Show On n Being 1 With It the In time of war or war near there is always a lot of emphasis on gettin with the whether whether its it's a question of winning a battle or stocking stocking stocking stock stock- ing up ones one's cellar or attic There are reports that the Korean imbroglio has convinced some persons war with Russia Russia Russia Rus Rus- sia is just around the corner followed by strict rationing and shortages of many commodities commodities and and so they'd better get bet theirs and The funny thing about this urge to get the jump on others by stocking up upon upon upon on certain commodities is that the in individual individual individual in- in hoarders frequently turn out to tobe tobe tobe be poor prognosticators tors They commonly common common- ly y stock up on the shortage g glast items of the thelast thelast last war only to learn to their chagrin later that new wars under new conditions create new shortages which they had hadnot hadnot hadnot not anticipated For instance in World orld War Val I sugar I Iwas was a particularly short and priced high-priced commodity So when lien World War Val II broke a lot of the wise ones stocked up on sugar But sugar wasn't particularly short and its price was held at a very reasonable level Tires were short in World War Var II and so some hoarders are reportedly stocking up on tires now But there is no reason to believe there will willbe willbe willbe be any particularly serious tire shortage in a third world war war war-in in the first place because we have ample synthetic rubber capacity and in the second because there is less likelihood natural rubber supplies will be cut off as they were in the last war If H the difficulty of predicting the future future future fu fu- fu- fu ture shortages of a possible third world war isn't enough of a deterrent the problem of spoilage should be and if that isn't enough the hoarders might consider that in a third war this nation will be so totally involved and probably so tightly controlled that the chances of profiting on any stock of scarce commodities commodities com com- will be none too good |