The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-08-29
THE GOVERNMENT
SHOULD ANSWER
From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.

This nation is thoroughly patriotic and
full OF win-the-war determination down
to the last Boy Scout. There is nothing
we will not do or endure or pay to make
the tragic sacrifice of our splendid mem
alarms tell to the last cartridge. We
arc not counting our troubles and deprivA-
lions over here when over there they
make light Of CHASTITY wounds and face
death daily with the fine, bright eyed
courage Of the free born.
But, In spite of the war, we, after alb
remain Americans. 1t is nationally lmpos.
sibis for us to stop thinking. There are
questions the best Of us will put. And
there 10 nothing more dangerous to our
complete brotherly cooperation In the
great task Of shattering forever the Ger
man sword than to ignore a familiar
series Of insistent questions that are
forced to the lips of every housewife.
however loyal, and every purchaser Of the
necessities Of life, however ardent his
belief in the allied cause.
We Americans will fight to q finish ana
We will fight with an Intelligence and
rxity of purpose which few of the bellig-
are permitted to give our intelligence FREQ
play and are not asked 70 endure In the
dark buffetlnss whose cause we cannot
conceive.
To come right down to brass tacks.
there is one big, pressing and persistent
question: WHICH every man dHu cSehJ
woman-especially every woman-whose
duty 1t IL to make frequent purchases OF
the necessities Of life Is constantly ask
Ing. and that question is:
Why II It that our various war authorf-
ties, who intervene dictatorially-ano
rightly so-in almost every other activity
Of life, cannot protect the domestic pur-
shaser from what seems systematic sxtor-
tIon?"
We regulate very nearly everything In
this country now, save and except the
most important thing Of all-the cost or
our living expenses. 1t may be econom-
ically impossible to regulate that. The
humble housewife who goes forth to buy
the family dinner and finds that every
mortal item on her list has gone up since
last week is quite willing to be shown
that the government can regulate what
the coal man can charge for coal, what
the munition maker can charge for shells.
what the farmer can charge for wheat,
what the railway can charge for trans
portation. who shall get steel, when wa
place OF wheat, and o thousand other
delicate points In our daily life, but cannot
regulate what the grocer shall charge her
for butter and eggs, or what the butcher
shan ask for lamb, or how much the
fishmonger shall get for fish. She Is not
only w~illing-she asks nothing so vehem-
emily as that she shall be shown.
When the good word comes that we
have met the demand for meat and that
we can now eat It again. does the price
of fish fall? Not so you'd notice. Once
q price gets up 1t seems utterly unable to
climb down again. 1t goes UP joyously
like a skyrocket, but 1t makes II danger
ously dizay even to look down.
We are going to have a fine opportunity
now to judge the exact relation in these
cases between supply and demand. Hoover
has sent over the happy word that we
need no longer deny ourselves wheat.
While We. were saving wheat to feed
Europe-and we did 1t magnificently and
effeetively-the price for little we
were permitted to buy awaited, and the
portions Of wheat products served in tho
hotels and restaurants approached the
vanishing point. Bread became q luxury.
VIII bread now become cheap? VIII the
cost OF wheat products go back to the old
figures? VIII the portions served return
to the good old wholesome sizes7
The housewife will believe II when sho
sees II.
Naturally the housewife asks queyet-as.
The housewife is the purchasing agent OF
the home. Men make money come, but
women make 1t go-and they are COM
PEELED to make 1t go a very, very long VAT
these days.
The housewife wants to know:
Why prices always go up and nevse
come down.
Why. when the government commands
iNt W u v hoooS ~ uoCS ElOl tok0
any visible steps to prevent the vendors
Of these foods from making them so dear
that she simply cannot buy them.
Why foods which are not put on the war
index seem mysteriously to become a
scarce and costly as those which are.
Why the substitutes she is compelled
to take In order to get a small allotment
of what she really wants go up I'm price
like an American aviator trying to ger
above a Hun raider when we are not
shipping a pound of them to Europe md
are presumably producing at least -
much as ever.
Why the prices Of articles already manu-
featured and In stock go up, though the
merchant would have sold them gladly at
the old price II they had not been men
toned In some way in a government
order.
Why the government cannot prevent
this when they know they are about to
issue an explosive order.
Why the government can regulate the
things that the government buys but not
the things that the unknown housewife
buys.
why the government can regulate the
prices and the distribution of some things
but not Of others-apparently not tha
very things she, the noneconomic, the
aonprofiteering. the ~unorganized house
wife wants to buy.
It will be good tactics to answer before
NO start another Liberty loan campaign
Sor not a few people are feeling that their
Incomes are first taxed and then mort
gagged for Liberty loans, but that the
residue on which they must live is not
protected from the profiteer, petty as well
as prodigious. who pliers the lean house
keeping purse of 100000 hardworking