- Steel rails
- Nickel
- Tin plate
- Wire, barbed, galvanized
- Wire, plain, annealed
- Ammonia
- Douglas fir
- Arsenic
- Ammonium sulphate
- Alcohol, wood
- Acetic acid
- Nitrate of soda
- Silver
- Zinc, grade “A”
- Zinc, sheets and plates
- Binder twine
- Castor beans
- Sashes and doors
- Linters (munition)
- Quebracho extract
- Cement, Portland
- Sulphur
- Rubber
- Wool
- Acetate of lime
- Quicksilver
- Iridium
- Hogs
- Leather, harness
- Prunes, California
- Raisins, California
- Carbon tetrachloride
- Formaldehyde
- Chlorine gas, liquid
- Toluol
- Phenol
- Picric acid
- Sulphuric acid
- Tickings (Amoskeag)
- Flour, wheat
- Rice
- Building tile
- Crushed stone
- Sand and gravel
- Lead
- Charcoal
- Leather, sole
- Glycerine (dynamite)
- Cottonseed meal
- Cottonseed oil
- Wool grease
- Burlap
- Tin, pig
- Tree nails, locust
- Cotton compress rates
- Birch logs
- Brick, common
- Wallboard
- Food products
Without attempting a complete list, it may be stated that food products whose prices were regulated included flour, bread, sugar, live stock, meat, poultry, dairy products (including retail milk prices), oleomargarine, cottonseed and its products, canned foods, dried foods, rice and rice flour, feeds and coffee. The prices that were first formally fixed by the Government fall chiefly in the basic raw-materials group. A more shortsighted policy might have begun by regulating prices of articles which figure most conspicuously in public consumption.
In some cases prices were fixed for Government purchases alone, for example, nickel, quicksilver, sulphuric acid, cement, New England spruce and other lumber. In others the prices were fixed for the Government and made available to the public in a contingent way; for example, in the case of hemlock lumber it was provided that any quantity of the commodity which, in the judgment of the lumber director of the War Industries Board, could be released for the commercial market might be sold to the public, subject to the maximum price fixed for the Government. In still other cases for example, copper and raw sugar purchases by the Allied Governments were included in the scope of price-fixing for the U.S. Government; and in a few instances, as purchases for the use of the railways of the United States, the prices were specifically fixed, although they did not apply to the public. Prices were sometimes fixed for single branches of the Government, as in the case of oil products for the navy and cow-hide splits for the quartermaster's corps of the army. Prices were even fixed by the U.S. Government to apply to purchases by the Allied Governments only, as was the case with fuel oil, gasoline and kerosene.
The President, however, early took a firm stand for the principle that prices charged by producers should be the same to the public and to the Government, and, with the exception of prices on certain purchases made by Government departments, rapid progress was made during 1918 in carrying out this policy. Thus the prices fixed for pine, fir lumber and cement, which at first applied only to direct Government purchases, were extended to the public. It proved to be highly important as a practical matter that prices under similar conditions of purchase should be the same to all. The existence in the commercial market of prices that were higher than those paid for Government purchases made it difficult for the Government to secure prompt deliveries. Moreover, such a situation often defeated the purpose of price-fixing, because large purchases might be made by private concerns producing more or less directly for the Government.
