Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-02-22 | Page 3 | Board of Trade will Appeal to the President

BOARD OF TRADE WILL APPEAL TO THE PRESIDENT CT-TlCAnO, Fob. 21. It authoritatively authorita-tively stated this afternoon that unless action adequate to solve the car short a are situation has been today by Friday next, the administration of the Chicago Board of Trade will appeal to president Wilson and conpross to take the situation out or the hands of the railroads and of the interstate in-terstate commerce commission, as mpnt be done in lime of war, and place it in the hajids of a body with dictatorial powers for the time beinfr. In a public statement this afternoon. J. p Griffin, president of the Chicago Board of Trade, averted that in addition to 40 -000,000 bushels of ffratn in Chicago awaiting await-ing shipment there are from fifty to peventy-flve millions more In country elevators ele-vators held up because of the congestion here. Says Grasp Is Lost. "I have no hesitancy in declaring that both the commission and the railroads are completely overwhelmed, and have lost grrasp of the situation," said Mr. Griffin. "As a matter of fact, the intervention in-tervention of the interstate commerce commission has been harmful rather than otherwlso, and the method of relief insisted in-sisted upon or offered by them has been fanciful and without any substantial results." re-sults." The statement assorts that unless a remedy is found tho demoralisation will extend to all commodities. It continues: "I am willing: to predict tliat within less than thirty days tiie commerce of this country will he prostrated unless some iare" and more influeniial power than the railroads and the interstate commerce commission is placed in control, of the matter." Mr. Griffin said that grain is today the cheapest food commodity in the world. He said that prices here at present are but 20 per cent above the level which has ruled during- the war. while "potatoes and produce generally ii re Felling from 200 to 1000 per cent higher than the level of a year ago." Distress Demonstrated. "The distress at consuming- points." he continued,, "is clearly demonstrated by the prices prevailing for spot erain. While tiie value at Chicago and other western markets is moderate, grain for immediate delivery In the east is selling at a premium pre-mium of from 3 to 20 cents a hushel above Chicago parity, freight conditions considered." con-sidered." His attention was invited to the official of-ficial statement tliat the car shortage of the country is now 109.000 cars, "I don't know just whit those figures mean," he said, "but I do know that we could use 20,000 cars In Chicago right now." Telegrams along the lines given in his statement were sent by Mr. Griffin to presidents of eastern, railroads and to the interstate commerce commission earlier ear-lier in the day. In these he asserted, among other things, that a continuance of the present pres-ent situation will lead to the danger of anarvhv and rioting. He asserted that the root of the trouble lies in the use of a disproportionate number of cars on eastern roads for carrying manufactured articles bringing the railroads a higher revenue than grain and foodstuffs. He said that munitions of war formed onlv a part of two or three hundred articles which were given preference in the mat- j ter of cars. r I