The Wilmington morning star., 1946-10-15

profits, are endangering the health
of our people by holding back vital
foods which are now ready for
market and for which the American
people are clamoring.
Places Blames
The real blame, however, lies ut
the door of the reckless group of
selfish men who, in the hope of
gaining political advantage, have
encouraged sellers to gamble on
the destruction of price control.
This group, today as in the past,
is thinking in terms OF millions of
dollars instead of millions of peo-
pie. This same group has opposed
every effort Of this administration
to raise the standard Of living and
increase the opportunity for the
common man. This same group
hated Franklin D. Roosevelt and
fought everything he stood for.
This same group did its best to dis
credit his efforts to achieve a bet
ter life for our people.
There are reports of widespread
disregard and violations of the
price-c ontrol law. Experience
shows that this leads to a tendency
to disregard the sanctity of other
laws of our country. I need not
point out the danger of such a pub
lie attitude.
During these last weeks I have
considered many proposed RENE
dies in an effort to find the proper
solution to this meat problem.
Many suggestions have come to
me from responsible officials in
government and also from many
citizens in all parts of the country.
l have considered them all. l have
discussed them with my cabinet,
with experts in the field, and with
mang others who are qualified to
advise with respect to them.
1t has bee suggested, for ex-
ample, that a price control holiday
be declared for a limited period.
This would be politically expedi-
ent because it would bring animals
to markets in large quantities for
a short period. But. in the long
run, it would be bad Tor our
country because a famine in meat
would surely follow the temporary
feast. We saw that happen as a
result of the two months holiday
this summer. I declined to accept
that remedy.
Also Ineffective
Another remedy proposed was to
order a futher price increase on
livestock. This would be ineffective
because the livestock would still
be held back in the expectation of
the lifting of controls and even
higher prices.
Another remedy suggested by
many people was to have the gov
eminent seize the packing houses.
This offered no real solution, how
ever, because the SEEING of empty
packing would avail us nothing
without the livestock.
Some have even suggested that
the government go out onto the
farms and ranges and seize the
cattle for slaughter. This would
indeed be a drastic remedy. But
we gave it long and serious con-
sideration. We decided against the
use of this extreme wartime
emergency power of government.
1t would be wholly impracticab,e
because the cattle are spread
throughout all parts of the country.
1t has. also been suggested that
we import meat from other
countries. This would do little
good, however, because the amount
of exportable dressed meat,
not already contracted for, which
could be brought to this country
is very small in comparison with
our demands. Anyway. we would
not think OF asking for this meager
supply for ourselves, because the
people of other countries must
have it in order to exist. The
figures show, for example, that
during this year the people in
England and France will consume,
per person, only a fraction OF the
meat we consume.
Proposal Rejected
So these and all other proposals
and recommendations as alterna-
tives to the removal of controls
on meat were carefully weighed
and considered. They all had to be
rejected.
There is only one remedy left
that is to lift controls on meat.
Accordingly, the secretary Of agri-
culture and the price administrator
are removing all price controls on
livestock, and food and feed pro
ducts therefrom-tomorroW.
In a further effort to increase
the immediate flow of beef to
market, I caused an investigation
to be made of the possibility of
lifting quickly the present quaran-
tine against cattle from Mexico.
The secretary of agriculture re-
ports that his investigation of
cattle health conditions was COM
pleted Saturday, and that it indi-
Gates that the Mexican border
may be opened at once. When
that happens, a substantial num-
Der of cattle from Mexico will
AIOCAT IAnV cDIT