OCR Text |
Show SPECULATORS PLAN CORNER IN THE POTATO MARKET Said to be Buying Up Crop With View to Holding Out for Higher Prices From the Consumer. Washington. A new phase of the cost of living problem was brought to the attention of the department of agriculture ag-riculture Friday, when T. P. Gill, secretary sec-retary of the Irish board of agriculture, agricul-ture, told Secretary Houston that speculators were actively buying up this year's short American potato crop and planning to hold out for high prices, counting upon the existing quarantine against potatoes from any foreign countries to aid them in their undertaking. Mr. Gill is here to urge the removal of the embargo on potatoes from his country, and has received private ad vices from various sources on the potato po-tato situation in America. He insists that the powdery scab found on potatoes pota-toes imported from Ireland is no cause for a quarantine, because a similar blemish already is common in the United States, and declares that continuance con-tinuance of the embargo will contribute contrib-ute to the growing cost of living. Sec retary Houston and the federal horticultural horti-cultural board held a conference after Mr. Gill's statement, but no action was announced. |