Show BUREAU TO CONTROL FOOD SUPPLY YI HI HII I I GO COST T REMEDY We Grope in Dark in Combating Combating Combating Com Com- bating Cost of Living j Have E Exact act Data I By MILTON BRONNER B By y TI The Telegrams Telegram's m Sp Special Nm Neva service S NEW YORK Dec 8 What 8 What th the I United States needs in this great crisis of high food prices Is a bureau fo for investigation and control and until we get it we are aloe Just groping in th the night says George W W. Perkins who besides being one of the master build build- era cm in the United States Steel Stel an and International Harvester companies 1 Is Isone isone one of the nations nation's greatest foo food authorities Perkins is the man who as chairman of Mayor Mitchels Mitchel's food supply committee com com- gave much money and energy to food investigation and compiled numerous numerous numerous nu nu- recipes for reducing living costAs cost As an investigator Perkins has little lIttIe patience with snap proposed b by various individuals Being a a. business business bustness busi- busi ness man he he- wants facts Until we have at Washington and andin andin andin in our states and cities market departments departments departments depart depart- ments that will operate co-operate we will wll never get anywhere In the solution o othe of the high cost of living he says Doubtless there are many many caus causes s forit for forit forit it but I venture there is not a manin man manIn manIn In th the United States who knows the situation with sufficient completeness and accuracy to make an intelligent recommendation The high cost coat of living is fe world worldwide worldwide wide it is nation wide Here with us Just now it is is' doubtless caused to some e. e extent tent by the war but it was with us before the war began and will be with us when the war is over Anyone who will think deeply and constructively will I believe reach the conclusion that it must be handled by federal state and municipal market bureaus with power power to investigate ascertain all an the facts and then in such cases as are necessary necessarY to regulate Why cannot we learn by experience experience experience ence We have d done ne this very thing with our railroads and our national banks I I remember when I was a a. boy hearing my father di discussing the propos proposal pro pro- pro pro- pos l to have a comptroller of the cur rency It was violently opposed Men said such an officer could go into every national bank and find out all about peoples people's private affairs and the country country country coun coun coun- try would be ruined Well we have that official and how many today would advocate doing away with ith the Job f I If a national bank banI were d doing something something something some some- thing detrimental to the public interest we would know just where to begin and whore to get the facts In New York we ha haye e a a. public service service ice commission which keeps in touch with transportation problems and sees that the people ar are are properly served ane and treated That was found necessary because I long ong ago the men who controlled transportation transportation trans trans- had it In hand about the same way as a j the egg man you men men- I Cr J had spoken of ol a Chicago broker who had millions o ll of eggs egors in I cold storage and defiantly asked what the he public was going to do about it Your egg man is right What are we Wa going to do about it it Transportation tation people used to ask that and the answer was the various commissions that now now regulate that part of at our om activities And remember that only about 10 per cent of the average mans man's Income goes joes for transportation while at least 40 iO per cent goes for his table expenses We are neglecting one of the greatest greatest greatest great great- est and most important problems In our daily dally lives and giving the egg m man man n nand and the beef man Illan and the others the opportunity to ask asle in safety what weare we weare we weare are going to do about It We are chasing around in circles trying to find out what the matter Is I asked whether cold storage was not being used as a weapon to go gouge ge the nation Cold storage is a very modern and useful Invention The question n is now now I whether this is being used wholly or oro orto orto to o a great extent in simply making money for a. a few individuals There is Sa no use raving about abuses of f cold storage Let us have us-have pave have a properly prop prop- I erly erh constituted ed body to investigate As matters matteis stand today almost every very farmer knows knows' he loses a certa n percentage of the stuff he lie raises So Solie ie le ies Is s lost through ro rot and some through other ther causes for the reason that he cannot annot alwa always s get his crops to a a. a profit- profit ablo bio market The farmer knows that somewhere near ear or far there are hungry mouths that hat would consume the food he raises raiser but jut he has no means of finding them At the tho other end of the line Une there are re people with hungry mouths who know now that there then ther must be food somewhere somewhere some some some- where but they have no means of getting getting get- get ting ing it It Is a situation where individuals cannot annot render th the ne necessary essary service It t m must st be done by the state and the nation atlon The consumers and the producers producers pro- pro must be brought into closer touch ouch And it mus must not be done by haphazard by venture b by speculation by y gouging ing |