Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-08-29
SUPPLY AND De
MAND WILL CONTROL

Washington, Aug. 22-That the in
exorable law of supply and demand
will eventually find solution OF the
high cost of living and that the sale OF
stored foodstuffs will have no perma-
nent effect in bringing relief from pres
ent conditions. is the assertion OF the
Republican Publicity Association in a
statement given out today from its
Washington Headquarters through its
President, Hon Jonathan Bourne, il.
The statement says:
'There is a fundamental fallacy in
the theory that forced releases OF
stored fOOdStlltfs will have any mater
ial or permanent effect toward lowering
the cost of living. In the first place
the amount of food stored is inconSid-
cradle as compared with the normal
monthly consumption. In the second
place. while stored food tends, to linn
tied degree, to keep prices up that
same stored food is q constant check
on rising prices, for when prices reach
an abnormal stage the stored food is
released by the holders in order to
realize the profit. With the stored food
gone, there will be no reserve supply to
act as an automatic regulator, and
holders of food constituting the daily
ratiOns of the country can then name
their own price.
THE grave problem Of cost Of living
will be solved in accordance with the
universal law of supply and demand
the scarcity Of food inducing or forcing
many city people to abandon Occupa-
tons Of a nOn-prOductiye character to
go back to the land to produce the food
they cannot buy at famine prices
Moreover, the scarcity and high price
of food will force leaders of organized
labor to abandon their policy of limit
ing production of manufactured com
mOdities. For several years there has
been a movement for more pay and less
work. With the demand for more pay
no fault can he found, provided there
be no class favOritism. Neither can
there be any criticism of reasonable
limitation Of hours of labor-limita-
lions designed to promote the health
and welfare Of the c0untry-pr0vided
these limitations are applicable to all
but there is rank injustice, for
which the country must eventually
pay, in a plan of raising wages and
limiting production for the benefit of
only Il small proportion of the p0pula-
ton. When railroad and a few other
limited classes of employees force arbi-
trary increases in their compensation
and reductions of their hours Of labor
while farmers and their wives and
children must work from sUn-up until
dark with their compensation checked
rather than enhanced. it is only a ques-
ton Of time when such violation of the
laws of common justice will be penal
lied
AS a result of the war, the whole
world is short of necessities To re-
store normal conditions there must be
acceleration rather than limitation of
production in every line of useful enter
prise. There must be every reasonable
encouragement to the prOduccr-every
proper Encouragement to the n0n-pro-
ductive consumer. There must be an
end of special privileges for the organ
lied worker to the injury of the amor
ganiZed agricultural producer The
consistent record of the Wilson admin
istration adverse to the interests and
welfare of the farmer must be rebuked
in such mmistakable terms as to IN
sure that subsequent national admins
tratiOns, of whatever party, will accord
equal treatment to all. with special
privileges to none Otherwise chaos
and the end of our Republic"