The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-03-31
GERMANY IS
ANXIOUS FOR
INVESTIGATION
sIDENT TAFTs PROPOSAL OF
INTERNATIONAL INQUIRY
hTo HIGH COST OF LIVING
|EETS WITH HEARTY AP-
|RovAL
Ry Associated Prsas.


reasing cost of living and to devise
assures OF relief will, without doubt.
forth the cordial CO. operation or
rnany. Scientific and political cir
. are deeply interested in the pro-
sed action, the reichstag elections In
nuazy having turned largely on dear
ID and parliament, the newspapers
university theorists being still
gagged In the polemic over its causes.
Prof. Julius Wolf, professor Of po-
teal economy at the University OF
reslau and one OF the leading German
lthorttieS on this subject, believes
at the investigat will do little to
leviate the high prices. either in the
ntted States or Germany, as the
u9es are most certainly not political
nd lie deeper In natural cauFes over
hich governments have little or no
ontroi.
While politicians in the United
tates are ascribing dear food to the
rests or the tariff and German pariia-
nentarians find its causes In the i'm
bort taxes on agricultural products,
he financial reform or the absence of
he socialistic state, Prof. Wolf points
but that nonpartisan students in the
United States, England, France and
Germany generally attribute 1t to the
Increased production Of gold and the
supplementary increase in the circu-
Hating medium involved in the grow
hing employment of checks as q sub
8stitute for actual coin.
Prof. Wolf believes. however. that
while this is a contributory cause, the
primary and irremediable cause is that
Nature has her limits and that the
worlds demand for food supplies Is
now rapidly overtaking the worlds
possibilities of food production The
Increase in the value of good arabic
u, a.. A .4rszo tna nv flcf
soil IL exhausted naturally entails an
increase In the cost of food produc-
ton; the increased demand from the
growing population also forces prices
steadily upward And. while under
more intensive cultivation land may
yield larger crops, the law of increased
cost for additional production makes
each extra bushel more costly than the
one before. From the workings of
these laws, says Prof. Wolf. there is
no escape and President Taft's inter-
national investigation may ascertain
causes but cannot prevent inevitable
Developments.
The investigation win Justify its be-
ing, however. merely In spreading
scientific knowledge OF causes of food
prices and In putting an end to un-
scientific theories on which quaek
xenk dies for the growing evil are
based
For Europe so Prof. Wolf points
out, the effect OF these natural laws
has for long time been stayed by the
steady sinking OF the cost of ocean
transportation from the great gran
aries of the New World Now. how :
ever, with only slight margin for
further possible freight reductions and
with America entering into the sign Of
dear food, Europe has nothing left TO
hope for.
Defends Combinations
Dr. Delbrueck, the secretary Of the
interior department, has come to the
defense of trade combinations in the
reichstag In a speech. He said that
trade combination syndscates. as trade
combinations are usually called In Ger
many, are q necessary and in the main
useful development in modern indus
trial life BY combining the means of
production and by regulating sales,
said the minister, a more perfect util-
ixation of the means OF production is
secured, as well as certain steadiness
to prices and wages; and in the case
of coal this means to give steadiness
to a great part of Germany'S business
He thought that the Per-
sian government had acted wisely in
making a temporary arrangement with
the coal syndicate and thereby In
creasing the chances for its prolonga-
ton in 1915,
, DIR. Delbrueck expressed equal con-
Germ about the fate of the German
steel trust which terminates at the
end OF June unless previously renewed.
Whether the state itself shall become
a member Of syndicates, said the min
lister, was question which could not
be answered in general terms as q mat
ter OF principle, but only according to
the circumstances involved in each in
div1dual case Under some circUm-
stances II becomes the duty of the
state to join a syndicate, If thereby it
can promote important business and
political ends In a line with its general
interests In some cases trade combi-
nations grow into monoplies; and pri-
vate monopolies. said the minister, can
under some circumstances be more
dangerous than state monopoly; this
is specially the case, he said, In a con-
Stitutionally governed country, where
the parliament is in a position at any
time to exercise its control over the
administration of such monopolies.
DIR. Delbrueck again rejected the
idea of having general law passed for
the regulation of syndicates He also
expressed his personal conviction that
the German government would be COM
PEELED under certain circumstances to
convert private monoplies into staae
Inonopolies. Referring, however, to the
Z
hrueck admitted that it had not full
filled his expectations; but he hoped
that the experience gained by this law
would cause other syndicates to do
everything possible to make legislative
Snterference with them unnecessary.
z A Big Business.
The turnover of the post office bank
ing business in Germany last wear
amounted to $3.50 900 600, or SO per
Int more than for 1910. The num
var Of persons and firms holding OMEN
sceounts with the post office has risen
- az $40, there having been a gain nj
- nar cent In two years. About tbrer
sc,rths Of the acooutn holders arr
I'rsiness firms and companies W.
nstaT p,Irpose In view when this So
sam was established expertmentalIv
800 wears ago was to facilitate nav.
.na,fs of small sums at a distance viii
- troalble to senders and to pos
nfIoa officials than through the Gus
.avnarv money order system. The ex
.u.aaiyre rse of these accounts for thi
'n-nosa Is clearly evident from tn
1a.-qe numbers OF entries on them; tn
nyerare in 1911 was 1,425 entries o
Zach account. At the end OF Decen