The period of price-fixing began about the middle of 1917, and came to a nearly complete standstill with the signing of the Armistice. Among the earliest commodities to be affected by the price-fixing activities of the Government were lumber, coal, wheat, sugar and canned foods. Lumber prices for the Government alone were fixed by arrangement with the Council of National Defense on June 18 1917, and approved by the Secretary of War; coal prices for the navy were fixed on June 19 1917. The Food and Fuel Control Act on Aug. 10 1917 set a minimum price on the wheat crop of 1918. Bituminous coal prices at the mine were fixed by executive order on Aug. 21 1917. Nine days later came the President's announcement of a $2.20 basic price on wheat “to be paid in Government purchases.” The price of copper was fixed in September. Relatively few prices were fixed after Nov. 1918, although those fixed prior to that time extended well over into 1919. Prices, as fixed, were allowed to expire in spite of the fact that in several important cases the representatives of the industry concerned asked that the existing price be continued. On Dec. 11 1918 the War Industries Board issued a statement to the effect that, since it would cease to function after Jan. 1 1919, no new price agreements would be entered into by the Price-Fixing Committee and that all prices theretofore fixed would be allowed to expire by limitation. Several commodities, the cost of which had not been immediately ascertainable, had been taken in large quantities by the Government at prices subject to later determination. For example, during the latter part of Jan. and the early part of Feb. 1919, the Price-Fixing Committee of the War Industries Board fixed prices on common brick and on wall board. Inasmuch as the Food and Fuel Administrations depended for their powers upon the Act of Aug. 10 1917, which applied “during the war,” they functioned longer, but became practically inoperative early in 1919.
Of the various agencies through which prices were fixed the following are without doubt the most important: Congress, which by direct legislation fixed a minimum price for wheat and for silver; the President, acting under authority granted by Congress, who fixed prices for coal and wheat; the War Industries Board, created by the President July 28 1917, under authority from Congress, which Board through its Price-Fixing Committee fixed numerous prices from Sept. 1917 to Nov. 1918 (as late as Jan. and Feb. 1919 several cases of price-fixing for commodities bought at tentative prices were awaiting cost determination); the U.S. Food Administration, established in Aug. 1917, which fixed prices of hogs, meat, flour, sugar, binder twine, etc.; local food administrators and sub-agencies, such as the Sugar Equalization Board and the U.S. Food Administration Grain Corporation, which fixed many prices; the U.S. Fuel Administration, established in Sept. 1917, which fixed prices of coal, coke, etc.; the War Trade Board, which fixed prices of rubber, quebracho extract and manila fibre; the Federal Trade Commission, which fixed the prices of newsprint paper; the Emergency Fleet Corporation of the U.S. Shipping Board, which fixed the price of ship timbers and locust tree nails; the U.S. Shipping Board which fixed ocean freight rates; the International Nitrate Executive Committee, which fixed the price of nitrate of soda; the Food Purchase Board, which fixed prices of canned foods, etc., for the army and navy; various army and navy departments, which fixed prices of gasoline and fuel oil, zinc oxide, automatic sprinklers, sashes and doors, castor oil, etc.; the Appraisal Boards of the army and navy, which fixed prices in cases of dissent from prices named in commandeering orders; and the U.S. Railroad Administration, which took steps to fix reasonable prices of locomotives and cars. As time went on a tendency toward greater uniformity and centralization of procedure developed within the price-fixing mechanism. This tendency was seen in an increasing amount of work thrown upon the War Industries Board and the Federal Trade Commission, the former naming a price based largely upon the cost findings of the latter.
In initiating price-fixing no systematic plan was followed and prices were at first fixed sporadically. Various Governmental powers were resorted to and were applied by numerous agencies, using diverse means for carrying out the decisions or agreements which they reached. In some cases prices were fixed under special authority, conferred directly by Act of Congress, and limited by the provision of such Act to specified commodities. Thus by section 14 of the Act of Congress of Aug. 10 1917, already referred to, the President was empowered to fix “a reasonable guaranteed price for wheat.” Accordingly on Aug. 30 the President, acting upon the recommendation of a committee appointed by himself, promulgated a price of $2.20 per bus. for No. 1 northern spring wheat at Chicago. The same law, commonly known as the Lever Act, authorized and empowered the President to license importers, producers or distributors of “any necessaries, in order to carry into effect any of the purposes of this Act”; and, if he found unreasonable any storage charges, commissions or profits, to revoke licences and make findings as to reasonable profits, etc. Section 10 of the Act authorized him to requisition necessary foods, feeds, fuels and other supplies. Section 11 gave him
