The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-07-07
PRICES RUNNING RIOT.

effort is to be made toward correction
Commenting on the high cost of living, Rich
ard Spillane, Journal financial correspondent,
says:
The whole status of business has changed Be-
fore the war wholesalers, middlemen and retail
ers worked on modest margin of profit Most
articles of human need-foodstuffs, raiment and
the like-were plentiful. Supply exceeded de-
mand not infrequently. Competition was keen
The war threw the whole trade structure out
of balance. Values declined rapidly at first
Then, suddenly they began to rise and kept going
till they reached heights never attained before
They are there now.
The tremendous drafts Europe made upon
America for foodstuffs, clothing, material of
every kind created shortage which changed the
status of merchant and customer. Before the
the merchant, big and little, had to court the
public. With the changes incident to the
the public has been subject to the dictates of the
producer, the mddleman and the merchant.
In broad sense the last few years have been
the golden era of American manufacturers, farm
ers, jobbers, commission men and retailers. They
have prospered amazingly. And their prosperity
has turned the heads of many of them. What
formerly was considered fair, if not satsfac-
tory, profit no longer is adequate. Prices es-
tabshed not so much on legitimate value as on
what the public can pay.
Not only that, but for the time being the law
of supply and demand seems to be held in abey-
ance.
Retail prices in 1000 more articles have run
riot. Prices are demanded now which few
years ago would make you gasp, and as gen.
eral proposition, the quality of goods is decidedly
below the old grade.
The sum and substance of the whole matter is
hot &c IF
tribute than is fair. 1t begins with the farmer
or fisherman or fruit grower or manufacturer.
He has had to pay higher wages to his help and
higher prices for materials. He has put these
into the reckoning when it came to selling his
product and he has added something for good
measure and to sweeten his disposition to
soothe his feelings when he pays his swollen
profits tax.
The next one to handle the goods has gasped
a little perhaps, at the price, but when he in turn
sold to someone else he added enough to satisfy
himself in every respect
So it has gone all along the line.
To add to the trouble there mas been mucn
speculation which has kept textiles and food
stuffs off the market. The gambling in textiles
became so violent in New York as to be scandal
Gus, large quantities of cotton and wooden goods
passing from hand to hand for months ever at
until figure was reached beyond which specu-
lators did not seem able to carry them.
Just as the textiles have been held in sus-
pense" so various foodstuffs reported to have
been held from the market.
The exploitation of the consumer is not pecu-
liar to America at this time England has like
condition. There has been parliamentary in
quiry that has revealed grave situation in rela-
ton to coal. For every advance in wages and
cost of material and for every additional tax i'm
posed the mine operators have added additional
sums to fatten their own purses.
This vicious system has driven the price of
coal to such height in England that the indus
trial prosperity of Great Britain is imperiled. /
The parliamentary inquiry has aroused the peo- 4
pie so profoundly that it is proposed to national
ize the coal mines.
That is what greed has done in Britain.
Here there is no such state of affairs in our
moaI fields and not likely to be, but in general
business profit that practically amounts to an
overcharge has become trade custom. 1t prob
ably will not be checked until some intelligent
system of informing the public as to legitimate
retail prices of the principal commodities is in
augurated.
Senator Walsh quotes precedents to prove that
the league will not violate American sovereignty.
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