Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1916 — INDIANAPOLIS PLAN MIGHT SOLVE IT. [ARTICLE]

INDIANAPOLIS PLAN MIGHT SOLVE IT.

Government regulation of storage houses has been proposed in several quarters recently as a means pf preventing the “corners” which, according to some economists, account for a part of the prevailing high prices of foodstuffs. Occasionally the country sees something of a “corner,” as in the case of a seizure of eggs at Chicago Saturday, where, it is reported, 72,000,000 eggs were under one man’s control. But the patent fact in the present food situation is that high prices are inescapable while the United States tries to feed a considerable proportion of Europe besides taking care of its own people. There have been proposals also of an embargo against uncontrolled food shipments to Europe, and President Wilson was quoted in re> cent dispatches as saying that “the embargo question was receiving his most serious consideration.” An embargo would operate undoubtedly to throw large quantities of stored products on the market, with a consequent break in prices, provided the unconsumed surplus were more than enough to meet the country’s needs until the next season of heavy production. But so far as government regulation of store-houses is concerned, it might not avail much if undertaken apart from an embargo. In the meantime a plan proposed by an Indianapolis man last winter invites new attention. W. J. Hogan announced the details of a line of rental storage houses reaching across the country, in which producers could store their crops for a small fee, and borrow money on them if pressed for funds. In such a system of storage the producer would conduct the only “corner,” and he would release his produce quickly In a stiffening market. Such a plan would have the merit at any rate of discouraging large "corne«.”