Just in case you might think that the curbing of free enterprise and individual rights is something new in American history, someone just sent me a headline from the New York Times dated May 30, 1918. “Navy Man Indicted for Food Hoarding.” It reads as follows:
Indictments were returned by a Federal Grand Jury here today against Medical Director Francis Smith Nash, USN and his wife, Caroline Nash, charging them with violation of Section 6 of the Food Control act in having large quantities of flour, sugar, and other foodstuffs in their possession, to the value of $1,923.36. In a statement issue by the Food Administration it was alleged that the food hoarded was sufficient to maintain the family for more than a year and hence far in excess of the requirements of thirty days, the period recognized by Food Administrator Hoover as a ‘reasonable one’ for residents of cities.
Yes, right here in the good ol’ USA, 90 years ago. And what about this Hoover? Is this Herbert? Yes, the very one that Murray Rothbard long emphasized was no free market president but central planner from way back.
Wikipedia notes: “President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover head of the American Food Administration, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. Hoover believed that, ‘food will win the war.’ He established days to encourage people to not eat certain foods in order to save them for the soldiers: meatless Mondays, wheatless Wednesdays, and ‘when in doubt, eat potatoes.’”
The violation of liberty in this period also figures into the great novel by Garet Garrett called Satan’s Bushel.
As for rationing of goods (oil?), don’t think it can’t happen here. It can and has.
