The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-10-14
BY JAMES THRAsHER
NEA star Correspondent

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One Of the least publicized but
most active groups In the House OF
Representatives Is the Republican
Congressional Food Study commit
tee. It is an unof1cial body of some
as members, appointed six months
ago by Minority Leader Joseph Mar
tin to try to get the whole war food
problem centered under the author.
ity Of one man.
The committee hasn't yet fulfilled
its mission. The nearest It has come
has been to inspire q bill introduced
by Democratic Rep. Hampton Full
1ner Of South Carolina, Chairman Of
the House Agriculture committee,
and similar one introduced In
the Senate by Senator Arthur Van
denberg. The bills are now resting
comfortably in the rules committee.
But IN the process Of trying, 1t has
needed the War Food Administra-
ton persistently. Speeches by its
members, on the House floor and
outside, have contained some dig
closures that must enbarrass VITA,
to say the least.
One Of the committee members,
Gerald Lands, In the course of his
food investigation, discovered the
Army dumping potatoes, spoiled and
unspoiled alike, in his home town OF
Vincennes, Ind. Since then Lands
has turned his attention to the price
situation, charging that OPA is both
dilatory and unfair in fixing ceilings
on certain commodities.
FREE PEAS
The Hoosier congressman states
that large quantities Of spinach and
asparagus spoiled In warehouses this
summer because the vegetables
could not be moved to canneries
until o price was set. He also cites
a letter from Fresno, Calf, farmer
who planted and raised 200 acres
Of peas at cost Of $35 an acre.
When he learned the ceiling price on
peas, the farmer writes, he figured
that he would receive less for his
crop than the cost Of hiring labor
to harvest It, So he simply put an
ad in the paper inviting people To
come out and help themselves.
To bolster his accusation that
food Is being wasted through inef-
flcient scheduling Of transportation,
Lands calls attention to q recent
Food Distribution Administration
release which asks for cash offers
on 10000 pounds of rolled oats.
The breakfast food, says the con-
gresham, was infested by bugs while
1t reposed on the wharves at Wee
hawken, N. j., and can now be used
only for chicken feed.
Lands charged further than II
million out Of 80 million cases Of
canned milk, bought by the CON-
modities Credit Corp, in l94l, have
spoiled because they were not turned
over regularly, as canned milk must
be If 1t Is to be stored a long time.
He also says that Geo turned back
100000 cases Of canned tomatoes
to the open market after storing
them for year because 1t had no
place to use them.
But the Food Study committees
favorite among Its current findings
Is an involved story which en-
braces feed, coal, shipping and price
ceilings.
Last year, a committee spokesman
recalls, WPB and OPA urged East
Coast commercial establishments
and households equipped with oil
furnaces to convert to coal or run
the risk OF getting no oil. To take
care of transporting coal to meet
these added needs, the Great Lakes
fleet Of Notwithstanding boats was
converted to coal carriers and used
to haul the fuel from Newport News
to northern coastal cities.
PIGS GET CORN
The narrator now shifts the scene
to the middle west, and the time
to the present. He repeats the we'll
known fact that since farmers can
get $1.45 bushel for their corn by
feeding 1t into pork, as against 90
or 95 cents by selling II for food,
there Is shortage Of corn on
the market. So wheat Is being fed
to poultry and dairy and beef cat
tie.
Wheat isn't too plentiful either,
he continues Dairy herds and poul-
try are being sold in feed short
areas. But 1t was discovered that
Canada has some surplus wheat.
Then VIA remembered that the
grain carriers are now coal carriers
on the Atlantic Coast.
The solution to this problem, the
committee spokesman says, has been
to reconvert the wheat coal ships
to their original Job. And that, he
points out, seems to leave the coal
problem about where 1t was before.