Page:Science (journal) Volume 47 New Series 1918.djvu/20

 which the commodities are used and the amount.

The situation is well illustrated by the staples—sugar and wheat and its products.

Sugar.—For sugar the Food Administration has made agreements with the producers in regard to the prices which they are to receive; with the refiners concerning the prices they are to charge for their services; has limited the margins of the jobbers and wholesalers; and thus has controlled the price at which the commodity should be sold to the retailer. Also the Food Administration has indicated what would be a fair margin for the retailer. Thus the public knows precisely what it should pay for sugar in any locality. Further, the Food Administration has very sharply controlled the distribution of sugar, deciding absolutely the amount which is to go abroad, and has limited the amount of sugar to be used in certain industries, such as the bakers and the confectioners.

Wheat and Its Products.—For wheat the control has gone even farther. The price of wheat has been fixed for each grade at the primary central markets. To handle wheat a grain corporation has been formed, which organization has actually bought and sold wheat to the extent necessary to reach the required results. While only a small part of the wheat crop has been bought and sold by the grain corporation, the other larger part has been controlled as completely as if it were bought and sold; that is, the grain seller and the miller and exporter have been brought into direct relations. The wheat remains at home or is sent to our associates in war in accordance with the directions of the Food Administration. With few exceptions sales have been carried on at the prices fixed by the Food Administration, and thus the dealing in wheat is practically a government-controlled monopoly.

By limiting the charges of the miller, the price of flour at the mills is as definitely controlled as the price of wheat. The jobbers' margins are fixed and the freight rates are known. The bakers have been brought under licenses, which provide for a standard loaf, both in regard to its constituents and its weight. The price of this standard loaf is therefore definitely determined for the bakers in different parts of the country; and this gives a basis upon which to announce a fair charge by the retailers. This for a pound loaf is from 7 to 9 cents. Thus the price of bread, the staff of life, is brought under control.

In distributing the wheat, its main routes of travel have been very greatly changed. Under pre-war conditions the wheat very largely went to the great central markets and especially Chicago and St. Louis. The price of the wheat of the country was controlled by Chicago quotations; and this market, and to a lesser extent St. Louis, served as magnets which drew the wheat to these centers. From these centers it was redistributed. Under the Food Administration the importance of these centers has diminished; cross and return freights have been avoided. The wheat for export has very largely gone directly south to the Gulf ports and there found an outlet instead of East to the Atlantic ports. The wheat not exported has gone directly to the milling centers, in proportion to their capacity, there to be converted into flour.

Other Foods.—Other essential foods have been placed under the licensing system and thus to a large extent controlled, although as yet regulation has not gone to the extent of that for wheat and its products and sugar, but the Food Administration is moving from one essential commodity to another. Thus the first step in the control of the price of meat—the limitation