Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 276, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1917 — MERCHANTS ARE WARNED [ARTICLE]

MERCHANTS ARE WARNED

IN POSTERS AND INSTRUCTIONS RECEIVED FROM FOOD ADMINISTRATION. r Local retail merchants have received posters from the National Food Administration, advising them as to the food situation and giving rules for selling and storing of foodstuffs. A number of commodities have been licensed and the rules regarding is that the retailer shall “sell at the usual margin of profit above actual cost paid without regard to the market for replacement value. Whenever retailers exact more than their usual margin of profit over the actual purchase price of these goods, wholesale dealers will be instructed to sell no more licensed goods.,, These licensed articles include grains and their products, milk and products, poultry and eggs, vegetables, meats and fish, dried fruits, sugar and many other articles of canned goods.

Retailers and consumers alike are especially warned against hoarding. The retailers’ purchases arc limited to their requirements for a sixty-day period with the exception of sugar and floUr, which have a restriction and fifteen and thirty day, repectively, period. The retailers are laso instructed to limit sales to customers for only immediate needs. The rules regarding stock on hands do not apply to seasonable commodities. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that the Food Council applies to the consumer as well as the manufacturer and distributor. Section 6 of the law reads in part: “That any person who wilfully hoards any necessaries, shall upon conviction be fined not exceeding $5,000 to be imprisoned more than two years or both.”

Already compliance to the reguations will make it unnecessary to imit the food” supply of the American family now in the manner, now in force in other warring countries. The food situation, however, is so serious that anything less than hearty co-operation of dealers and con-

sumers will compel the licensing of all dealers in food and the limitation of sales to consumers. The orders were issued by the National Administration through H. F. Barnard, Federal Food Administrator of Indiarfh.