The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-10
why Worry About Famine Prices
for Superabundant Foodf

y
One Of our contemporaries deco
rates it's editorial columns with these
fantastic statements:
Those who have been worried By
the vast food surplus VIM have their
worst fears confirmed by tho oficial
report that the outlook for the winter
wheat crop Is the best ever reported
This promises to be q dread
full year for those who think that
abundance Of new wealth from the
soil spells ruin"
Now, where in this land of super
abundant plenty, where In hungry
Europe where in any part of Cons
footstool, Is there anybody so per-
!. fectly a cheerful idiot as to be wor-
rled or to have been worried by our
vast food surplus?
Certainly not the American pro-
: ducers; for our Government Food
Trust has worked out to its own salts
faction Its marvellous economic prop
osition that the more there is to eat
the more shall American consumers
pay to eat 1t.
Wheat. by the law Of nature, might
be 10 or so cents bushel. But flour,
ny the decree of the Government Food
70 Trust, shall be as dear as If there
were wheat famine. Hogs, by the
4 law of nature, might be at wholesale
s. or SO n hundredweight. But by
the Government decree of s226 wheat,
/ pork shall cost the American con-
sumer $50 or $50. And so with all
K the food of the American people.
Certainly there is no worry by the
grower Of wheat in Canada, in Argen-
I tina, in Australia, in India, or in
whatever country. Under the law of
H.nature. with sure export surplus in
this country of half billion bushels
three-quarters of billion bushels,
those foreign producers might be COM
7 PEELED to sell their crops for song
But by the decree Of our Government
I! Food Trust, holding our surplus wheat
at a price much higher than Europe
will pay for II, sure market and a
good market Is made for the export
wheat of Canada. Argentina, Aus
tralia, India, or whatever country.
~ Even the head of our Government
Food Trust does not worry. Supremacy
Indifferent TO the laws of nature, in
y fatuated with his power to decree
wheat at a famine price whether the
: crop be half billion bushels or 9
billion and half he goes on eereneIy
h and no doubt will go on serenely
I until the Government, after hay
I ingaeSacted starvation prices from
American consumers, finds itself left
with hundreds of millions of bushel!
f of unsold wheat on its hands.
The American people of course
are worrying-not about the vast foot
eurplus but about the sky high prices
the Government Food Trust compel'
them to pay when there is so much o.
breadstuffs so much Of live stock, 81
I much Of the basis of all food product!
that the whole world, with the single
exception Of Mr.. HOOVER, is staggered
by the very immensely Of it
The American people are worrying
that when they are giving up billions
Of dollars Which a squander Govern
ment Is still pouring into war sup
plies, pouring into railroads. pouring
into ships. pouring into the bottom
less pit. still, in year of incompa
rable plenty. with a superabupdanc
of natural wealth flooding from tn
soil, they cannot eat a meal withou
paying for it, by Government decree
as II there weren't bushel Of whea
in the country, pound Of meat 4
storage, a steer or hog on the range
q COW in the pasture or a chicken /
the barnyard.
But who cares a tinker's dam 70
the American people?
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Try Enforcing the Laws VIC No,