FOOD PRICES SOAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1050, 14 August 1930, Page 9

FOOD PRICES SOAR

RETAILERS MAKE HAY DURING DROUGHT GRAVE POSITION IN U.S.A. Reed. 9.5 a.m. WASHINGTON, Wed. The Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Hyde, today requested the first emergency railway freight reduction. The rates are to apply to 198 counties in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and Indiana, and after a consultation with President Hoover he stated that the Agricultural Department would maintain a careful watch on retail prices, which, despite reports of increases from the larger centres, apparently have not reached a level that the department considers unwarranted. “There is no reason for the housewife to become alarmed or panicky,” he said. “While some garden products have been damaged, there is no real shortage.” Mr. F. H. Laguardia, Congressman, today called upon Mr. Hoover to protest against the 25 to 35 per cent, increase in prices in New York City on meat, butter, eggs, vegetables and milk. Reports to the United States Press from all sections of the country are that food prices are going up and there is no prospect of a reduction before next year. Individual instances of the sharp increase are 40 per cent, in potato prices at Madison, Wisconsin, two dollars a bushel on beans in Indiana, three cents a dozen on eggs in Kansas, and 50 percent. on rock melons in Indiana. The Weallier Bureau announces that 14 of the 50 centres in the 14 droughtstricken States have reported less than one-tenth of an inch of rain In the last two weeks. At that 4Jme only an abundance of rain could rescue the crops.