THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 3! 



Confronting these alarming conditions, what was 

 done? Were the recommendations of that able com- 

 mission followed? Not at all; but instead, the Chief 

 of the Meat Division of the United States Food Ad- 

 ministration, on receipt of it, issued a bulletin, saying 

 among other things : " The prices, so far as we can 

 affect them, will not go below a minimum of $15.50 

 per cwt. for average packers' droves on the Chicago 

 market, until further notice." . . . " As to hogs far- 

 rowed next spring, we will try to stabilize the price, 

 so that the farmer can count on getting for each 100 

 pounds of hogs for market, thirteen times the average 

 cost per bushel of the corn fed into the hog." Why, 

 if a year hence farmers should receive an equivalent 

 of 13 bushels of corn for each 100 pounds of hogs 

 ready for market, should he be compelled to accept the 

 equivalent of 7^ bushels of corn at the then present 

 time? And especially, as at that time, he was begin- 

 ning the harvest of the smallest crop of corn in food 

 value in ten years, if ever? 



The price of No. 2 corn on the Chicago market at 

 that time the month preceding and the month fol- 

 lowing was a trifle over $2 per bushel ; the 1 2 bush- 

 els necessary to produce 100 pounds of live hogs, 

 $24, or $9.50 more than the price suggested for live 

 hogs. 



How many manufacturers would continue to make 

 any line of goods in which the raw material was worth 

 40 per cent, to 60 per cent, more than the finished 

 product? None. They would be impelled, for self- 

 preservation, to sell the raw material. Nevertheless, 

 partly through patriotism, but chiefly because 40 per 



