But the cessation of the war did not produce food for the war-ravaged countries of Europe. The newly liberated peoples of Central and Eastern Europe found themselves, at the time of the Armistice, facing a period of starvation until their 1918 harvest could come in. Something to save these peoples had to be done quickly and on a large scale. The situation was met by the establishment of a new American governmental organization called the American Relief Administration which, with Mr. Hoover as director-general, worked in connection with the Inter-Allied Supreme Economic Council. Representatives of the A. R. A. were sent at once into all the countries crying for help to find out the exact food situation, and to arrange with the respective governments for the immediate beginning of the importation and distribution of staple foodstuffs. Programs for a food supply sufficient to last until the 1919 harvest were determined on a basis of minimum necessity, and provision for sufficient shipping and rail transportation was arranged by international agreement. Modern war has thrown the spotlight on food. It has partly realized that famous prophecy of the Polish economist, Jean Bloch, who wrote, twenty years ago: "That is the future of war, not fighting, but famine." In the World War of 1914--18 there was fighting on a scale never before reached, but there was also famine, as never before dreamed of. IX THE HIGH COST OF LIVING A Study of the Extraordinary Conditions Subsequent to the Armistice By THE DIRECTOR OF THE COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE On August 9, 1919, Grosvenor B. Clarkson, Director of the Council of National defense, submitted to the Secretary of War, a report entitled "An Analysis of the High Cost of Living Problem." This report was the result of much careful study and investigation. It is non-academic in form and by omitting details presents a "panoramic view of the problem." It laid chief stress upon conditions since the armistice. In the report the problem of the high cost of living is viewed as a permanent one. It was, in other words, not peculiar to past war conditions. Careful investigation by the Council has resulted in the following analysis of the problem. THE ESSENCE OF THE HIGH COST OF LIVING SITUATION "1. The only complaints of the high cost of living which have justification are those which are based upon inability of the present income to maintain previous or reasonable standards of living at present prices--such well-founded complaints mean that increase of income has not kept pace with increased cost of living, and therefore imply enforced reduction in standards of living. AMERICA'S PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY