Arizona republican., 1917-10-02

said mo-. But now, in wartime, the strength of the nations military forces at the front depends so much on the virility and welfare of all the people at home that 1 am inclined to believe that the courts would uphold the gov ernment in communicating a public necessity as a legitimate war measure if it were necessary for the proper care of the people.
 But that is Aggression. Now as to steel-but first let me say that ap- parently the copper and aluminium in terests have dealt fairly with the gov ernment by giving it prices much be- low the market of the day. But the iron and steel industries have not, thus far, shown any such disposition of helpfulness. On the contrary, the indications are that they are demand ing, or will demand, more than double the pre-war prices. If so, the govern ment will have to deal summarily with them, not only in it's own interest but for the benefit of the public.
 It depends upon the leaders of these industries as well as upon the coal men and all other big producers of necessities whether this country will be permanently socialized after the war. It remains for them to fix, as they may and can, reasonable and just prices and thus do away with the necessity of applying collective force. If there is any statesmanship in these industries able to control the pro- ducers they will see the wisdom of maintaining a fair and stable price level, notwithstanding the temptation of the hour and the times offered by the present plight of humanity. If they yield to this temptation, if they attempt to charge "all the traffic will bear" either the government will take them all over or they will have labor rushing in to share with them the spells and they will have lofty wage level which it will be difficult to re- duce when the price level falls as a matter of course at the end of the war
 No industry taken over by the gov ernment will ever go back to private ownership.
 An interesting question more or less relevant to all this is what is to be- come of the Sherman law. That law is based on competition and on the theory that increased prices resulting from increased demands will be fol- lowed by increased production, which in turn lowers the prices, and that thus i'll the long run an equilibrium is main tained. This law is enforced largely ny pTUNlSIUiiS WHICH pendllZe dSfet- ments between producers tending to stabilize or increase prices. When ex- traordinary demands are imposed on existing supplies, as at present, the government, with a view to mobiliz- ing it's transportation facilities and it's commodities, thus increasing both ef- ficiency and volume, has been eom- pelled to deal with each industry col lectively and to urge it to combine for such higher efficiency and greater out put. This necessarily involves under standings and agreements between railroads and producers regarded as violations of the Sherman law in nor nal times
 For example, the coal operators met at the invitation of the government l and discussed prices, a thing they hardly would have dared to do before 1 the war. And as to the railroads, the l government, by law, has authorized 1 the appointment of an executive com 1 mittee by all the roads for the pur- 1 pose of -ordinating their energies. This thing would have been open to suspicion, to say the least, before the