Evening star., 1942-11-19

man, the people asz "*|*&>:
of the United David Lawrence.
States are to be short of food Why?
This is the question that will be
asked, but the answer will not be
forthcoming till some congressional
committee finds out the facts. A
shortage Of materials furnishes some
ground for the belief that what
happened to commodities may be
happening to food.
The favorite word hereabouts is
"maldistribution." This means mere
ly that inventories were permitted
to grow large and no check was
made on those who boarded prod
ucts. Maldistribution may describe
the effect, but inefflciency and fall
ure to plan really describe the cause.
Now with respect to food, dairy
herds, for instance, are being
slaughtered And there's a short
age Of milk products. Why? Be-
cause some one in the administra-
ton entirely overlooked the fact
that cows have to be MIXED by labor
and that If defense plants and the
time-and-a-half for overtime en-
couraged by the administration sets
the scale for labor, the workers will
be drained from the farms.
Bungling on Wages.
The slaughter of some Of Amer
ica's finest herds is not merely
threatened-it is going on every
day in the Middle West. The bun
Cling of the wage problem from the
start is primarily responsible. To-
day America is about to be rationed
on dairy products due to a scarcity
which is the direct result OF NAL
administration as well as maldis-
tribution.
Small wonder the farmers voted
as they did in the recent election
they wanted to register their pro-
test against the mistakes being made
In handling agriculture.
There are certain meats that are
virtually unobtainable today. The
excuse usually given is that the
armies need the food and, if that
isn't accepted as a sufficient expla-
nation, the other alibi is that we
must feed other nations under the
lease-lend machinery.
The food problem is growing more
and more serious every day. Only
in the last week or so has there
been a tendency here to do some
thing about 1t. Any day now food
administrator will be appointed, and
Secretary Wickard Of the Agricul-
ture Department probably will be
the man. If a food administrator
had been appointed year ago, the
problem Of shortages would have
been met long before this.
Price a Factor.
1t will be found that, in most
instances, America has enough food
but that distribution by ALLEGATION
may be necessary to see to 1t that
there is a uniform supply for all
sections of the country.
One factor that enters into the
distribution problem is the matter
Of price. With the OPA fixing CELL
ings on prices and with nobody fix
ing wage levels till recently, costs
began to skyrocket and made food
production In some cases unre-
munerative.
When farmers find 1t desirable to
slaughter their cows rather than
milk them something is radically
wrong with the experts of our
planned economy who have all the
power and authority to manage
civilian interests but who have failed
to accomplish the main objectives-
proper distribution of Americas
most abundant products.
AS for manpower, the problem is
approaching national scandal.
Military-minded men with Short
sighted vision have been operating
the selective service system. The
cry that the draft is being handled
democratically by civilians and local
boards is raised often as defense
of the present system, but it would
be interesting to see published a I
list of all the Army officers and
former Army officers who are run
ming draft boards and the head
quarters of the several States as well
as national headquarters Some of
these military men are broad
visioned, but many of them are not.
They have been pushing farm labor
into the armed service without re-
gard to the effect on the home front
of a diminished food supply.
Law Wastes Labor.
There are, to be sure, draft dodg-
ers here and there among workers
In plants and chiselers among en-
ployers seeking deferments, but in
the main the problem of getting
adequate skilled labor is one that is
related primarily to a more or less
fixed number of available persons.
Now, as consequence of indis-
criminate use of manpower from
farm and factory there are short
ages.
The biggest wastage, Of course. is
In the so-called 40-hour week. Be-
cause of the penalty of time and q
half that has to be paid for over