After nearly two months' delay in the Senate the Administration Food Control bill was passed by that body on Aug. 8. One of the chief objections made by the Senate was to the appointment of one man who would practically have dictatorial powers. But the Senate eventually yielded, as it also did in eliminating the amendment by which it had sought to create a Congressional board to supervise the conduct of the war.

Statement by Mr. Hoover

Immediately after his formal appointment, Mr. Hoover issued a statement in the course of which he said:

The hopes of the food administration are threefold. First, to so guide the trade in the fundamental food commodities as to eliminate vicious speculation, extortion, and wasteful practices and to stabilize prices in the essential staples. Second, to guard our exports so that against the world's shortage we retain sufficient supplies for our own people, and to co-operate with the Allies to prevent inflation of prices, and third, that we stimulate in every manner within our power the saving of our food in order that we may increase exports to our Allies to a point which will enable them to properly provision their armies and to feed their peoples during the coming Winter.

The food administration is called into being to stabilize and not to disturb conditions and to defend honest enterprise against illegitimate competition. If there are men or organizations scheming to increase the trials of this country, we shall not hesitate to apply to the full the drastic, coercive powers that Congress has conferred upon us in this instrument.

The deep obligation is upon us to feed the armies and the peoples associated with us in this struggle. The diversion of 40,000,000 of their men to war or war work; the additional millions of women drafted to the places of their husbands and brothers; the toll of the submarine, have all conspired to so reduce production that their harvests this Autumn will fall 500,000,000 bushels of grain below their normal production.

Therefore, whereas we exported before the war but 80,000,000 bushels of wheat per annum, this year, by one means or another, we must find for them 225,000,000 bushels, and this in the face of a short crop. Our best will but partly meet their needs, for even then they must reduce their bread consumption 25 per cent., and it will be war bread they must eat-war bread, of which a large portion consists of other cereals.

Already the greater call for meat and

animal products, due to the stress of war on the millions of men on the fighting line and the enhanced physical labor of populations ordinarily subsisting on lighter diets, coupled with the inadequate world supply, have compelled our allies to kill upward of 33,000,000 head of their stock animals. This is burning the candle at both ends, for they are thus stifling their annual production. Therefore, not only must we increase their supplies of meat and dairy products, but must prepare, as war goes on, to meet an even greater demand for these necessary commodities.

France and Italy formerly produced their own sugar, while England and Ireland imported largely from Germany. Owing to the inability of the first named to produce more than one-third of their needs, and the necessity for the others to import from other markets, they all must come to the West Indies for very large supplies and therefore deplete our

own resources.

Because of the shortage of shipping only the most concentrated of foods, wheat, grain, beef, pork, and dairy products and sugar can be sent across the seas. Fortunately we have for our own use a superabundance of foodstuffs of other kinds-the perishables, fish, corn, and other cereals-and surely our first manifest duty is to substitute these for those other products which are of greater use to our fellow-fighters.

Our second duty is to eliminate wastes to the last degree. Seventy per cent. of our people are well known to be as thrifty and careful as any in the world, and they consume but little or no more than is necessary to maintain their physical strength. It is not too much to ask the other 30 per cent., by simpler living, to reduce their consumption. The substitutions we ask impose no hardships.

There is no royal road to food conservation. It can be accomplished only through sincere and earnest daily co-operation in the 20,000,000 kitchens and at the 20,000,000 dinner tables of the United States. If we can reduce our consumption of wheat flour by one pound, our meat by seven ounces, our fat by seven ounces, our sugar by seven ounces per person per week, those quantities, multiplied by 100,000,000, will immeasurably aid and encourage our allies, help our own growing armies and so effectively serve the great and noble cause of humanity in which our nation has embarked.

Wheat Speculation Stopped

Mr. Hoover's first step was to announce a sweeping scheme to regulate wheat and flour supplies. In a statement issued on Aug. 12 he said that,

wheat corporation, the food administration also made known the personnel of a committee to fix the price for this year's wheat yield and the names of twelve purchasing agents for the corporation at terminals. The wheat corporation was put under the Administration's grain division. Its Chairman is

Herbert C. Hoover and its President Julius Barnes, a Duluth exporter, who has been serving as a voluntary aid in the food administration. The price-fixing committee is headed by President Garfield of Williams College, and will comprise twelve members, representing producers and consumers.

P

RESS dispatches from Rome on Aug. 14, 1917, announced that the Pope was issuing a peace proposal in the form of an identic letter to all the belligerent powers, and added an official outline of the document. The British Foreign Office published the French text and an English translation of the Pope's appeal on the evening of the 15th, with Cardinal Gasparri's note of transmission. The translation made by the State Department at Washington, and given to the public on the morning of Aug. 16, is as follows:

To the Rulers of the Belligerent Peoples: From the beginning of our Pontificate, in the midst of the horrors of the awful war let loose on Europe, we have had of all things three in mind: To maintain perfect impartiality toward all the belligerents, as becomes him who is the common father and loves all his children with equal affection, continually to endeavor to do them all as much good as possible, without exception of person, without distinction of nationality or religion, as is dictated to us by the universal law of charity as well as by the supreme spiritual charge with which we have been intrusted by Christ; finally, as also required by our mission of peace, to omit nothing, as far as it lay in our power, that could contribute to expedite the end of these calamities by endeavoring to bring the peoples and their rulers to more moderate resolutions, to the serene deliberation of peace, of a "just and lasting " peace.

