Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-09-14
TO TAKE PROFITEERING
OUT OF COLD STORAGE
Action Planned by Congress to Protect Both
Pocketbook and Health of
the Public.

eminent Of 80 per cent of the selling
price.
Labels for Storage Food.
There is one feature common to all
the bills proposing to regulate cold
storage, and that is that the cold
storage food must be marked plainly,
SO that the consumer may be advised
that these are cold storage foods. The
dates on which the foods were stored
also must be shown.
| The cold storage of foodstuffs has
become a tremendous business and q
most important item in the economic
distribution Of the supplies Of perish
able foods. A report of the Federal
Trade Commission, made public re-
| Gently and covering foodstuffs in stor-
age as of June 1. 1919, showed
vast quantity of eggs, poultry.
meats. butter, etc. in the cold storage
plants. The commissions report also
showed that the stocks Of eggs, OF
poultry. butter, lamb. this year in cold
storage were in excess Of those at
the same time last year, and that
| prices of the articles of food have in
creased over the prices of last year.
Those who are contending for gov
eminent regulation of the cold stor-
age plants insist that with such tre-
mendous stocks on hand it is DOS
sible to manipulate the market prices
| OF food and to keep the prices high.
1t has been estimated that the total
cold storage facilities in the United
States are about 45o,ooo.oo0 cubic feet.
! and that about half of this is con-
| trolled by the packers
Deny Price Manipulation.
On the other hand, representatives
| OF the packers. appearing before the
House committee on agriculture, have
declared that they do not use cold
storage to boost prices. bpt merely
| to conserve the perishable foods, like
eggs, at the time of greatest produc-
| ton to cover the period Of least pro-
duction.
More than 200 articles of food OF
every conceivable kind are kept in
| cold storage warehouses today, and
yet the use of cold storage is of COM
paratively recent date. For instance,
cold storage as applied eggs dates
back only to about 1900. The men
who are contending for regulation Of
cold storage by the government do
not attack Geld. storage as an institu-
ton. IN fact. they admit they consider
it one of the greatest discoveries OF
| the age, the discovery Of French
| man named Fellier, who is reported to
have died recently in extreme poverty
| Notwithstanding his discovery, which
is worth millions upon millions.
The bill for the regulation Of cold
storage of foods as framed by the
House committee on agriculture limits
the term in which any foodstuffs may
be held in cold storage to eleven
months. with thirty days grace in
which to dispose of the food there
after. Cheese is excepted from this
regulation. however. since it some
times is desirable to hold cheese
longer period than twelve months for
the purpose Of ripening and improv-
Ing 1hC SOhlAhANtCS mas
held that in adopting this limitation
of practically twelve months it has
followed the rule that the products
of one season must be disposed OF
before the products Of next season
are forthcoming.
Storage Periods Restricted.
Senator Mcclellan. IN his bill. how
ever, has fixed much more restricted
limits upon the period of cold storage:
For instance. under the Mcclellan bill
1t will be unlawful to keep beef In
cold storage for more than seven
months; veal, two months; pork, four
months; sheep or goats. four months;
lamb or kids, three months; poultry
and game. three months; fish, two
months; butter, three months, and
eggs, three months. There is a pro-
yiso however, that eggs held in cold
storage not less than three months
or more than seven months may not
be classed as "adulterated" and there
fore inadmissible to interstate ship
ment, if upon inspection at the end
of the three-month period are found
sound and wholesome and are Ia
beled second period cold-storage
eggs"
During the operation OF the food
administration by Herbert Hoover,
while the war was on. regulations
governing the operation of cold
storage plants were put into affect by
the food administrator. A cold-stor-
age warehouse under the regulations
was defined as any place artif1cially
or mocha ically cooled to or below
a temperature of As degrees Fahren-
heit in which food products are
placed and kept for thirty days or
more. There were licensed by the
food administration a total Of LIST
cold storage warehouses
Where America Stands
in Shipping of World