Imperial Valley press., 1919-08-30
FORD HITS At.
FOOD TRUST
AS CHIEF FOE.
To CONSUMER.
He Says Free Ballot Means
Little if Our Bread is at
Mercy of PrOfiteers and
Food Gamblers.
POWER FARMING
POSSIBLE REMEDY
Revival of Small Milling In
dustry and Meat Packing
Houses Owned by the
Farmers May Come.


N
Following are excerpts from an ar
ticle by Henry Ford in his weekly, The
Dearborn Independent, which dis
cusses the Meat Trust and other food
profiteers:
There was a time when the whole
food situation was regarded from the
point of view of the consumer. Men
grew rich out Of many things, but
not out Of food. Food was free of the
shackles Of greed
But insensibly all that has chang
ed. Within our own generation we
have seen the beginnings of the finan-
cial exploitation of the food of the
people.
1t began in wheat Corners" and
"pools," which used to be so public
and spectacular that the newspapers
gave all the details. So full and free
was the information concerning these
market coups that the people protested
against gambling in their very bread.
Well, the protest only had the eff
feet of stopping the individual daring
of exploiters and the publication of
their acts. Nowadays the same thing
is accomplished, but far more disas-
trously to the country, and no one
hears anything about it. All the food
is cornered all the year round by all
the exploiting interests so that it is
impossible for the poorest man to
point to an edible on his table that is
not taxed to the limit by a gigantic
trust.
Sometimes our attention is riveted
to this or that comomdity, such as
wheat or meat; but it doesn't matter
as to details; the fact is the whole
Food Supply of the people has been
placed under an exploiter's tax.
When you find that meat is too eX
pensive because it has increased 100
per cent in two years, you take to
some perfectly adequate substitute
like rice.
And when you look into the chan
nels through which the rice comes to
you, you find it under the control of
the same forces that made meat i'm
possible to you. You find, morevore,
that due to these modern methods
of merchandising" of which so much
untruth is told, your rice costs you rs
per cent more than it did year ago.
1t is certainly a great game that
drives people to substitutes, and then
corners the substitutes. The same
forces that made butter impossible in
hundreds of thousands of homes, has
control of the oleomargarine supply.
Now, if there were not enough food
human nature would accept the fact
with certain degree of equanimity.
But there is enough. There is more
than enough right now. And there is
very much more than enough in sight.
The food question is the chief &C.
onomic question 1t doesn't much mat
ter if our ballot is free, if our bread
is at the mercy of profiteers.
We can chant about liberty and
equality all we please, but it will not
mean much if an invisible govern
ment of food gamblers is able to levy
extortionate tribute on our dinner ta-
bles.
Fortunately this matter has attract
ed the attention of congress; unfor-
tunately the whole emphasis has
been on the food "business."
The only food busines that can ever
justify itself to the human race is the
busines that raises food in sufficient
quantity and distributes it under such
conditions as will enable every family
to have enough of all that it needs.
It may be that one way we shall
take to break the food trust will be
to raise such overwhelming quantities
of all kinds of food as shall make
manipulation and exploitation impos-
sible. We shall probably do that by
means of the new methods of power