Whoever has watched our endeavors in these three grievous years that have just elapsed could easily see that, while we remained ever true to our resolution of absolute impartiality and beneficent action, we never ceased to urge the belligerent peoples and Governments again to be brothers, although all that we did to

reach this very noble goal was not made public.

About the end of the first year of the war we addressed to the contending nations the most earnest exhortations, and in addition pointed to the path that would lead to a stable peace honorable to all. Unfortunately our appeal was not heeded, and the war was fiercely carried on for two years more, with all its horrors. It became even more cruel, and spread over land and sea, and even to the air, and desolation and death were seen to fall upon defenseless cities, peaceful villages, and their innocent people.

And now no one can imagine how much the general suffering would increase if other months or, still worse, other years were added to this sanguinary triennium. Is this civilized world to be turned into a field of death, and is Europe, so glorious and flourishing, to rush, as carried by a universal folly, to the abyss and take a hand in its own suicide?

In SO distressing a situation, in the presence of so grave a menace, we, who have no personal political aim, who listen to the suggestions or interests of none of the belligerents, but are solely actuated by the sense of our supreme duty as the common father of the faithful, by the solicitations of our children who implore our intervention and peace-bearing word, uttering the very voice of humanity and reason we again call for peace, and we renew a pressing appeal to those who have in their hands the destinies of the nations. But no longer confining oursives to general terms, as we were led to do by circumstances in the past, we will now come to more concrete and practical proposals and invite the Governments of both belligerent peoples to arrive at an agreement on the following points, which seem to offer the base of a just and lasting peace, leaving it with them to make them more precise and complete.

First, the fundamental point must be that the material force of arms shall give

way to the moral force of right, whence shall proceed a just agreement of all upon the simultaneous and reciprocal decrease of armaments, according to rules and guarantees to be established, in the necessary and sufficient measure for the maintenance of public order in every State; then, taking the place of arms, the institution of arbitration, with its high pacifying function, according to rules to be drawn in concert and under sanctions to be determined against any State which would decline either to refer international questions to arbitration or to accept its awards.

When supremacy of right is thus established, let every obstacle to ways of communication of the peoples be removed by insuring, through rules to be also determined, the true freedom and community of the seas, which, on the one hand, would eliminate any causes of conflict, and, on the other hand, would open to all new sources of prosperity and progress.

As for the damages to be repaid and the cost of the war, we see no other way of solving the question than by setting up the general principle of entire and reciprocal conditions, which would be justified by the immense benefit to be derived from disarmament, all the more as one could not understand that such carnage could go on for mere economic reasons. If certain particular reasons stand against this in certain cases, let them be weighed in justice and equity.

But these specific agreements, with the immense advantages that flow from them, are not possible unless territory now occupied is reciprocally restituted. Therefore, on the part of Germany, there should be total evacuation of Belgium, with guarantees of its entire political, military, and economic independence toward any power whatever; evacuation also of the French territory; on the part of the other belligerents, a similar restitution of the German colonies.

As regards territorial questions, as, for instance, those that are disputed by Italy and Austria, by Germany and France, there is reason to hope that, in consideration of the immense advantages of durable peace with disarmament, the contending parties will examine them in a conciliatory spirit, taking into account, as far as is just and possible, as we have said formerly, the aspirations of the population, and, if occasion arises, adjusting private interests to the general good of the great human society.

The same spirit of equity and justice must guide the examination of the other territorial and political questions, notably those relative to Armenia, the Balkan States, and the territories forming part of the old Kingdom of Poland, for which in particular, its noble historical traditions and suffering, particularly under

gone in the present war, must win. with justice, the sympathies of the nations.

These we believe are the main basis upon which must rest the future reorganization of the peoples. They are such as to make the recurrence of such conflicts impossible and open the way for the solution of the economic question, which is so important for the future and the material welfare of all of the belligerent States. And so, in presenting them to you, who at this tragic hour judge the destinies of the belligerent nations, we indulge a gratifying hope, that they will be accepted and that we shall thus see an early termination of the terrible struggle which has more and more the appearance of a useless

massacre.

Everybody acknowledges, on the other hand, that on both sides the honor of arms is safe. Do not, then, turn a deaf ear to our prayer, but accept the international invitation which we extend to you in the name of the Divine Redeemer, Prince of Peace. Bear in mind your very grave responsibility to God and man. On your decision depend the quiet and joy of numberless families, the lives of thousands of young men, the happiness, in a word, of the people, for whom it is your imperative duty to secure this boon.

May the Lord inspire you with decisions comformable to His very holy will. May Heaven grant that in, winning the applause of your contemporaries you will also earn from the future generations the great title of pacificators.

And for us, closely united in prayer and penitence with all the faithful souls who yearn for peace, we implore for you the divine spirit, enlightenment, and guidance. Given at the Vatican Aug. 1, 1917.

BENEDICTUS P. M. XV.

Cardinal Gasparri's Note

The Papal Secretary, Cardinal Gasparri, sent the following note of transmission with the copy of the Pope's appeal addressed to the King of England:

Your Majesty: The Holy Father, anxious to do everything he can in order to put an end to the conflict which for the last three years has ravaged the civilized world, has decided to submit to the leaders of the belligerent peoples concrete peace proposals exposed in a document which I have the honor to attach to this letter. May God grant that the words of his Holiness will this time produce the desired effect for the good of the whole of humanity.

The Holy See, not having diplomatic relations with the French Government or with the Government of Italy or of the United States, I very respectfully beg your Majesty to be good enough to have handed a copy of his Holiness's appeal to