OCR Text |
Show '1 in: COST OF FOGl . The federal bureau of markets reports re-ports over fifty million bushels of wheat In the elevators and storehouses store-houses on Juno 1, not Including the storks on farms or commercial stocks. There is twenty per cent more wheat flour on hand than at this time last year. Very much the same condition seems lo exist in the case of many other kinds of foodstuffs, and we havo for some time been assured that, bearing the most improbable contingencies, the 1919 wheat crop will be enormous. It w'll be well to bear these facts In n:i...l next winter if the cost of food makes any eccentric rises. It will be known then that the cause is artificial (and not natural) scarcity. It should be fairly easy to place the blame. It may be the fault of market riggers and operators., or the cost of transportation, or a shortage short-age of freight cars. If either of these, or if ;ny other reason, it should be easy for the government to ferrit It out. That is what we have a government for. But It will be necessary, under any conditions, to trace the trouble to some cause. Costly food means insufficient food; and this, in the case of the individual, means work per formed at a handicap, with half efficiency, ef-ficiency, with an 'undernourished body. The result will be curtailed production pro-duction and diminished, prosperity. It is up to the government. |