344 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRA] 



C MAGAZINE 



HOW OUR ALLIES' FLOUR BARREL 

 WAS FILLED BEFORE THE WAR 



HOW OUR ALLIES' FLOUR BARREL 

 MUST BE FILLED IN 1918 



IMPORTED FROM 

 ^UNITED STATES 



ty?r 



ftL&STWRtfJOUVI® 



COtyEFROM 



FROM 

 INDIA 

 AUSTRALIA 

 ARGENTINA 



THK ALLIES FLOUR BARREL 



Owing to the destruction of shipping, until the new American merchant fleet is constructed, 

 but little wheat and flour from India, Australia, and Argentina can be transported 



tablishing a tentative price of $15.50 per 

 hundredweight — a price arrived at by 

 setting up the ratio between corn and hog 

 as thirteen to one — that is, thirteen times 

 the price of a bushel of corn gives the 

 price per hundredweight of hog. 



Fourth. Sugar control has been very 

 marked. We gained little in balance on 

 our sugar supply in the six months from 

 August, 191 7, to February, 19 18. The 

 price, however, in spite of the famine in 

 sugar during the fall months of 1917, was 

 brought down two or three cents per 

 pound and held there. Congress did not 

 give us power in our bill to buy and sell 

 sugar; therefore we had to allow the re- 

 finers to be the purchasers with and for 

 the Allies ; but, in spite of this lack of 

 complete power, the public has been pro- 

 tected and France has her sugar from 

 our supply, sugar which we must get 

 along without. 



CONDITIONS MUST EK FACED IN WAR 

 TIMES 



War is a period of economic degenera- 

 tion, so that although government control 

 in the necessities of life may not be es- 



sential, or even advantageous in normal 

 times, in war time we must choose the 

 lesser of the two evils ; for without con- 

 trol then, with prices running riot, we 

 should face a national disaster. It is only 

 in this way that we can make life tolera- 

 ble for the working man. 



Shipping is constantly diminishing. We 

 of the United States cannot do our share 

 in the fighting for another ten months, 

 even with good luck. Australia has an 

 abundance of wheat, but it takes nearly 

 three times as much shipping to accom- 

 plish a given task of transportation be- 

 tween Australia and Europe as between 

 the United States and Europe, and the 

 situation imperatively requires that all 

 shipping be confined to the shortest route. 



If there is any falling down from 

 now on in our proposed program for 

 ship-building, even Argentina cannot be 

 reached to the degree that the needs of 

 the situation demand. It is easy, essen- 

 tially, to create a new ship, as it were, by 

 taking a ship from the Argentina serv- 

 ice and applying it to our carrying serv- 

 ice to Europe. Every ship we take over 

 from the Argentina trade gives us es- 



