I have asked Mr. Herbert Hoover to undertake this all-important task
of food administration. He has expressed his willingness to do so, on
condition that he is to receive no payment for his services, and that
the whole of the force under him, exclusive of clerical assistance,
shall be employed, as far as possible, upon the same volunteer basis.
He has expressed his confidence that this difficult matter of food
administration can be successfully accomplished through the voluntary
co-operation and direction of legitimate distributers of foodstuffs
and with the help of the women of the country.
Although it is absolutely necessary that unquestionable powers shall
be placed in my hands, in order to insure the success of this
administration of the food-supplies of the country, I am confident
that the exercise of those powers will be necessary only in the few
cases where some small and selfish minority proves unwilling to put
the Nation's interests above personal advantage, and that the whole
country will heartily support Mr. Hoover's efforts by supplying the
necessary volunteer agencies throughout the country for the
intelligent control of food consumption, and securing the
co-operation of the most capable leaders of the very interests most
directly affected, that the exercise of the powers deputed to him
will rest very successfully upon the good-will and co-operation of
the people themselves, and that the ordinary economic machinery of
the country will be left substantially undisturbed.