Evening star., 1950-07-20
Control Talk Spurred
As Prices Climb in
Spite Of Ample Supply

Climbing food prices in the
midst of plenty plus purchases by
business concerns seeking to build
up inventories in advance of
possible shortages spurred talk of
Government controls today.
There were continued reports of
consumer purchases of sugar and
coffe. with the scare buying ex-
tending to canned meats, shorten
ing and olive oil.
Markets watched for the re-
action to President Truman's
statement that food boarding is
foolish and selfish" AMI that if
q sharp price rise makes it neces-
= sary he will not hesitate to recon-
], mend price controls and ration
ing.
= Government experts pointed out
: that the public is mistakenly
2 judging present conditions by
those Of World War II when he
"a had to feed millions of our allies
whereas now European food pro-
duction is at a satisfactory scale.
They point out that even if we
had to feed all South Koreans,
their number is comparatively
small.
ri Market Flooding Urged.
.u Sugar prices climbed a cent a
pound and the price of raw sugar
was at new high for the year.
This prompted Herman B. CHASER
Of New York, counsel for the Re-
tail Food Merchants Association
: of New York, to wire President
Truman recommending that the
sugar market be flooded and
glutted to break profiteering."
- He suggested that the Agricul-
.tural Department order hundreds
OF thousands additional tons of
q sugar from Cuba.
- Meanwhile, Agriculture Secre-
tary Bra1nan called the attention
OF the House Agriculture Commit
tee to the danger of spoilage to
the huge stocks of food the Gov
ernment has on hand. In a letter
to Chairman Cooley of the House
Agriculture Committee and Acting
Chairman Ellender of the Senate
Agriculture Committee, Secretary
Brannan said:
: There are now in the possess
sion Of the Commodity Credit |
Corp. approximately one pound
of butter, two and one-half
pounds of dried milk, almost half
p pound of cheese and two dozen
shell eggs Tin dried form) for
every man. woman and child in
the United States.
No Spoilage Threat.
None of these commodities has
been allowed to spoil. There is no
immediate threat of Spoilage.
However, such a fortunate condi-
tion cannot be expected to con-
tinue indefinitely"
: Mr.. Cooley said Secretary Bran
nan would be before his commit
tee today to testify about a pro-
poSal for two more undersecre-
taries in the Agriculture Depart.
ment. But since the COMMITTEES;
has many things before it, Mr..
Cooley said, he has asked Secre-
tary Brannan to come before it
again on Monday to discuss the
food surpluses in storage.
Coffee price increases are
blamed by the trade on the ris-
ing price Of green coffee. This
commodity has jumped about 10
zcents pound in six weeks. Coffeei
supplies should be adequate to
meet world demand. trade au-
thoritieS said, but when the mar.
ket is hit by exceptionally heavy
demand such as that which fol-
lowed the outbreak in Korea
growers are in position to ask
Tor and get higher prices.
& The Dun & Bradstreet whole
sale food price index advanced to
g$6.41 from 1928 a week ago, con-
tinuing its long upward climb.
The index has advanced 7.6 per
cent since the Korean war started
and is now 1873 per cent above
: the level of year ago and higher
than at any time since late 1948.
Fl The index represents the total
: wholesale cost of a pound each
OF 81 foods in general demand.
-