The Washington herald., 1918-07-21
SEND GOUCERS
TO WAR FRONT.
SAY WORKERS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE oNE

ltonian is to believe that high prices are
| inevitable as the tides and stars and
other physical phenomena.
| Time For Protection.
The time has come. say the Fed
eral employed for the wage Garner,
or saiaried employe. to take legi-
itimate means to protect himself and
his family from the thievery of the
coinscienceless profiteer, be he the
cheap restaurant keeper or the
| mighty wholesale corporation.
| With this in view. the punch COM
mittee is weighing the necessity OF
| going into the retailing business
itself. Half a dozen retailing depots
throughout the city owned by the
Federation and out for no profit
| would soon solve the II. c. OF L. for
the employees.
A great cooperative business
could easily be managed by the
| federation.
They will FIRST ask the proper
authorities the reason for the fol-
lowing curious phenomena in u
great Republic like ours, however:
Why Cheaper Abrsadf'
why do the products of Ameri-
can farms and American labor sell
for vastly less in the markets of
4 Great Britain than they do in ours
Statements that this Is true appear
daily in reputable journals.
Why is IL daily said and printed
that ~dec'crs in Washington demand
any retail price that they may agree
upon. on the theory that the city
public will pay?
why are the wealthier classes who
order and never question price and
those who so to market early and pay
what is demanded allowed to boost
the prices out Of reach Of the wage
Garner and those OF limited income2
why are those who can pay ex-
orbitant prices not mindful Of those
| who cannot?"
Rich and poor. are sending sons
to France. are buying bonds and
working together In all else for
America. Why not include a program
for America in America as well?
The local Food Administration is
to be catechised somewhat as follows:
Question: Wy do you declare ~
cents a peck is a fair retail price for
potatoes. The Food Commission has
published that 60 cents is q fair price
for retail dealers. and producers In
various places are offering potatoes
to all who will come and dig them.
] Dealers within a few miles of
Washington are retailing them at u
cents a peck and making a profit.
Please give us access to your data
and comparisons.
Answer by Food Commission. ac-
cording to statements made prev
iously:
Hoods Heads Answer.
We fail to find anything that
would indicate that Washington
dealers charge too much for food.
That is just a beginning. for the COM
mittee have complete data.
The local rooms situation for war
workers will be Investigated some
what as follows:
Question: To housing division of
District Council OF Defense:
Why do you pronounce the room
ing situation in Washington satis-
factory when the rooms available for
war workers on normal salaries are
very scarce and unfit for servants
quarters in most instances? When
$S5 is considered a fair price for a
hall bedroom, and five girls are ex-
pected to sleep in one room with two
windows?
"A member OF our committee can
vassed the city in the role OF a
stranger last Thursday. He found
room after room for from so to $50.
Last year he also sought a room. and
such rooms last year rented from 81
to SIS.
Two Girls Experience.
Two girls recently decided to poo
their resources and take a small
apartment, on the statement issued
BY you that quarters were easily aavil.
, able. The two girls had a combined
salary slightly larger than a mar
government worker would have, who
had family to support
= Combining all the information
available in your carefully card-cata-
logued lists, you produced two unfur
nished apartments lower than $50. Ont
E Of these turned out to be one room il
a basement which the owner had de
cided not to rent. and the other wa!
three rooms and a storeroom, the fur
niture of which must be purchased
You had no furnished apartment
within the reach Of a fair-salarieC
| war worker
| Answer according to precedenO
| I'VE have plenty Of rooms. Did WI
say We had plenty for less than S0?'
| To the housing bureau of the De
partment Of Labor, the committe,
will talk somewhat as follows:
81 there any definite reason VIII,
the halls Of residence for 5000 wal
workers in Washington shoult
wait until the girl war worker.
are all driven off to their homes
by the inhumanities of the Land
ladies' Trust, or run SO deeply int
debt they can never extricate them
selves. or have gone back to som,
nice. cheap city like New York
where they can occasionally hav,
a new dress or square meal
Isn't s10,o00.Ooo enough?
How About Navy Yardt
Are you waiting until all tn,
navy yard workers have take,
their families and gone elsewhere
spreading the news as they go tina
Washington is a profiteer-ridde,
city to be avoided?"
The Fuel Administration will
also be questioned about the step
it has taken to prevent the suffer
ing and hindering of war worl
which the fuel situation of las
/ year brought on.
/ Last OF all, the committee, hav
ing questioned the local powers a.
to the possibility of rescue from
the profteering wolf, will ask Con
gress to make laws So cofnplet
and drastic that the proper au
thorities can help them. 1t 4
thought that Congress will realiz
that the war workers must be pro
tected from the pro-German. unpa
triotic proiteers and right tn
wrong.