Herbert Hoover to Julius Barnes
Title
Herbert Hoover to Julius Barnes
Creator
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964
Identifier
WWP19509
Date
1919 April 28
Description
Herbert Hoover writes to Julius Barnes about reimposing a thirty day maximum storage rule for wheat or flour in order to guard against panic.
Source
Hoover-Wilson Correspondence, Hoover Institution, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
United States Food Administration
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964--Correspondence
Language
English
Text
DRAFT
AMREFA - For BARNES
In continuation of our do you not think the entire situation would be remedied by enacting a thirty day maximum hoarding rule on wheat or flour effective between now and August first. This could be done under the new wheat law and I should think it more desirable to do so than to revive the Food Administration with its danger of collapse at any moment through the signature of Peace. I am erntirely prepared to take the responsibility and if you think wise you could issue a joint statement in your name and in my own to the general intent that it is inconceivable that speculation and bhoarding either deliberate or indirect through accumulating of large stocks can be allowed to take place against the nation’s food bread or the food bread of the world. The arrangements made in Europe provide protect ample supplies in the United States for normal and economic consumption until next harvest. The prospects of a large harvest do not warrant any accumulation of stocks at the present time and aside from the rule imposed upon those certain trades directly under the law, we appeal to the wholesale trades, the retail trades and the public that they do not carry more stocks of wheat and flour than absolutely necessary for their day to day use; that the suppression of rising prices rests largely with the consumer as to whether they are willing as so often in the past to voluntarily accept such advice as this and that if the entire trade and public will follow this suggestion that there should be no rise in the price of wheat and in fact it should return to its normal value of approximately the guaranteed price.
AMREFA - For BARNES
In continuation of our do you not think the entire situation would be remedied by enacting a thirty day maximum hoarding rule on wheat or flour effective between now and August first. This could be done under the new wheat law and I should think it more desirable to do so than to revive the Food Administration with its danger of collapse at any moment through the signature of Peace. I am erntirely prepared to take the responsibility and if you think wise you could issue a joint statement in your name and in my own to the general intent that it is inconceivable that speculation and bhoarding either deliberate or indirect through accumulating of large stocks can be allowed to take place against the nation’s food bread or the food bread of the world. The arrangements made in Europe provide protect ample supplies in the United States for normal and economic consumption until next harvest. The prospects of a large harvest do not warrant any accumulation of stocks at the present time and aside from the rule imposed upon those certain trades directly under the law, we appeal to the wholesale trades, the retail trades and the public that they do not carry more stocks of wheat and flour than absolutely necessary for their day to day use; that the suppression of rising prices rests largely with the consumer as to whether they are willing as so often in the past to voluntarily accept such advice as this and that if the entire trade and public will follow this suggestion that there should be no rise in the price of wheat and in fact it should return to its normal value of approximately the guaranteed price.
Original Format
Letter
To
Barnes, Julius H. (Julius Howland), 1873-1959
Files
Citation
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964, “Herbert Hoover to Julius Barnes,” 1919 April 28, WWP19509, Hoover Institute at Stanford University Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.