The situation was regarded as so serious that the commission recommended as a war emergency measure that all mills and agencies in the United States producing and distributing print paper and mechanical and chemical pulp be operated by the Government through suitable agencies, and that the products be equitably distributed at fair prices. It was also recommended that because so much of the newspaper print paper comes from Canada to the United States that the Government of Canada be asked to create agencies to act jointly with similar agencies from the United States for the protection of consumers, and that in case the Canadian Government would not join in the enterprise that the exportation of paper and paper material into the United States should only be made on Government account through the Federal agency recommended by the commission.

OTHER INDUSTRIES.

A full discussion of the industrial situation would show advances in prices and increased war profits in the production of scores of finished commodities other than those already considered, whether the material be foods, meats, metals, or wood, or some combination of one or more of these.

CONCLUSION REGARDING EXCESS PROFITS.

The foregoing facts show that war conditions have been taken advantage of by corporations generally throughout the United States to exact excessive profits. Indeed, in many cases the demands for commodities have been so pressing and the enhanced prices so great as to make the exactions amount to extortion. When prices for essentials are increased two, three, or four fold and result in profits beyond the dreams of any imagination before the war, it can not be said that the appeal of President Wilson, on patriotic grounds, to men in business and industry not to practice profiteering, has led to any substantial results. Nor can it reasonably be expected that such an appeal would have been successful. When all lines of business are following the same practice, it can not be expected that one corporation or one business man shall depart from the practices of the others.

FURTHER ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL BY INDICTMENT.

As before the war, there have been attempts to prevent cooperation, and thus control prices and profits through prosecution under the Sherman Act. Thus on May 24, 1917, by the Federal grand jury at Boston, 88 dealers were indicted for violating the antitrust law to control the entire crop of onions to enhance the prices of that product. On June 2 the Federal grand jury at Chicago brought indictment against 25 individuals and firms acting on the Chicago Butter and

Egg Board, who were charged with manipulating the markets to increase the price of eggs. In New York it was announced June 19 that 51 coal operators and 102 corporations were put on trial before the United States district court for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by combining to increase and fix the price of certain coals. Other indictments have been made along the same line.

Some of the prosecutions, notably that relating to coal, have been abandoned; others have been continued. However, whether the prosecutions are few or many, are abandoned or continued, they have been utterly futile to prevent general cooperation to control the market and thus enhance prices for all essential commodities. The failure in these respects has been just as complete as was failure along similar lines before the world war.

The facts presented in the foregoing pages demonstrate beyond doubt that we can not rely upon the laws of supply and demand and competition to meet the situation under war conditions. The only possible way in which prices and profits can be reduced to reasonable amounts is by governmental exertion. Therefore the extraordinary measures presented below to meet the situation have been adopted. These measures are so great a development as almost to amount to a revolution in the methods of public control of production, industry, and commerce.

CHAPTER III.

FOOD PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION.

PROPOSED REMEDIES.

What are the remedies which are proposed to alleviate the existing situation? They are along three lines: A campaign has been inaugurated to increase production of all necessary articles; a campaign has been carried forward to eliminate waste in all commodities, especially waste in food, and to readjust the food program; and governmental regulation has been invoked through a series of laws enacted by Congress and by the legislatures of some States. It is the purpose of this chapter briefly to consider the first two of these remedial measures, the third one being treated in the next chapter.

INCREASED PRODUCTION.

While there was enhancement of prices in 1916 and a great reduction of the visible immediate supplies of every standard commodity, it was not until early in 1917 that it was appreciated that there would be an acute world shortage of the necessaries; and this appreciation only became general after the United States entered the war, April 4, 1917. It was then seen that it was imperatively necessary that the production of the necessaries be increased. Increased production must be obtained for (1) foods and feeds, (2) manufactured products of all classes, and especially textiles and metals; and (3) coal.

FOODS AND FEEDS.

