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The Food and Fuel Control Act, , also called the Lever Act or the Lever Food Act was a World War I era US law that among other things created the United States Food Administration and the Federal Fuel Administration. ==Legislative history== The act was a very controversial piece of legislation. The act was sponsored by Rep. Asbury F. Lever, a Democrat from South Carolina. President Wilson urged its passage as a wartime emergency measure. Some opposed the authority that would rest in the person of the "Food Administrator." Others opposed language that empowered the president to limit or prohibit the use of agricultural products in the production of alcoholic beverages, thereby establishing a form of national prohibition. Senators proposed alternatives, including a prohibition on the production of whiskey alone for the duration of the war. Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge objected to the language that authorized the president to "use any agency or agencies, to accept the services of any person without compensation, to cooperate with any person or persons in relation to the processes, methods, activities of and for the production manufacture, procurement, storage, distribution, sale, marketing, pledging, financing, and consumption of necessaries which are declared to be affected with a public interest."〔''New York Times'': ("Lever Bill Before Senate," June 17, 1917 ), accessed March 11, 2010〕 Wilson also had to fight off the proposal of Massachusetts Republican Senator John W. Weeks to establish instead a Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War.〔David M. Kennedy, ''Over Here: The First World War and American Society'' (NY: Oxford University Press, 2004), 123〕 Its official name was "An Act to Provide Further for the National Security and Defense by Encouraging the Production, Conserving the Supply, and Controlling the Distribution of Food Products and Fuel" and became law on August 10, 1917. It banned the production of "distilled spirits" from any produce that was used for food.〔David Pietrusza, ''1920: The Year of Six Presidents'' (NY: Carroll & Graf, 2007), 159-60. Congress passed the Prohibition Amendment, which became the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, on August 1, 1917.〕 In 1918, faced with complaints from farmers that the Food Administration created under the Act had set the minimum price of wheat too low, Congress passed an amendment increasing that level from $2.20 to $2.40 per bushel. The President's veto out of concerns about inflation and the impact on the British, is credited with producing disastrous results for Democrats in the 1918 elections in the states of the grain belt.〔David M. Kennedy, ''Over Here: The First World War and American Society'' (NY: Oxford University Press, 2004), 242-4〕 On August 18, 1919, after the end of hostilities, President Wilson asked Congress to extend the life of the Act to allow his administration to address widespread and dramatic increases in the prices of commodities. He requested amendments to include clothing and to set increased penalties for profiteering. Opponents delayed passage for months while berating the administration for its failure to control prices and then granted the authority the President requested in October. In the House of Representatives, the President's chief critic complained of the administration's priorities: "Where there is one man in a thousand who cares a rap about the League of Nations, there are nine hundred and ninety-nine who are vitally and distressingly concerned about the high cost of living." The Department of Justice launched 179 prosecutions under the amended Act in the first two months following its passage.〔Stanley Coben, ''A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician'' (NY: Columbia University Press, 1963), 160-4〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Food and Fuel Control Act」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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