58 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



the words of one of the speculators, who said: "Call 

 it speculation if you will. It is, possibly, from the 

 standpoint of the gentle public; but we call it suc- 

 cessful merchandising in South Water Street." 



The same practice prevails as to poultry, butter, 

 sugar, and many other commodities. In fact, almost 

 every article of food is under the control of middle- 

 men and food speculators. 



Mr. Herbert Hoover, commenting on the extent 

 of speculation and its cost to the public, stated in 

 a hearing, June 19, 1917, before the Senate Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture and Forestry: 



" In our commercial distribution we are confronted 

 daily and hourly with evidence of a large amount 

 of rank speculation at every link of the distribut- 

 ing chain by persons not engaged in actual com- 

 merce of distribution. Thousands of men in this 

 country who never owned a commodity in their life 

 have bought canned goods, flour, wheat, and every 

 food commodity to speculate for the rise, and these 

 speculations have been prompted to a great degree 

 by the increased field of forward contracts, which 

 offer a basis for transfer of titles in commodities not 

 much speculated in hitherto. Altogether w^e face 

 the amazing situation of the country producing a 

 smplus of foodstuffs and paying the highest prices 

 known to its histoiy. 



"There can be no more vivid evidence of the de- 

 sirability of food control in this situation than a 

 comparison between our prices and the prices of 

 foodstuffs in countries where there is some measure 

 of food administration. I will not traverse the 



