FOOD: Spuds, Spuds, Spuds

In U.S. stores, warehouses, barns and fields, potatoes were rotting by the thousands of tons—and the Government was paying for all of them.

Only the Government was to blame. In 1942, when the Allied larder began to run low, the Administration, backed by Congress, decided to encourage more food production by guaranteeing 90% of parity prices to growers of potatoes and other agricultural commodities. To make sure the offer would be taken, Congress extended the guarantee until two years after the "termination of hostilities."

The encouragement worked well. Potato production in 1943 reached...