Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1918 — Unpatriotic Hoarding [ARTICLE]

Unpatriotic Hoarding

Sufficient Food Is Being Held in Reserve to Take Care of Home Needs First

These are the days of sharing, not hoarding. No one can live unto himself alone in time of national peril. The nation’s own food needs at this critical time are being carefully safeguarded. There is enough food being held in reserve to allay any fear on that score. Our own people will be fed first. But there is no quicker way to empty our warehouses than to buy in undue quantities. It was recently discovered by a certain federal food administrator that some of the farmers in his state had from three to four years’ supply of flour laid away. Suppose every -family in America were to hoard this much flour. Picture what that would do to the total annual supply of that universally used commodity,'which in 1917 was 66,065,509 barrels. The food administration is prohibiting all hoarding of food supplies on the part of dealers. No licensed dealer is permitted to hold food stores in excess of what are reasonable requirements for a period of 60 days. All this is being done to protect the individual. Therefore there is no need for individual hoarding and no real American, can be so unpatriotic as to block the normal flow of food supplies in this crisis by holding back more than he actually needs for his current use. Bemember these are days of sharing. A common fate awaits us. The winning of this war is the one goal set by us all. To make the food supply hold out for the coming months means mutual saving and mutual sharing not hoarding one from the other.