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Show jTOii!5t.&asJ rcjJjf gitimate dealers couldn't do that, because, of controls. The situation was rapidly growing worse. Finally Price Stabilizer Ellis Ar-nall Ar-nall was pressured into cancelling the oeiling. As a result prices did advance for a few days. The price increase induced more farmers to start digging. Housewives who objected ob-jected to the high price let potatoes pota-toes pile up in the market. Prices Break Finally the price broke sharply. Soon potatoes were selling in the New York market at five pounds for 25 cents. It took 15 days for the free market to restore the price to what it should be under the law of supply and demand. The history of this spring's potato po-tato shortage points up the mistaken mis-taken policy of those who advocate controls in our free economy. The potato crop last year was smaller than the recent average. That might have caused a temporary tempo-rary shortage. But ordinarily the shortage would not have ' been acute, and it would have lasted only until the potato crop in the southern states was ready for market. mar-ket. But the controls changed the ordinary process of marketing. Because Be-cause prices were fixed at a comparatively com-paratively low rate, southern farmers decided to let their potatoes pota-toes stay in the ground until they attained full growth. Then a larger yield might compensate for the lower price. Black Market Appears As last year's crop of potatoes was used up, black marketeers invaded in-vaded the southern potato fields and began buying up the crop at prices high enough to induce the farmers to harvest promptly. Le- |