Evening star., 1917-09-09
BY JAMES B. MORROW.

~ AN prices be shuff1ed-down
N mainly-by Congress? Or by
" any group of men? Or by any
~ one man singly?
What is a reasonable price. say, for
pig iron or copper. with the whole
world fighting and all of the normal
laws of commerce dislocated?
Is it sound in economics, or in ethics.
to force American manufacturers to
sell their products at the same prices
to the governments of France. Great
Britain. Belgium, Russia, Italy and
Japan as they do. willingly or under
compulsion, to the government of their
own country?
Such are three of the questions for
which answers will be sought through
ness men that will continue in Atlantic
City from the morning of September IL
until the evening of the 21st.
The meeting will be the greatest of
its kind ever held in the United States
or anywhere else. recently or ancientiy.
Schwab will be there. and Armour
Gary and Morgan. The ablest bankers.
merchants manufacturers and trans
portationists in the world will be pres
ent. Sitting with them will be several
high grade specialists from Europe.
Can business do more than 1t is doing
to put down the Huns, to strike fear
into the heart of the enemy" reads a
phrase in the summons for the confer
ence? In that inquiry will be found
the spirit of the meeting. The duty
that business owes to the government
will be its paramount subject.
But the ways of war have not been
completely methodized. Every man is
working or wants to be working. but
his place in the machinery puzzles him
and others. The call for material. for
guns and clothing, ammunition, food
and fodder set mountains of each in
motion
Send what you have. said the gov
ernment. Prices will be determined
later"
Men, too. streamed into Washington.
their coats. it might be said, across
their left arms. their sleeves rolled up
and their collar bands unbuttoned. Not
common men. but uncommon ones: in
dustrial leaders, instead of politicians:
financiers, factory managers, mine OPP
orators. retailers.
Into the mighty masses of material
and human beings order is gradually
appearing. The mechanism of war is
running. An army is in France. War
ships are in the Atlantic. Soldiers are
being trained at many camps and can
tonments. But large matters still wait
settlement. Prices, for example. Or
profits, to state the case with no eva
sion.
The Chamber of Commerce of the
United States, headquarters in Wash
ington, represents 900 commercial
bodies (boards of trade and so on) and
10000 business men. It's executive
committee. made up of eleven members.
among whom are manufacturers, bank
ers. publishers, merchants, shipbuilderS
and business lawyers, has been meet
ing almost continuously since last
April.
These men believe that business, in
it's reputation, is suffering" using
word of their own application, through
a wrong opinion of the public. They
give two reasons. First, because busi-
ness does not know how to adjust it
self to war conditions, having neither
plain directions nor information: and
secondly. because of "the narrow and
selfish attitude of an almost negligible
but somewhat prominent minority" of
"prof1teersme as President Wilson
may hereafter brand them in one of
his letters to the people.
Business. in a sense, is stumbling in
the dark for signs and facts while
seeking the widest opportunity posi-
BILE to help turn back the invasion of
the Prussian hordes upon the enlight-
eminent and liberty of the world. There
fore the Atlantic City mass conference
was called
The meeting was suggested by Elliott
II. Goodwin, secretary of the National
Chamber of Commerce and the active
executive officer of that powerful body.
The organization is on record as be-
ing opposed to the making Of profits
out of the war. Nevertheless business
must live
In peace the purpose of business is
profit. During war it ought to be
something else. The rules followed in
peace. then, should be changed when
the armies begin to march. Peace
rules are understood because practiced.
War rules must be defined before they