THE REPORT ON FOOD PRICES.
The two commodities to which most attention is devoted are meat and milk. The Committee give in considerable detail the history of the rise in prices of meat, home and imported, since the war began. They show how the demand for meat has been increased by the operations of the war. Not only is the British soldier now consuming very much more meat than he did when. he was a civilian, but French and Italian soldiers are doing likewise. Moreover, the French supply of home-grown meat has been very considerably. reduced. " In the middle of 1915 the French cattle herd had been reduced by 2,300,000 head, partly owing to the ravages of the war and partly to the demands of the French Army. Foreign imports thus became a necessity." Italy also has become a large purchaser of foreign meat. Very wisely, at an early stage in the war the British Board of Trade undertook the task of buying frozen meat, not only for the British Army, but also for the French and Italian Governments, so that competition in buying was advan- tageously avoided. In spite of this wise precaution, for which great credit is due to the Board of Trade and to the three Governments concerned, a rise in price of meat at the foreign sources of supply was inevitable in view of the increased demaud. No power on earth could prevent the Argentine grower from putting up his prices when he found that there was an enormously increased demand for his produce, though to some extent the Board of Trade has been able to influence South American supplies by the control it acquired over the insulated shipping necessary for the transport of refrigerated meat. In the case of kiistralasia, again, both the Australian and the New Zealand Govern- ments greatly helped the situation by agreeing to purchase on behalf of the Mother .Country all the beef, mutton, and lamb available for export. Prices f.o.b. were amicably arranged, and the whole exportable supply was duly shipped. Unfortunately, however, a severe drought in 1915 destroyed a large quantity of stock, thus curtailing Australian supplies. The Committee report that, considering all the circumstances of an abnormal situation, the buying on behalf of the Board of Trade has been economical.
The next problem is that of transport. The newspapers who make it part of their commercial business to exploit the question of prices have been long engaged in denouncing the criminality of shipowners in asking for higher freights for the use of their ships, and have attributed a great deal of the rise in the price of foodstuffs to this cause. The Report of the Committee on Prices shows that though, as every one knows, freights have gone up very greatly, the addition to prices due to that cause is relatively small. To some extent credit must be given to the Government for this fact. " The arrest of freights in the autumn of 1914 was effected by the inter- vention of the Government to moderate the rise of Plate freights for meat. Systematic shipping arrangements were afterwards made and the insulated spaces on all British ships trading to South America and Australia were requisitioned, so that freights were regulated in a manner which prevented any serious addition to meat prices on that score." The Committee report that the total effect of freights upon the price of meat, including the increase in freights since the war began, is not more than a penny per pound. At the same time, they lay great stress on the lack of shipping as a factor in preventing the transport of an adequate amount of meat to this country and to our Allies, and they believe that if more shipping were available larger quantities could be obtained from the Australasian Dominions and from else- where. The reflection will naturally occur that possibly the limitation of freights in the meat trade is itself one of the causes of the restriction of tonnage. The British and Allied Governments cannot commandeer neutral shipping, and if neutrals find that by local legislation in Australia they are prohibited from obtaining what they consider adequate freights, they will settle the problem for themselves by refusing to go near that island continent. That, indeed, is what is now happening. Shipowners in all parts of the world are avoiding Australia, as far as their commitments enable them to do so, because they have been terrorized by the requisition- ing policy of the Australian Government.
Finally, as regards the distribution of meat in this country, the Committee report that though the firms engaged in this trade are undoubtedly doing better than they were before the war, they are not making such inflated profits as are recorded in some of our leading " war industries."
Passing to the question of milk, the Report opens by calling attention to the fairly obvious fact that if a farmer can secure higher profits by. selling his cows to the butcher he will not continue the labour of carrying on a dairying trade. The trouble and expense and worry involved in the dairying business are enormous. Feeding stuffs have almost doubled in price ; labour is extremely difficult to obtain. Indeed, many farmers are being compelled, from sheer lack of milkers, to slaughter their cows. The inference is that the farmer must get a higher price for his milk in order to induce him to continue in the trade. Whether there is any margin for economy in the subsequent stages of the supply of milk to the consumer is considered at some length by the Committee, but they come to the conclusion that there is very little' to be gained. The cost of distributing milk from house to house is enormous. In London it may distributing " reckoned at at least 6d.
per gallon." Having stated the facts, the Committee make their recom- mendations based upon a common-sense interpretation of those facts. Their first proposal is that, as far as possible, the construction of mercantile shipping should be expedited so as to increase the tonnage available for bringing food to this country. They also urge that steps should be taken to prevent congestion in docks and on railways so as to economize shipping by avoiding delay in unloading. They next urge that the policy of restricting the importation of unnecessary commodities should be carried out still further, and they add the expression of a pious hope that persons who are not manual workers will diminish their consumption of meat in order to leave more available for those engaged in severe manual labour. As regards milk, the Committee make the very important suggestion that, in view of the scarcity of milkers, and the consequent reduction of dairy herds, the Board of Agriculture, through the County War Agricultural Committees and similar organizations, should take immedial steps to induce women to take up dairy work and to persuade farmers to employ them. In their final suggestions the Committee recognize what is the root difficulty to be overcome. Taking the country as a whole, the rise in prices has not produced any real suffering. On the contrary, the great mass of the population is better off than ever before, because increased earnings and other new sources of income, such as separation allowances, have more than made up for the increase in prices. There remain, however, a considerable minority who have suffered very heavily from the rise in prices. The obvious way of dealing with this difficulty is by raising the wages of the least well-paid workers. This would not, of course, cover the whole ground, for there would still remain people with fixed incomes who could not so be dealt with, but it would remove the greater part of the present evil.
The Committee are to be congratulated upon the courage that they have shown in refusing to pander to a purely political agitation. The same courage has been shown by Mr. Runciman. In a recent sp eech at Dewsbury he dealt with the criticisms brought against the Government for refusing to establish a general system of maximum prices, and pointed out unanswer- ably that the first business of the Government was to see that the nation had adequate supplies ; the question of price came second. Apparently a great many people are incapable of understanding that if prices are fixed below a point which the producer considers adequate he will refuse to sell. The fixing of maximum prices in the case of commodities purchased from neutral countries is clearly futile, for, unless they are fixed at or above the market rate, which would not benefit the consumer, the producer would send his stuff elsewhere. A somewhat different consideration applies to commodities produced at home. It was possible to go through the form of fixing maximum prices for coal by leaving the coalowners a very considerable margin ; but, as recent experience in South Wales has shown, it was subsequently necessary to raise the price. To attempt generally to fix prices below the market level would result in a refusal on the part of producers, as in the case of milk, to supply the required article. A general policy of maximum prices can, in fact, only be carried out by means of industrial compulsion ; and that, apart from political opposition, is on administrative grounds absolutely impracticable. The idea of sending policemen round the suburbs of London to seize idle women and force them to become dairymaids is, on the face of it, absurd. The idle women, whose work is so badly needed, can only be coerced by public opinion or tempted by high pay, and high pay is impossible unless high prices are paid. Instead of declaiming against the rise of prices, we ought to welcome that rise as the best possible means of stimulating producers here and in all parts of the world to increase the supply of the commodities we require.
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