The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-08-09

| that in the purchase of war mater
ials in this country our allies shall
be charged no more than our own
government has to pay, the boards
statement reads.
Guns and ammunition employed
against our enemy are for our bene-
fit as much when used by our allies
as when used by our own men and it
Is obviously unjust to require our
allies when fighting our battle to pay
our own people more than our own
government pays for the materials
necessary to carry on the war.
"a mere statement of the PROPOSE
ton seems enough and we are con-
fdent that our manufacturers who
have so periodically responded thus
far to the calls of our government in
this emergency will readily accept
this policy.
Two Provisions.
"But this policy has two important
limitations. First, it is to be reci-
procal The allies must henceforth
apply the same principle in dealing
with their own producers and in sell
ing to us and in selling to each 9TH
err; secondly the arrangement must
be limited to war materials in order
to protect our own industry. We
must not allow raw materials sold by
our producers at prices periodically
conceded to our government and its
allies for war purposes to be divert
ed to industry and trade abroad
which may come in competition with
our own manufacturers and produc-
ers. Measures will be taken by the
board for the best possible assurance
that materials sold at a concession
in prices for war Purposes shall be
applied only to war purposes.
In fixing the prices to be paid by
the governments, we shall allow a
reasonable profit but shall deny the
extortion now exacted for many com
pay the just price so admiralty defined
by the president in his public state
ment Of July IL, as follows:
BY a just price, / mean a price
which will sustain the industries
concerned in a high state of eff
cheney; provide a living for those
who conduct them; enable them to
pay good wages, and make possible
expansions of their enterprises which
will from time to time become neces-
sary as the stupendous undertakings
Of this great war develop.
Prices To Public. 49,.
The war industries board has. not
yet had and may not have occasion
to deal with the question of prices to
be charged the public, but 1t seems
proper in this connection to direct at
tention again to the following from
the statement of the president on
that subject:
I'VE must make the prices the
same as the prices to the govern
ment. Prices mean the same thing
everywhere now; they mean the eff
cheney of the nation, whether it is
the government that pays them or
not. They mean victory or defeat.
The war makes enormous drafts
upon many raw materials absolutely
necessary to the industrial life of the
nation and to the ordinary existence
Of the people. This has resulted in
the bidding UP for prices for what is
left of many materials of prime nee
essary in manufacture to a point OBJ
viously out of all relation to the cost
Of production and involving unoon-
scionable profits on our national re-
sources and the consequence is that
the cost to the public Of all articles
in the manufacture of which such
materials enter has reached a level
never before known.