CHAPTER XIII 

 FOOD CONTROL IN GERMANY 



While England and the United States have en- 

 deavored to regulate monopoly by penal statutes, 

 Germany, like Australia, has solved the problem 

 through public ownership of the distributing agen- 

 cies. And it is only through ownership that the 

 host of speculators, middlemen, and forestallers can 

 be eliminated. 



Even before the war the more important agencies 

 of distribution were owned by the empire, the states, 

 or the cities. This has been the policy of Germany 

 especially since the days of Bismarck. It is part of 

 the programme of state socialism which has made 

 Germany so efficient in the war. 



Among the agencies owned by the state or the 

 cities for the easy control of the food supply are the 

 following : 



(1) The railroads, fast-freight lines, express com- 

 panies, and parcel-post; 



(2) The slaughter-houses, stock-yards, and cold- 

 storage plants; 



(3) The markets in the cities; and 



(4) In many towns the wholesale purchase and 



sale of food by the authorities to keep down prices 



and eliminate speculation. 



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