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never experienced difficulty in obtaining the necessary sup- 

 plies. This is the first time in half a century that the industry 

 has been threatened by an over-all shortage. The latter part 

 of June 1943 the administration stopped future trading in 

 corn and commandeered a few million bushels of hedged and 

 unhedged corn in terminal elevators. The amount was small 

 and much of this corn had already been allotted to essential 

 industries. Therefore, early in July 1943, the War Food Ad- 

 ministration announced that farmers who sold corn during 

 the period from July to August 10 would share in any in- 

 creased ceiling price announced prior to October 31, 1943. 

 Country elevators, which became instrumentalities of the 

 government, were ordered to sell within twenty-four hours 

 after a carload, about 1,750 bushels, had been purchased. The 

 Congressional mail concerning corn increased from many 

 areas until it exceeded the communications about war. 



Those in charge of fixing the price of corn were beset by 

 corn-producers, who clamored for a higher price ; starch fac- 

 tories, which needed corn ; livestockmen in deficit areas, who 

 wanted more feed; other administrators who were com- 

 mitted to rigidly fixed prices; and the trade, which prayed 

 for any kind of a price just so it could do business. The regu- 

 lators must have concluded from their hectic experience that 

 you can lead a man to market, but you can't make him sell. 



If this pricing policy is continued, corn will probably stay 

 in hiding and the net effect will be to reduce that part of the 

 production of milk and eggs formerly produced in the East 

 and other deficit areas from the corn of the Middle West. 

 Such a policy would shift a part of the production of the 

 East's milk and eggs to the West, provided the Corn Belt 

 hogs, which were legally entitled to "patronize the black 

 market," didn't eat the corn first. Why should the hogs, chick- 

 ens, and dairy cows of the Corn Belt have been permitted to 

 pay black-market prices for corn, while one half the hogs and 



