
alternative to the old plan of sharp
and fuctuating charges of the rail-
ways and have no other purpose
than to maintain the flow of corn
and oats. Furthermore, there has
never been a single application for
permit in the state of Nebraska yet
refused on these two grains. If
these arrangements have anything
to do with the price of corn, they
are holding UP the price, not de-
pressing it.A
Price Due to Peace Talk.
"This fall in the price of corn is
absolutely the result of peace talk;
il you will refer to any single mar
ket publication issued during the last
month, you will receive ample con-
viction on this point and it arises
out of the knowledge of every corn
dealer that If peace comes the corn
that is now being burned for fuel
in the Argentine will come on to
the European market. Likewise
there are considerable stocks of corn
in South Africa that will be avail
able. In fact, some sailing vessels
are now bringing corn from the Ar
gentine to the United States in COM
petition with our prices. The con-
sequence is that no corn dealer
wishes to stock himself tip with corn
and take the hazards of lower
range of price on peace.
Keep Coarse Grains Moving.
'The necessity for the permit sys-
tenn arises solely out of the desire
to keep the coarse grains moving
as against positive flood of wheat.
The program of exports agreed up
on in Europe last summer calls for
the total export of cereals from |
the Uhited States of approximately |
S0000,000 bushels month for the |
first eight months after September l.
|. /
"Since that time the changes in
military program have led General
Pershing to demand a much larger
tonnage for the American army than
%w3s ant; :. pated, and as result ship
pii7gsLhas been taken out of the ce-
real trades until we are practically
exporting nothing. In the meantime
the storage capacity of the country
threatened to be drowned with
wheat which would clog up the
whole movement of the coarse
grains and we. therefore put in a
permit system SO as to retard the
movement of wheat just sufficiently
to allow the coarse grains to move
freely; this system to last until we
can get movement from seaboard.
To Prevent Worse Situations.
$50 far as the food administration
is concerned, l think the people OF
Nebraska can take it that we do
not do these things because we like
the exercise nor because we are dis
eliminating against any locality, but
we are in fact introducing these
measures in order to prevent much
worse situationst If the wheat were
allowed to accumulate the complete
capacity of the terminal storage,
railways would naturally and prop
erly completely embargo the move
ment of grain until cars could be
discharged. There is nothing in the'l
history of this country that has so
destroyed the ordinary current of
trade as these erratic and uncertain
embargoes.
these positive embargoes work
in two directions: They brighten the
,,i sumer So that he tends to hoard
whenever the embargo is lifted and
when the embargo is put in the pro-
Queer has no market whatever. All
of this throws the farmer absolute
ly az The n ercy of the middleman.
Il realize the great difficulty of
getting the American farmer to I'M
derstand the complexities of tn sit
uation % which this country is sub
ject as the result of the re-percus-
sion of war conditions. 1t is hard
for a man in Nebraska to realize
that motor trucks for Pershing will
react on his situation.
Sees No Solution.
Il hand you herewith memoran-
dunn of conclusions come to at
conference which | summoned re-
gently, basing on the price of hogs.
| ain glad to say that this plan has,
so far, worked very successfully
because we have been able to main
tain the export of this perishable
commodity even with the shortage
in grain transport and the farmer
has now recovered from the hog
panic arising out of a fall in the
price of corn. If anyone can tell
me how | could help out on the