The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-04
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
Blu RE AU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director.
Washington. D. c.
SHALL FOOD ADMINISTRATION
END?

or other is a question that is receiving
much discussion at present in the ma
tionaI capital. Many views are ex-
pressed. Some believe that these pow
ers should be transferred to the de-
partment of agriculture; some think
that the department of labor should
inherit them, and the federal trade
commission is also mentioned. The
food administration itself, in the alb
sence of Mr.. Hoover, has nothing to
say on the subject.
Congress also is silent on this i'm
portant question, altho congress will
eventually decide it. Unless the nee
essary legislation is passed. before the
president declares that the war is over,
the food administration will simply
cease to be. 1t will die a natural
death. And the consumers wall be the
chief mourners. Thousands of letters
are nov pouring into the headquar-
tiers of the food administration here,
complaining that prices have suddenly
jumped in many localities subsequent
to the signing of the armistice, and
/ expressing the hope that at least the
fair price lists will not be discontinued
with the declaration of peace.
These consumers, it appears have
not been mistaken. AS soon as it
became apparent that Germany was
| beaten, retailers all over the country
started raising their prices, and when
/ clared that the war was over and
| they could do as they pleased. Not all
retailers did this. of course, and due
credit must be given to those who
| have continued to follow the fair price
lists, but the general rise in prices was
| sufficiently alarming to cause the food
administration imm ed;ately to resume
its pressure toward bringing them
| down.
Moreover, in several cases where
the administration had purposely re-
I Taxed its vigilance, believing it no
| longer to be necessary, the results
| were so unfortunate that it was again
| compelled to exercise control. For
example, when it removed all restric-
tons regarding mill feeds. the price
| OF mill feeds in middle western
! city jumped in one day from less than
| $27 to s46. The increase in the price
of other food commodities has been
| correspondingly large.
Experience has shown that prices
are unusually higher in the period
| Immediately following a war than
they are during the war itself. Thus.
statistics show that food prices were
considerably higher in the period>from
| 1866 to 1870, than they were during
| the four years of the Civil war. There
was no worldwide shortage of food
| then such as exists today, and the
| only reason for the exorbitant prices
|
without restriction.
! Today, the scarcity of food and the
| higher costs of production make high
/ prices inevitable. 1t is only when they
reach an unreasonable latitude that
the government attempts to regulate
| them. And SO successfully has this
| been done that comparison of price
lists of the two periods-1S66 and
! 191S-shows these of 1918 to be much
lower. But will this remarkable COM
parison hold when the food admin
stration goes out of existence? Most
people fear that it will not. They
speculation equally as disastrous as
that following the Civil war, which.
in view of the scarcity of food, will
| be extremely dangerous to the nation.
For if the people at home will not
pay the prices demanded by the specu-
lators, agents from Europe will, and
if no check is placed Upon the ship
ment of food out of the country.
Americans will face a famine such as
has never occurred before.
| The following instance is cited as
an illustration of what may happen
w en- the government releases its con-
| troll of the food markets. At one stage
] during the past year there was a great
I shortage of wheat in this country
so great, in fact, that the information
| Wa; carefully kept from the people.
Only the food administration knew
on hand. If there had been no system
| of government control it would have
| been possible for any man to corner
| the nations entire wheat supply and
sell it bushel by bushel at his own
figure.
That there must be some central
authority in the government for regu-
lating the expectation of food to Eu-
rope during the reconstruction period,
| is generally admitted even by those
individuals who believe that there is
no longer any excuse for the present
system of food administration. Mr..
| Hoover himself is one of these.
While the e1piEstion of the Lever law
| other functions of the food admins
tration must continue was the opin-
ion he expressed before going to Eu-
rope. Some organization must be
continued or some organization set up
to guide our distribution of food
abroad, if it shall reach the most de-
serving and the most necessitous. The
vast purchases for export are now all
in the hands of the governments,
many of them acting in common and
their powers in buying could, IL mis-
used. ruin our producers, or, alterna-
; lively, do infinite harm to our con-
sumers. An utter chaos os specu1a-
tim and profiteering would reign if
these buyers were not coordinated and
controlled"
There are other Washington Off
Gals, however, who do not believe that
the expiration of the Lever law can
be faced without anxiety. This is the
law which gives the food administra-
ton the power to control the prices
charged by wholesalers thru the fed
eral license system, and those charged
- retailers thru the fair price lists
4>that have become so popular with the
consuming public. The producer was
exempted from regulation in this law,
J for it has been shown again and again
that the producer. who is usually a
} farmer, rarely makes an unfair profit.
1t is In its journey from the farmer
, to the consumer that food becomes
I expensive. In 1913, for example, the
farmer was getting but &c cents for
the amount of wheat used in making
a dollars worth of bread; the miller 8
cents, while IS cents was added be-