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the legislatures to minimize the possibility of the cornering of the food 

 supply by giving all information concerning stocks on hand to the public. 

 As an additional protection under certain conditions the officials of several 

 of the states are authorized to call for more frequent reports than are 

 specifically authorized in the statutes. 



In six of the eleven States enforcing a cold storage law, the State 

 Board of Health and its executives and inspectors are charged with the 

 enforcement of the act. In five States the work is done under the super- 

 vision of the food commissioner or dairy and food commissioner, as the 

 case may be. In every case, except the State of Delaware, it is made the 

 duty of the official or executive board to issue licenses for the operation of 

 cold storage plants. These licenses are issued after an inspection has 

 shown them to be sanitary and properly equipped and operated, and the 

 board or officials charged with the enforcement of the act have power to 

 withdraw the license if the plant becomes unsanitary or is operated in 

 violation of the law. An important provision of practically every law is 

 that authorizing the officials to extend the time of storage if inspection at 

 the end of the storage period shows the goods still to be in satisfactory 

 condition and suitable for use as food. 



Unquestionably the public has the impression that prices are artifi- 

 cially and arbitrarily raised by reason of withholding goods from market, 

 in storage warehouses. The special committee of the Chicago Association 

 of Commerce, which made a thorough study of cold storage in its many 

 phases, says of this argument against storage : 



••Exhaustive examination of the statistics compiled under the 

 directions of your committee, and a comparison of these statistics 

 with the facts obtained by the department of agriculture, after an 

 exhaustive research demonstrates clearly that the prices of butter, 

 eggs* poultry and fish have been more uniform during the year since 

 cold storage has became a factor in the care of food products than 

 before that period. These statistics also show that taking an aver- 

 age for a period of years, prices on the whole have been lower than 

 during the years when cold storage was unknown." 



This statement is in substantial agreement with the conclusions reached 

 by the Massachusetts committee and undoubtedly is an accurate gauge of 

 the effect of cold storage upon the price of food. Nevertheless, in view of 

 the persistent criticism of the new industry and of the too general impres- 



