THE WEAPON OF FOOD 



199 



centrated foodstuffs — grain, beef, pork, 

 dairy products, and sugar. 



We must control exports in such a 

 manner as to protect the supplies of our 

 own people. Happily we have an excess 

 of some other commodities which cannot 

 be shipped, particularly corn and perish- 

 ables, and we can do much to increase 

 our various exports if we can secure sub- 

 stitutions of these in the diet of our peo- 

 ple; but above all we must eliminate our 

 waste. 



Our first duty lies to our Allies, and if 

 they are to sacrifice a share of our food 

 to neutrals, and if this is also the result of 

 our own savings and our own productive 

 labor, these neutrals should expect to fur- 

 nish equivalent service in other directions 

 to the common pool against Germany. 



Populations short of food hesitate at 

 no price, and in those commodities where 

 there is demand beyond supply, whether 

 food or otherwise, the old law of price- 

 fixing by "supply and demand" is broken. 



SPECULATION ENGENDERED BY OVER- 

 DEMAND 



Such an over-demand gives opportu- 

 nity for vicious speculation and presents 

 an instability to trade which necessitates 

 widening margins in distributing profits 

 and great damage to the consumer. It 

 results in marking up the prices of mil- 

 lions of articles upon the shelves and en- 

 gages the whole of the distributing trades 

 in inherent speculation. 



It is upon this question of price that I 

 wish to dwell for a moment. 



We have all listened to the specious ar- 

 guments of the siren of high prices ; it is 

 heralded as the mark of prosperity and 

 to possess economic advantages ; it is 

 advocated as a conservation measure, It 

 is true, high prices reduce consumption, 

 but they reduce it through the methods 

 of famine, for the burden is thrown on 

 to the class of the most limited means, 

 and thus the class least able to bear it. 



There is no national conservation in 

 robbing our working classes of the abil- 

 ity to buy food. High prices are con- 

 servation by reducing the standard of 

 living of the majority. It works no 

 hardship on the rich and discriminates 

 against the poor. 



Real conservation lies in the equita- 

 ble distribution of the least necessary 

 amount, and in this country we can only 

 hope to obtain it as a voluntary service, 

 voluntary self-denial, and voluntary re- 

 duction of waste by each and every man, 

 woman, and child according to his own 

 abilities ; not alone a contribution of food 

 to our Allies, but a contribution to lower 

 prices. 



We have and will retain sufficient food 

 for all our people. There is no economic 

 reason why there should be exorbitant 

 prices. We are not in famine. It is ob- 

 vious that our people must have quanti- 

 ties of food and must have them at prices 

 which they can pay from their wages. 



HIGH PRICES EEAD TO STRIKES, DISORDERS, 

 RIOTS, AND UNDERMINE NA- 

 TIONAL EEEICIENCY 



If we are to have ascending prices, we 

 must have ascending wages. But as the 

 wage level rises with inequality, it is the 

 door leading to strikes, disorder, riots, 

 and defeat of our national efficiency. 

 We are thus between two fires — to con- 

 trol prices or to readjust the income of 

 the whole community. The verdict of 

 the whole of the world's experience is in 

 favor of price control as the lesser evil. 



There are few who will dispute the ad- 

 vantage of such regulation as will elimi- 

 nate speculation and extortionate profits. 

 This is difficult to disassociate from fix- 

 ing of prices, yet a great deal may be 

 done by simple regulation and the organ- 

 ization of trades to police themselves 

 under government patronage — to put reg- 

 ulations into force as will protect the 

 legitimate and patriotic trader — for no 

 one will deny that speculation against the 

 consumer is a vicious crime in our pres- 

 ent state. 



The large question of the hour is price- 

 fixing, because the suspension of the law 

 of der land and supply as an equitable 

 economic law is forcing our hand in 

 every direction. 



The total experience of Europe has 

 demonstrated that many methods of 

 price control, such as maximums and 

 minimums, are a fallacy, and in them- 

 selves stimulate evasions and generate 

 economic currents, which, while they may 

 be a temporary palliative to a situation, 



