New-York tribune., 1917-06-24
War Profiteering
(Erom The Economic World

1t is apparent 10 the mereSt lyro
in the study of the economic and
social welfare of society that price
profiteering Of the kind that finds its
opportunity in war conditions adds
grievously to the burden and hard
ship of war for the great majority
Of the population. 1t is a general
economic truth, of course, that a
uniform increase Of prices for all
commodities and services. which
arises from a change in the relative
value of money-price imitation pure
and simple-causes for the most
rart only temporary social harms,
and those not ruinous for the classes
Of persons who suffer them.
When pure price imitation is in
process all prices of all commodities
and all services do not rise simul-
taneously, but a series Of upward
price adjustments, spread over a
certain period of time, takes place
and during that period of time the
producers and distributors Of some
commodities and those who render
some services get the benefit of the
yrice advance little sooner than
others. Comparative injustlces, as
between class and class, are un-
doubtedly occasioned in this way, but
they are not really serious injustices
nor of long duration.
War profteering, on the other
fand, works social injustice of a
fundamental and irreparable kind
because the operations that yield war
profits are based only TO a very
slight extent upon the gradual and
general rise in the prices Of COM
modities and services brought about
by monetary initiation, but rather for
( the most part upon the opportuni-
ties afforded by the economic shifts
and confusions Of war to deal I'M
moderately, inordinately and eXtor-
tionately with great helpless masses
Of the population, wringing from
them through ruthless exaggerations
Of the cost Of the necessaries OF
their lives a disproportionate share
of the products of their toll.
The very essence of war protiteer-
ing consists in jumping the prices of
the necessaries of life more rapidly
than the costs of production of those
recessaries, which really represent
the social compensation Of the great
body of workers and producers, can
in the nature Of things advance.
The profteering manufacturer takes
advantage of the inrperativeness of
the war demand for a part of his
products to mark up the selling
prices of all of his products so
( swiftly and so excessively that he
is ever increasing the margin be-
tween these prices and the cost of
( his labor and of his raw materials,
Notwithstanding some sympathetic
rise in these costs.
The profiteering merchant seeks
to provide himself by purchase or by
future contract with supply of the
goods he deals in far in excess of his
normal distributing requirements,
and then to derive an essentially
speculative profit from the enhance
ment of the market value Of the
goods or contracts for goods in his
hands. The profteering speculator
enters into commitments in the equi-
ties in portions of the supplies Of
various commodities and goods,
whether already produced or 70 be
produced in the future; and then en-
doavors 10 enhance to the utmost
the market values of these equities,
without the slightest regard for the
relative worth OF the commodities
and goods from the point of view Of
what the producers of them receive
for their productive services or Of
the social compensation obtained by
the buyers of them in their various
productive occupations.