GRAIN SPECULATORS WARNED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25308, 7 October 1947, Page 7

GRAIN SPECULATORS WARNED

Mr Truman said that the White . House would go on a new austerity programme immediately and that the same sacrifices asked of the general public were being imposed on all branches of the Government, including the army, navy, and air forces. He bitterly criticised grain-market speculators, whom he blamed largely for .sky-rocketing wheat and corn ■ prices. He announced that if the margm requirements were not doubled on the major exchanges the Government might intervene to curb those ‘gamblers in grain.’* He said that he was instructing the Ccmmoaity Exchange Commission to < demand of the gram exchanges that they increase their margin requirements to at least 33 1-3 per cent If : gram exchanges refused, the Govern- ; ment might find it necessary to limit the amount of trading a day. “This is because the cost of living m this country must not be a football < to be kicked about by gamblers in grain.” Mr Truman said that the European : situation was grim and forbidding as j the winter approached, and the tragedy <

J’.’i ngeF • was . a stark reality. The cations of western Europe could not get through the coming winter and, spring without generous help from * by. States and other countries which had food to spar©. “We have dedicated ourselves to the task qf securing a just and lasting peace in the world. An essential re-' qujxement of a lasting peace is the j restoration of the countries of western' de ree an d self-supporting i ‘There is reason to believe that I those countries will accomplish that task if we aid them through this critical winter and help them to get back on their feet duriffg the next few years. They must do most of the job tnemseives. They cannot do it if thousands of their people starve. We believe they can and will do the job if we extend to them lhat measure of friendly aid which marks the difference between success and failure. “If peace should be lost because Americans failed to share their food with hungry people, there would be no more tragic example in all history of a peace needlessly lost.