Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 184, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1919 — COLD STORAGE PLANTS PLAY PART IN THE H. C. OF L. [ARTICLE]

COLD STORAGE PLANTS PLAY PART IN THE H. C. OF L.

Food economists are quite aware that the prime reason for the continued high prices for edible products is the high development of the cold storage and salvage processes, meaning canning, dehydration and similar methods. Instead of salvaging the surplus crops, as intended, they have gone to the point of locking up a large proportion of the normal supply, remarks the Cincinnati Enquirer. As a matter of fact, the American people are now unconsciously living upon rations. ___ Those who have recognized this fundamental truth have urged the enactment of laws regulating storage and salvaging, and in some states have succeeded in procuring statutes Which the food dealers promptly set aside through various devices, the most common of which is the shipment outside the jurisdiction of the state of the food that has remained the prescribed time in storage. Recent federal market department figures show that there are 210,000,000 dozen eggs in cold storage in the United States, the largest amount in history. Side iby side is the market Statement that eggs are advancing because of the hot weather. Butter is also rising in price, though there is more than 56,000,000 pounds safely locked away from the consumer, or about 29,000,000 more pounds than last year at this time when the dealers had the war as’ an excuse for their marvelously high prices. Thepe startling statistics serve only to Confirm the earlier judgment of the investigators that science, through the misdirected invention of the refrigerating machine and the hermetically sealed cap, has positively injured humanity. It is next to useless to implore the legislative intelligence of the country to address itself to this perfectly simple matter. Repeated requests have resulted only in the application of palliatives and crude I and inoperable remedies. What is needed is a national, all-embracing law .taking out of prison every year the food abstracted from the general supply and the placing of it on the market under severe penalties for concealment or suppression.