of other food products.

The general proclamation of the food administration of November 1, 1917,
declared:

These general and special rules and regulations are promulgated by
the President to accomplish three principal objects, viz: 1st, to
limit the prices charged by every licensee "to a reasonable amount
over expenses and forbid the acquisition of speculative profits
from a rising market"; 2d, to keep all food commodities moving in
as direct a line as possible and with as little delay as
practicable to the consumer; 3d, to limit as far as practicable
contracts for future delivery and dealing in future contracts.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that a profit to be allowed based
on "market value" for coffees was an impossibility, unless this law had
been altered to allow all licensees of other commodities to share.
Coffee profits were fixed by the food administration on the advice of,
and with acceptance by, the coffee committee. They started too low; and
were made more liberal, when the first figures were shown to be
impossible. George W. Lawrence reports a conversation that he had with
the food administrator on this particular subject, and that was
characteristic of his broadness. Mr. Hoover said, "The coffee dealers
are complaining of the profits permitted them. I want them satisfied;
and if the profits are not reasonable, I shall put them where they will
be. This war is not going to last always; and at its conclusion I want
every American merchant in a position to be able to continue his
business and be no worse off than when the war started."

Resales were prohibited, or limited to one transaction, in order to
prevent an accumulation of profits, that, added to each transfer, would
result ultimately in higher prices to the consumer.

The fixing of profit based on cost, and not on market or replacement
value, is a thing that is impossible in normal times. Carried to the
last degree, it would mean ruination; for no provision is made for
declines in the market, and resulting losses. As a war measure it was
inevitable, and so endured. In normal times it is like trying to make
water run uphill. With a united people, it worked; but one can not have
a World War always to unite the people. It has been said that government
regulation of coffees caused a large increase in price to the consumer.
This would be hard to prove. The trade, generally, that refused to buy
at ten t