It will be remembered that when the famine in that article was at its height the Food Administrathon comforted us with almost sardonic humor that there were tons of sugar piled up in Java and elsewhere in the Far East. but that tonnage could not be spared to go and get it. By the same token. we were asked to grow the rice that otherwise would have taken the cargo ships on long voyages to the rice fields of the Orient when they were needed in the theater of hostilities. When hostilities suddenly terminated and the Asiatics were sent home to consume the surplus stores that had been piling up in the Orient. the American industry was caught not only with enormous stocks on hand but with the largest crop that had ever been grown and for which there appeared to be no market. We all remember the distressing situation which ensued. Speculators who had overreached themselves and contracted for enormous supplies in Asia. counting on a prolongation of the war. had to accept delivery as soon as ships could bring it across.
Keywords matched
Asiatics