Herbert Hoover to Joseph P. Tumulty

Title

Herbert Hoover to Joseph P. Tumulty

Creator

Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964

Identifier

WWP19184

Date

1917 September 12

Description

Herbert Hoover writes to Joseph Tumulty about the price of wheat and flour and the unrest it is causing farmers.

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

Mr. Tumulty

Please find enclosed herewith a telegram from one of uour people, which explains itself.

Various Northwestern Congressmen have called upon me and I explained to them theat the prices laid down by the Committee could not be altered, but apparently the farmers have been advised that the matter is still under consideration. It vis therefore most desirable that the President should send some word, settling this one way, or another.

A further situation arises because of mass meetings being held by the North Dakota farmers,- apparently with a good deal of anti-war sentiment,- demanding that they should have a higher price for their wheat, and something of the same kind is being done in Oklahoma. The net result of these activities is that the farmers over the country are getting the idea that if they hold out long enough they can get more money, and the arrivals of wheat in the market are very low.

The whole question is whether or not the consumer is to pay another $5.00 or $6.00 per barrel for flour in order to please a lot of malcontents, and if they are to pay this higher price, the problem will arise at once whether we can maintain tranquillity in the large industrial centers during the winter.

Even with the reduction effected by the Food Administration plan, the price of flour is 125 percent over normal. The Commission that fixed the prices, as you know, was in itself a majority of the farmers.

Under the circumstances, it seems to me that it is necessary for the President to send some word to the Oregon and Washington delegates that no change will be made, and after the President returns, I need badly to have a discussion over the entire situation.

Yours faithfully,
[Hoover]

Original Format

Letter

To

Tumulty, Joseph P. (Joseph Patrick), 1879-1954

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/D09206.pdf

Citation

Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964, “Herbert Hoover to Joseph P. Tumulty,” 1917 September 12, WWP19184, Hoover Institute at Stanford University Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.