Among the multiform activities of the American Food Administration, the distribution of sugar was most difficult. America had to supply sugar to the Allies and retain enough for the use of its own people. The matter of the feeling of personal self-sacrifice was difficult enough but there was the further question of how to organize and allocate distribution. The government had to decide the amount to be distributed to sugar-using industries. These industries had to be classified. For the manufacture of soft drinks it was decided to allow only one-half of the sugar used in normal times. Bakers were given a 70 percent. allotment and hotels were permitted three pounds of sugar to every ninety meals served, including cooking. The sugar resources of the country, both cane and beet-root, were regulated by the so-called Sugar Equalization Board. The operation of this body was explained officially in the _Literary Digest_: "This board is a part of the Food Administration and approved by the President. Its purpose is to equalize the cost of various sugars and to secure better distribution. It can also coöperate with the Allies in the procurement of sugar for them and in the adjustment of overseas freight rates. Through capital supplied by the President through his special funds, it is enabled, when desirable, to buy up all available sugars at different prices and resell them at one fixed and even rate. "In other words, it provides a sort of vast storehouse of sugar, which may be doled out where it is most needed, at a price secure from the fluctuations otherwise inevitable in war time." KEEPING DOWN THE PRICE What might happen without this Sugar Equalization Board is illustrated by the Civil War, when sugar, because of speculation, went as high as thirty-five cents a pound. And at _that_ time there was no world shortage of sugar. If there were no sort of sugar control today, it may readily be believed that the consumer might have to pay sugar prices soaring far above those Civil War levels. "It costs more to produce and market some sugars (such as domestic beet sugar and Louisiana cane) than it does others, such as Cuban cane sugar. But that is no reason why the sugar manufacturer, whose production costs are high, should suffer, even to the extent of being forced out of the market. Nor can the country afford to have this happen under present war time shortage of nearby supplies. Consequently, when it becomes necessary, the Sugar Equalization Board through its purchasing powers can insure fair profits to the manufacturers. Then the Board may resell this sugar, so that it reaches the public at a price lower than what the maximum would otherwise be." POTATO ECONOMY