New-York tribune., 1918-02-05
A New Champion of Wildcat Initiation

The sane and conservative readers of
the usually sane and conservative "Times"
must have rubbed their eyes in amaze
ment as they have read in the last few
days its pronouncements on the advan-
tages Of initiation and its championship OF
Mr.. McAdoo's new "War Imitation Corpo-
ration" On Sunday it was extolling the
"exhilaraton" that comes from paying
higher and higher prices for everything
you have to buy. 1t was contending that
while thrift at this juncture was noble
effort, the important thing was really to
provide the people of the country with a
larger income-not for larger production,
but simply more money to spend.
1.-THE Times" in it's financial supplement,
."The Annalst," has provided an elaborate
index number or barometer, which it
terms "The Curve of the Cost of Living"
The "Annalist" figures show that the
average price of foodstuffs has risen
from a level of 146, for the year Of
1914, to an average of about 282 for the
last ten months. This means that the
'cost of living" has been very nearly
double in the last ten months what it was
IN the first year of the war. And "The
Times" speaks of the "exhilaration" of
paying these prices. Let it ask it's readers.
Likewise, 'The Times" has published
very recently the computations of Profess
sor Anderson, of Harvard, showing that
the annual income of the United States
has since the outbreak of the war risen in
about the same proportions. Yet no one
L. -.
of goods has risen in any such measure.
1t is doubtful if this actual production has
risen by as much as one-third. We know
that in the matter of food, for example,
there has been practically NO increase at all.
All we got out of this huge increase of
income was "exhilaration." For the same
quantity of things to eat and wear we paid
IS or 100 per cent more.
And the esteemed "Times" wishes this
prodigious initiation, with all the unrest,
discomfort and inefficiency of labor which
it brings, to be pushed still further. And
as a means thereto it wishes to give four
men, appointed by the President, practical
power of life and death over the larger
part of all the industries, companies and
corporations of the country, and likewise
to give the same four men power to pump
four billions of fiat money into the cur
rency of the nation at will. 1t says:
If not the War Finance Corporation
what then? Is there to be no enlargement
of collateral banking under war necessi-
ties because the Federal Reserve system
is exclusively designed for commercial
banking? The government is creating
billions of paper which would be CONNER
cal in its character If it were issued by
any source except the government, but
which government methods make in
eligible and unsuitable for the Federal Re-
serve system. The government leans upon
the Federal Reserve system as its trusty
right arm for the fotation of other
billions of paper which more suitable
for banks of investment than of commerce
The measure of currency imitation al
ways is the general level of prices. We
have had since the war began such an in,
fation of the actual business currency OF
the country as nearly to double the aver
age of prices. In the face of this the
McAdoo bill proposes the issue, if neces.
sary, of four billions of Federal Reserve
notes. If it is advisable to create "billions
Of paper" which in this roundabout way
is to be made Commercial in its charac-
ter" and therefore available as banking
collateral, why resort to such clumsy
methods Why not simply print the