United States Food Administration Grain Corporation

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The Food Administration Grain Corporation was a trading company founded in the United States after its entry into the First World War with a monopoly on the purchase and sale of wheat. The business purpose included the creation of incentives for grain production, the prevention of speculation and a stabilization of guaranteed producer prices.

founding

Julius H. Barnes

The grain company, endowed by the state with registered capital of $ 150 million, was formed on the instructions of President Woodrow Wilson as provided for in the Food Control Act of August 10, 1917. The place of business was in the state of Delaware . The United States Food Administration fully transferred the right to buy and sell essential food to the Grain Society. Julius H. Barnes became its president, Herbert C. Hoover the chairman. Barnes came from a large grain export company with an associated shipbuilding department, with which he severed all business ties. When the usual foreign trade collapsed when the USA entered the war, Barnes was able to defuse the situation in his new function as chairman of the committee of American grain exporters. The country was divided into 14 zones and a fair price of about $ 2.20 per bushel was set for first-class spring wheat . Purchase outlets were set up at favorable points and after hedging against losses, the mill operators made 90 percent of their capacities available. The grain was allocated by a special milling division, which was supplied by 14,000 grain silos . The 1917 harvest yielded 636 million bushels (bsh.) Of wheat, which under normal circumstances would mean an import of 6 million bsh. Wheat for US needs. The aim was to export 150 million bsh. Wheat in favor of the Allies , a value that was 138 million bsh. was just missed after a year - grain had to be bought abroad. With 917 million bsh. A harvest was then achieved in 1918 that made the desired export volume possible without any problems.

Backbone of the American Aid Organization

When, with the armistice of November 11, 1918, the tasks of the food administration were transferred to those of the administration of the American Relief Administration , a law on February 25, 1919 extended the scope of the grain society to Europe and made it the agent and paying agent of the ARA made. At that time, 70 percent of the wheat on the world market was of American origin. For all deliveries directed by the ARA, the grain company was responsible for purchasing, transport, bookkeeping and collection. After the goods were shipped from American ports, they were billed to the London office at Grosvenor Garden 12 from the New York office. A quick settlement was necessary, because the grain company had to take out loans totaling 385 million dollars at times and worked in Europe in areas with access by sea- mine-contaminated waters and in areas threatened by Bolshevik invasion.

Pricing Policy and Use of Surplus

Since no insurance company could obtain a policy for this , the only protection was relatively high prices. There would probably be profits from this approach, but they did not want to enrich themselves at the expense of the Allies and agreed with them that such surpluses should be used for the Children's Relief Bureau established in the ARA's Paris office. After the Treaty of Versailles was signed , the Grain Society closed its London office, but it supported the transition of the state ARA to the private ARA European Children's Fund from New York. In particular, the show of strength of the operation in the Russian famine of 1921 could only succeed because the Congress was authorized by a law of December 22, 1921 to approve up to 20 million dollars from the capital of the grain company for relief measures in the affected Soviet republics - also for Benefit of the American farmers who otherwise could only sell their corn for 14 cents per bushel during this time.

proof

  • Frank M. Surface / Raymond L. Bland: American Food in the World War and Reconstruction Period. Operations of the Organizations Under the Direction of Herbert Hoover 1914 to 1924 , Stanford University Press, Stanford 1931, pp. 39-42
  • Herbert Hoover: Memoirs (Vol. 1). Years of Adventure 1874–1920 , Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz 1951, pp. 220, 250
  • Herbert Hoover: Memoirs (Vol. 2). The Cabinet and the Presidency 1920–1933 , Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz 1952, p. 21

literature

  • Frank M. Surface: The Stabilization of the Price of Wheat during the War and Its Effect upon the Returns to the Producer , United States Grain Corporation, Washington DC 1925

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Watson S. Moore: How wheat was saved to feed allied folk , The New York Times, January 5, 1919, p. 80 [1]
  2. ↑ Hermann Stöhr : This is how America helped. Stettin 1936, p. 151
  3. ^ Frank M. Surface / Raymond L. Bland: American Food in the World War and Reconstruction Period. Stanford 1931, p. 245.