The first important step taken to increase the production of foods and feeds was by the Secretary of Agriculture, who, on April 9, 1917, called at St. Louis a conference of State agricultural officials and representatives of the agricultural colleges. Thirty-two States were represented at the conference by members of the State departments of agriculture or by the staffs of the agricultural colleges, or both. The whole problem of increasing the agricultural production of the country was discussed from every point of view. It was generally agreed that there must be a great increase in all of the standard cereals-wheat, corn, rye, barley, oats; that this increase should be supplemented by an increase in the production of peas, beans,

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cowpeas, soy beans, and buckwheat; that there should be increase in the production of vegetables and potatoes; that there should be an attempt to increase the number of meat-producing animals, especially beef and pork; that there should be an increase in dairy products and in poultry. Further, it was agreed that in the South the production of sweet potatoes and sugar beets should be increased.

The campaign for the extension of the acreage of all the staple crops inaugurated by the Department of Agriculture was promptly taken up by the colleges of agriculture in the States. Also shortly after the participation in the war by the United States there were created in many of the States State councils of defense, committees on public safety, etc., and these took part in the campaign. For many States the agricultural colleges or the State council or committee sent agents to the rural communities, who gave exclusive attention to individual counties and in some cases individual townships. In consequence of this campaign, for the year 1917 there has been a marked increase of acreage by the farmers of the country for almost every standard food product.

Some illustrations are as follows:

This movement for the increase in farm acreage has been supplemented by a campaign for the increase of the garden production in the cities, towns, and villages. This campaign has been carried out from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian line to the Gulf, with the result that in every village and city the back lots and vacant spaces, which have heretofore been waste, are largely under intensive cultivation. It is safe to say that the number of gardens in the United States has been increased by at least 2,000,000. In some cities where there was not a sufficient number of vacant lots the waste spaces in parks have been brought under cultivation and divided among those who would raise gardens. In at least one instance a municipality has actually raised crops under its own management.

The importance of these vegetable gardens is very great. Each will supply vegetables for the family during the summer season, and if canning and drying are introduced, supplementary food for the remainder of the year. The vegetable gardens almost invariably contain potato patches, and many will yield sufficient potatoes for the family for the entire year.

Already the Secretary of Agriculture has launched a campaign still further to enlarge the production for the year of 1918. He asks that the production of wheat for that year be increased to 1,000,000,000 bushels by planting 47,337,000 acres of winter wheat and 19,000,000 acres of spring wheat, and that the production of rye be increased to 83,000,000 bushels by planting 5,131,000 acres of that crop.

The present shortage of wheat is so serious that the carry-over will be very small, and it is certain that any crop of wheat that can be produced in 1918 will be needed.

It should be considered in this connection that Congress has guaranteed a minimum price of $2 a bushel for No. 1 northern spring wheat at the primary interior markets, and for other grades corresponding prices. (See p. 56.) This guarantee should be a powerful stimulating force in increasing the acreage next year.

NOTE.-In order to give the food production campaign vividness, the general statement above should be supplemented by describing what has been done to increase production in the particular State, county, city, and township in which the institution is located.

As a result of the campaign for increased production, the foods and feeds for the year 1917 will be greatly increased over 1916. For the cereals the situation is shown by the following table:

It appears from this table that the total crop of the five leading cereals is estimated at 858,000,000 bushels over the crop of 1916. The production of wheat, while an increase of 14,000,000 bushels over 1916, is a disappointment. This is explained by the partial failure of winter wheat. The estimated wheat crop is short of the average of the past five years, 1911-1916, by 157,070,200. The corn crop of more than 3,000,000,000 bushels is to be the largest in the history of the United States. The potato crop is estimated at 467,000,000 bushels as compared with 285,000,000 bushels last year, a gain of 182,000,000 bushels, or 63.8 per cent.

It thus appears that the crop of the five principal cereals as a whole, combined with the potato crop, gives an increase of 1,039,000,000 bushels. If with this enormous addition of more than 1,000,000,000