the costs and practices of the various food producing and distributing
trades; the prevention of all unwarranted hoarding of every kind and
of the control of foodstuffs by persons who are not in any legitimate
sense producers, dealers, or traders; the requisitioning when
necessary for the public use of food supplies and of the equipment
necessary for handling them properly; the licensing of wholesome and
legitimate mixtures and milling percentages, and the prohibition of
the unnecessary or wasteful use of foods.

"Authority is asked also to establish prices, but not in order to
limit the profits of the farmers, but only to guarantee to them when
necessary a minimum price which will insure them a profit where they
are asked to attempt new crops and to secure the consumer against
extortion by breaking up corners and attempts at speculation, when
they occur, by fixing temporarily a reasonable price at which
middlemen must sell.

"Although it is absolutely necessary that unquestionable powers shall
be placed in my hands, in order to insure the success of this
administration of the food supplies of the country, I am confident
that the exercise of those powers will be necessary only in the few
cases where some small and selfish minority proves unwilling to put
the nation's interests above personal advantage."

A sweeping bill was thereupon presented to the House empowering the
President, under the war clause of the Constitution, to take the
measures he named whenever, in his opinion, the national emergency
called for their exercise.

The mere conferring of such extreme powers on the President, it was
hoped, would suffice. The Government view was that armed with the
effective weapons the bill provided, no difficulty would be
encountered in enlisting on the side of the public interest all
recalcitrant private agencies without legal action.

The House, in passing the measure, made it more drastic by inserting
an amendment prohibiting the further manufacturing of alcoholic
liquors during the war, and authorizing the President, in his
discretion, to commandeer existing stocks of distilled spirits. The
President was unwilling to countenance such a drastic curb on the
liquor industry, and the Senate Agriculture Committee, on his
recommendation, restricted the veto on the manufacture of liquor to
whisky, rum, gin, and brandy, removing the ban on light wines and
beer, but retained the clause empowering him to acquire all distil