This achievement in feeding the Allies has been made possible and will continue to be possible, through the measures of economy and substitution established by the Food Administration, and the constant and continued personal sacrifice of each one of us.

Even the 1918 wheat crop, successful as it promises to be, will not mean freedom from saving.  Throughout the war there can be no relaxation.  We must build up a great national reserve in years of good harvest for the greater and greater demands of Europe.  Never again must we let ourselves and the world face the danger that was before us in the spring of 1918.

MEETING THE WHEAT SHORTAGE

To keep wheat constantly going over to our Allies and sufficient stores in the United States at the same time, is one of the big problems of the Food Administration.  Production has had to be increased and consumption decreased.  The price has had to be kept down, for in a time of shortage prices always tend to go up.  It is true that high prices furnish one method of decreasing the consumption of food, but it is a method that means enforced conservation by the poor and no conservation by the rich.  The burden thus falls on those least able to bear it.

To meet this situation the Food Administration has gone into the wheat business itself.  Practically entire control of the buying and selling of wheat is in the hands of the great United states food administration grain corporation.  Through this organization all wheat sales are made to the Army and Navy, to our allies, and to the neutrals.  The price which it pays for these huge quantities sets the price for the entire country.  The Food Administration also makes the movement of wheat from the farmer to the miller and to the wholesaler as simple and direct as possible.  It prevents hoarding and speculation.  “I am convinced,” said Mr. Hoover, in April, 1918, “that at no time in the last three years has there been as little speculation in the nation’s food as there is to-day.”

[Illustration:  Cost of A pound loaf of bread]

As a result of this business management of wheat, the consumer pays less for flour, although the farmer gets more for his wheat.  In May, 1917, the difference between the price of the farmer’s wheat and of the flour made from it was $5.86 per barrel of 196 pounds.  Fifteen months later the difference was 64 cents.  In February, 1917, before the United States went into the war, flour sold at wholesale for $8.75 a barrel.  In May, 1917, the war, with no food control, had driven the price up to $17.  But in February, 1918, after six months of the Food Administration, it had gone down to $10.50 wholesale, and this in spite of unprecedented demand for our very short supply.  Without control, flour would undoubtedly be selling for $50 a barrel.  During the Civil War, with no world wheat shortage, but without food control, the price of wheat increased 130 per cent over the price in 1861.