The Sentinel=record., 1916-12-08
SPECIAL ATTENTION IS
 GIVEN THE COAL CORNER
The Excessively Large Amount of Gold in This Country is Given by the Government Experts as One of the Reasons for Some of the Advances That Have Taken Place.

Washington, Dec 7.-Inrormation gathered from many sources by gov ernment officials conducting the aa- ton wide inquiry into the high cost of living pointed with increasing di. aectness tonight to the conclusion oy the officials that the soaring prices of certain necessities of life are due in part at least to the manipulations of speculators, who have combined to force quotations upward
 These combinations are beliavad by the government investigators to be criminal in character, rather spasma- die and rather short lived.
 Special attention is given just now 10 alleged price manipulation in the so-calied coal corner which recently resulted in sending prices to q panic level Investigation Of the high price of coal hardly yet begun has already convinced some officials that there was no warrant whatever for SIP coal in Boston and New York other than the activity of these alleged com. binations. Whether men who .profit. ed most can be punished under fed- eral laws is said to be still prob!ema- toal
 With the investigation in it's f1-
 ancy officials were unwilling to pre- die, tonight where it might lead. The activity of certain men. however are known to be under surveillance and seventy some odd investigators in the field have been checking transactions during the past few months by these men. At the same time officials make clear their conclusion that no small part of the rise in prices is due to natural economic causes. Many of these causes it is pointed out lie fay beneath the surface such conditions as the international balance of trade and the amount of currency in circu- Iation having a direct bearing upon the situation although not generally understood
 Present activities of the depart ments investigators are understood to center about Chicago. Trade produce and other food exchanges It was authorauyely announced have not been invesugated Primarily the general investigation by the govern ment will be confined to foodstufls and coal it is said, but if leads are uncovered ether commodities such as leather and clothing will be iuvesti- gated.
 At the outset certain phases of the investigation have developed inter- estiIg sidelights which have a general bearing upon the situation. For in- stance it is thought that no small part of the recent rise in coal prices was due to the feeling among panicky buy CTS that they would be unable to ob-
 ,ain their usua supply. Cases have
 been found, it was said where famil- ies which usually buy few tons of coal at a time had bought at top prices sufficient to last from two to three years, thereby contributing to the rise and diminishing the available supply for others. The advance in tuG Ui tNt Ol btduS --ilt dit nNU ptl cent in some instances-is attributed
 to some extent to unusually large shipments of canned beans 10 Bel gium by the commission for relief in Belgium. The butter price advance
 has been normal, the investigation mas disclosed, but eggs are said to be lnwarrantably high.
 Roughly, officials estimate the ad- vance in foodstuffs during the year at 45 per cent and it was pointed ont that the department of agriculture had reported an average showing of
 l5 percent in staple grain and pro- luce crops. Attention was called to
 the departments estimate based ln years of research that the ratio be- l tween advance in prices and short age of crops was approximately three
 to one Thus a V per cent shortage