The sun., 1919-07-21
Why Cold Storage and All Food
Prices Are High.

a. .sb.
There may be, probably there is,
excited misconception of the food in
American storage. Big figures are rep
resented in S6,O00,O00 pounds of beef
held by Chicago packers; likewise in
T0,000,O00 pounds of pork. But for
population Of 100000 within our
own boundaries neither the one guam
tity nor the other nor both put to-
gether, representing a per capita stor-
age Of one and half pounds, would
60 very far. In the same way $780,
600 pounds Of butter is not much more
than per capita ounce.
Nevertheless. Chicago, though by far
the greatest and most important, is
not the only storage centre. Further
more, 1t Is a disagreeable fact that
the United States Government took
away from the American people hun
dreds of millions of dollars of food
products for war purposes and al
though the war has been over for
three-quarters Of a year the Govern
ment still holds large quantities of
such food away from the public.
What food it took away from the
American people and still has the
Government ought to give back to the
American people when prices are so
high, for whatever reason, that there
are tens of thousands OF American
families which don't feel they can af-
ford to eat the meat they need, don't
feel they can afford to eat the butter
they need, don't feel they can afford
to eat their daily bread at the prices
demanded for II.
But the United States Government
Is responsible for more than the army
food which 1t took away from them
and still carries in its supplies. The
United States Government, in truth,
is responsible for more than the pork
of the packers, the beef of the packers,
the butter of the packers, the eggs of
the packers in cold storage. The
United States Government Is respon-
sible for the inordinate prices of all
food supplies, in storage or out of
storage, while the American people,
wanting more food than they are
consuming, refuse to 30 to market for
1t at present prices.
Corn, which is the most important
factor In the price Of beef, OF mutton,
Of pork, of poultry, of eggs, Of milk,
of butter and of cheese, isn't in the
neighborhood Of So bushel because
there Is scarcity of corn. There Is
q prodigious crop of corn either ready
or ripening for the granaries of the
nation. 1t isn't at 50 a bushel be.
cause there Is a shortage Of wheat
There Is now in full promise the
greatest wheat crop surplus by
millions and millions of bushels that
this country ever knew.
Corn Is at SO n bushel, and there
fore beef and pork and poultry and
butter and eggs are yet high, because
the United States Government in Il
year Of superabundance Of wheat fixes
the price to the American consumer on
a farm basis Of 81. % a bushel.
When the United States Govern
ment. although this country has
wheat enough to feed every American
man, woman and child sick with
bread; although 1t has plenty of 1t to
feed to live stock until 1t would break
the price of corn-when the United
States Government jacks up and
keeps up the price Of wheat in this
country as II there were a wheat
famine here and the world over. It Is
the United States Government which
thereby makes the consumers of the
United States pay more for their food
than they otherwise would need to
pay. 1t makes them pay more than
anybody else could make them pay
for all the beef trusts or all the other
private food trusts that exist in real
ity or are pictured In the Imagination
could not get the prices that are now
so high II the United States Govern
ment itself did not force them up and
hold them up against the very laws
of nature.