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Show HUNGRY ATTACK POLICE Angry New York Housewives House-wives Clash With Officers Offi-cers in Congested Tenement Ten-ement Districts; Storm City Hall in Effort to See Mayor Mitchel. SITUATION ACUTE AS PRICES RISE Abnormal Exportation and Subnormal Production Pro-duction Are Underlying Underly-ing Causes; Evidence Found of Speculation in Canned Goods. NEW YORK, Feb. 20. Following many clashes between the police and women food rioters at the city hall and in congested tenement districts today, Joseph Hartigan, commissioner of weights and measures, announced that he was doing everything in his power to stimulate the flow of foodstuffs into this city from all parts of the country. Reports received by the commissioner indicate that the situation has reached an acute stage which, he asserted, calls for the establishment by congress of some sort of i(food control commission to meet the per capita consumption of food in the United States." While retail shop keepers and push cart peddlers have been forced to bear the brunt of the assaults of the angry housewives here, the bureau of weights and measures announced that "the abnormal ab-normal exportation of foodstuffs and the subnormal production are the underlying un-derlying causes of the advance in prices." It was said, however, that there is "abundant evidence of speculation specula-tion in canned goods." Attack Push Carts. So desperate have the women in some parts of the city become, it is said, that hundreds of food peddlers have locked their push carts in stables and suspended suspend-ed business. A number of these dealers who ventured out on the upper East Side today were set upon by a mob of housewives when it was found they were selling onions at fifteen cents per pound and potatoes at Dine and ten cents per pound. The peddlers were driven from the streets into hallways of tenements, where the women tors their clothing and scratched their faces. Meantime the push carts were demolished demol-ished and their contents strewn about the streets. After several hundred women had stormed the city hall in an effort to see the mayor, Mrs. Ida Harris, president of the "Mothers' Vigilance club, issued a statement in which she declared it had been decided to keep children awav from the schools until the price of food lis lnworivl Thw atrtn Afra Utirrie ,- serted, was justified on the ground that the poorly-fed children are in no condition condi-tion to profit by schooling. No Sugar Shortage. Announcement was made tonight bv Earl D. Babst, president of the American Ameri-can Sugar Refining company, that housewives house-wives should pay no attention to unfounded un-founded stones as to the shortage of sugar. In his statement, Mr. Babst said : There are ample supplies of raw and refined sugar on hand and in transit throughout the country to take care of normal consumption. We are operating all of our refineries re-fineries and expect so to continue. This company has been selling large quantities of sugar at a quarter to a half cent a pound below existing market prices, and is taking rare of its normal trade at all points. Its deliveries to the domestic trade up to this date are greater than for the same period of 10 Hi. FEDERAL PROBE OF FOOD PRICES IS TO BEGIN NEXT WEEK CHICAGO. Feh. l'n While a hunger demonstration wn taking nlae in N'ew York torlrtv. and Pliirnco, Ifke the rest of the eoimtrv. was fa . -I ncr higher prices for tn hie nei-wrics. it w;is? annniim-er! tha t tin fod(-r;il government's in vst Ie;j tion into the food problem will np,?n in Chi-caen Chi-caen soon, rl'hlv next week. The nrmoim.-erneht was made bv Tnit-ed Tnit-ed States District Attorney Clyrie. who Continued on Pago Twt v PUSH CART PEDDLERS ATTACKED BY WOffl (Continued from Pago Ono.l has just returned from "Washington, a the conclusion of an interview with Frank Dniley, a special assistant attorney general gen-eral who has been in charge of the governments gov-ernments inquiry Into the coal shortage. Much evidence bearing on the food situation sit-uation is said to have been gathered by agents of tiie department of justice and is ready for presentation to the commission. commis-sion. Some of It Is said to have been heard by grand juries. No Relief in Sight. T. P. Miller, president of the newly organized Fruit and Yegctal.de Shippers association, said today that no relief was in sight and that only diminished consumption con-sumption could lower prices. "There are only 750 cars of potatoes In the whole state of Colorado now," said Mr. Millar. "There should be at this season 3'iOfi cars. Idaho has only 12n0 cars. Oregon 2'il and "Washington 10, which is about one-third to rne-fif 1 h of their normal supply. And tills supply is being rapidly shipped out. We had sixty cars yesterday, mostly from the west, and we relayed most of the sixty cars as far east as Boston and as far south as Texas. "Potatoes are retailing at SO cents a peck in Chicago and are said to be likely to go higher. The reason lies not only in the very short crop of last year, but in the added freight charges involved in bringing them from the far west. Ordinarily Or-dinarily we get them from neatsby states. In otiier years when the crop was short we imported them f rom Ireland, Belgium, Bel-gium, Scotland and Germany. That was of course Impossible this season. We have imported in former yeans as high as 3,uuu,000 bushels. See More Scarcity. "Many farmers, tempted by high prices, have sold their seed potatoes, and the result re-sult may be decreased acreage this year." Mr. Miller estimated that the present crop Is short forty-five million bushels. On top of this came news that frosts have done Berlous damage to the crops ordinarily ready for market at this time. Onions in Chicago today were selling at 12 cents a pound wholesale, as compared with the normal price of Z cents; beans, ordinarily worth $1.75, at $7.2: a bushel, and the ten-dollar cabbage of Otiier years is an aristocrat at $150 a ton. 6 th cist ci-st aples are quoted at proportionate advances. ad-vances. WASHINGTON, Feb. 20. One of the measures which President Wilson will insist upon as a part of the programme to be completed by congress before It adjourn ad-journ is tiie appropriation of JP'iO.mio requested by the federal trade commission for an inquiry Into high prices. It became known tonight that the president pres-ident Is determined that the commission, ! which is making the investigation at his : request, shall huve ample funds for the work. Considerable opposition has de- j veloped in the house and the appropria- i lions committee in reporting- the civil sundry bill yesterday failed to include the i $4ri0.0(V asked for. It is expected that when the bill comes up for debate the item will be introduced as an amendment with the full backing of the administration. |