Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-27
LODGE INQUIRY WIDE
Ten Subjects for ''Cost of Liv-
ing" Investigation.
PROGRAM is MAPPED OUT
Right to Cross Examine for All Com
mittee Members.
STATISTICS TO BE GATHERED
Farm, Factory, Tariff, Trusts,
Money, Wages Included in
Scope of Probe.
PROGRAM is MAPPED OUT
STATISTICS TO BE GATHERED

A program dehnlng the scope of It's
inquiry and the method of procedure was
mapped out by the Lodge cost of liv-
ing committee of the Senate. after two
hours of wrestling with the problem
yesterday.
Men in a position to dictate market
prices for the necessities of life are to
be called before the committee in due
process of getting at the bottom of
things Cross-examination of witnesses
Is a privilege extended to any member
of the committee.
The program, as decided upon. is salts
factory to all the members, republicans
and democrats alike.
Ten Subjects of Inquiry.
The plan embraces ten subjects for
special inquiry, as follows:
Price of food products.
Price of manufactured articles.
Price of wool, hides leather, lumber
coal, iron, steel, oil, brick, cement and
farming implements.
Effect of combinations upon the prices
of commodities.
Effect of cold storage plants upon prices
and their methods of doing business.
Invoice price and market price of all
imported articles mentioned in the tarin
in April, 1909, and corresponding prices
at the present time.
Foreign wholesale and retail prices.
Wages and salaries at home and abroad
Productions of gold and additions to
the gold coinage by years since 1897, both
i'm the United States and in the world
generally: and
Worlds prices of commodities by years
from 1897 to the present time.
Ten Years to Be Covered.
The investigation regarding prices OF
commodities in the United States. will
especially cover the last ten years. The
inquiry in regard to food products will
be extended to the farm and will also
cover wholesale and retail prices. The
investigation concerning manufactured
articles and of WOOL hides, leather, etc,
in addition to going into the question
of wholesale and retail prices. will un-
dertake to present prices in the one in
stance at the factory and in the Other
at the point Of production.
The committee win also undertake to
procure and tabulate all information pos
sible to be obtained from the United
States consular reports, the reports Of
the British board Of trade and similar
official reports of other countries, the
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society
and from such journals Of high standing
as give statistics as to wages and prices
What Witnesses Will Testify.
It is not contemplated that farmers ant
individual wholesale and retail dealers IL
necessaries of life will be called. TIL.
committee expects to get a great mass
of information and statistics from ex
perts In the Department Of Commerce
and Labor.
When such figures are in and point tt
some definite conclusions the committee
will call witnesses. If the figures show
for instance, that there is an enormous
increase In the price of beef between the
time 1t leaves the farm and the time it is
placed on the block of the corner butcher
shop, as is expected, the officials of the
so-called beef trust will be called before
the committee. SO with other commodi
ties.
Senator Lodge, chairman Of the com.
mittee, believes that much light on the
operations Of the beef trust and its con
troll over meat prices can be thrown by
the legal proceedings in Hudson county
N. j., where the grand jury has indicted
high officials of several packing COM
panies. The Information gained by the
grand jury and the prosecuting officials
of the New Jersey county, he thinks
will prove valuable to the committee. He
has decided to write to the proper court
officials for the information.
Democrats Are Content.
Despite the outbreak Of politics at the
previous meeting of the committee and
in the Senate Friday afternoon through
members of the committee, yesterdays
meeting was calm and peaceful. When
the outline of the investigation to be
undertaken. as prepared by Senator
Lodge was shown to the full committee
and discussed, and when it was deter
mined that open hearings. with power of
Characterization of witnesses should be
one of the features of the investig ation
the democratic members were satisfied
The outline of the work Of the commit
tee, as prepared yesterday, will be turned
over to experts in the departments of
Agriculture and Commerce and Labor.
and to experts employed directly by the
committee. These experts are to gather
statistics, tabulate them, cOndense them
and index them for the use of the COM
mittee and for publication.
Most Of the statistics, it is believed,
are already In the departments. The
committee desires them rearranged SO
that they will be understood by the gen
eral public.
Special stress is to be laid on the price
of food products and of manufactured
articles at the farm. at wholesale and
at retail. The committee hopes to fix
the point where the great increase comes
and thus fix the responsibility for the
high cost of such articles to the con-