New-York tribune., 1918-05-31
Slay the Profteer!

Let us stone the profteer to death.
That will be just and good He has no
defence in morals. Gomez Let us be at
forth into the highways to dispatch the
wretch, whoever he is, wherever he may
be found.
But, 10! what do we see?
Every one of us has stone. The rich
man has one for the greengrocer, who
for the truck gardener, who has one for
his hired man, and so all the way down
to the newsboy at Brooklyn Bridge, who
has one for the apple woman
Then are we all proiteers?
In one sense, yes; in another sense, no.
There is lot of misunderstanding in
this matter; also much misrepresenta-
ton, some of it in ignorance, more of it
in malice.
Just as radical disloyalist like Scott
Nearing will quote clause from "The
New Freedom" to an infammable
audience and throw it into an ecstasy by
saying, after a theatrical pause, "That
is by the President Of the United States!"
so now those who continue guardedly to
represent the war as a game of capital
lists have begun already to quote from
Mr.. Wilson's recent address to Congress
the following:
There is such profteering now. and the
information with regard to it Is available
and indisputable."
The kind of uprising or revolution
Scott Nearing means when he quotes a
clause out Of "The New Freedom" apart
from the context, is not the kind of
movement the President meant when he
wrote of the silent revolution that is con-
tinually taking place. Nor is the kind
of profteering the radicals mean when
they talk of the war as capitalistic
thing the kind of profteering the Presi-
dent meant in his exhortation to Con-
gress speedily to pass tax bill to check
further initiation of prices.
"The proiteering that cannot be got at
by the restraints Of conscience and love
of country" he said, "can be got at by
taxation" So it can. be. To increase
taxation heavily is to meet correspond
ingly larger part of the wars cost out of
the nations current income and a lesser
part by means of credit and currency ex-
pansion; that is to say, by imitation. If
you check imitation in that way you will
arrest the rise in prices, which we ap-
prove heartily of doing and have steadily
advocated in the interest of sane eco
nomics.
We are profteers, all of us, more or
less, not because we are lacking in con-
science or love of our country, but be-
cause individually we are helpless.
Everybody is doing it according to his
circumstances, and there Is no stoppinp
for one unless for all.
Conscience and love Of country cannot
stop the universal profiteering which is
made inevitable by rising prices; taxa
ton can stop it, indirectly, by striking at
the cause of rising prices, which is in
fation.
The evil spiral of profteering works
in this way:
You are manufacturer of shoes
Leather goes up. You call the tanner
proflteer and prove to him that he has
advanced his prices more than his costs
have risen. He may admit it. but his
defence is that his costs are ADVANCING
steadily and that before he sells vou
leather again they may be very much
hagher. Therefore he is obliged to in
crease his working margin. Or he tells
you bluntly that he doesn't care what Won
thlnk OF his prices. He can sell his
leather tomorrow for more. You buv it.
Then your employees demand a raise.
You say to then1,y "But this is great
deai TO ask all at one time. The cost of
Iiving hasn't increased as much as that"
They answer that the cost of living in
creases daily, whereas wages are raised
only at long intervals. Besides. if Vol,
can't pay the increase they will 20 else
where. They are doing what the tanner
did--adding margin Of safety to their
demands. and ssksns for all they think
they can get. You raise their wages.
Now you find that the cost of MAKING .
pair Of shoes has increased so cents.
But dc yea increase the price to the re-
taller 80 cents? No, .ndeed. You saw.
Leather will go goodness knows how
much higher and / may have to raise
wages again week after next. TO make
sure I'll raise the price Of shoes 81 a
pair" And what does the retailer say?
He calls you profteer, but you say to
nim what the tanner said to you. Then,
does he add 81 pair to the price of
shoes? No, indeed. He says, Things
are gong up SO fast that in little while