Setting Wheat Prices

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON

Section 11 of the Food Act provides, among other things, for the purchase and sale of wheat and flour by the Government, and appropriates money for the purpose. The purchase of wheat and flour for our Allies, and to a considerable degree for neutral countries also, has been placed under the control of the Food Administration. I have appointed a Committee to determine a fair price to be paid in government purchases. The price now recommended by that Committee - $2.20 per bushel at Chicago for the basic grade - will be rigidly adhered to by the Food Administration.

It is the hope and expectation of the Food Administration, and my own also, that this step will at once stabilize and keep within moderate bounds the price of wheat for all transactions throughout the present crop year, and in consequence the prices of flour and bread also. The Food Act has given large powers for the control of storage and exchange operations, and these powers will be fully exercised. An inevitable consequence will be that financial dealings can not follow their usual course. Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of the ordinary machinery of trade, it can not function well under such disturbed and abnormal conditions as now exist. In its place the Food Administration now fixes for its purchases a fair price, as recommended unanimously by a committee representative of all interests and all sections, and believes that thereby it will eliminate speculation, make possible the conduct of every operation in the full light of day, maintain the publicly stated price for all, and, through economies made possible by stabilization and control, better the position of consumers also.

Mr. Hoover, at his express wish, has taken no part in the deliberations of the Committee on whose recommendation I determine the Government's fair price, nor has he in any way intimated an opinion regarding that price.

WOODROW WILSON

The report of the Committee follows: