The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1919-08-16
WOULD extend
WAR CONTROL.
OF ALL FOOD
That. and Provision OF Penalties
for Profiteering. Advocated
by the President.
TO FORCE SALE OF SURPLUS
In Address to Congress the Chief Ex-
ecutive Makes Assertion That We
Are Dealing With Very Crti-
cal and Difficult Matters"

cal and Difficult Matters"
Washington addressing congress
and proposing remedies to check The
! high cost of living. President Wilson
! declared existing laws were made
quate ana high prices were rot iuSti
fed by shortage Of supplies, present
or prospective, but were created in
many cases 'artiticinlly and dclibcr-
ately'' by vicious practices"
lie spoke practically as follows:
! Gentlemen of the Congress:
| have sought this opportunity TO ad-
dress you because it is clearly my duty
70 call your attention to the present cost
Of living and to urge upon you with all
the persuasive force of which ! am capable
the legislative measures which would be
most effective in controlling it and bring
ing 1T down
The prices the people Of this country are
paying for everything that It is necessary
for them to use IN order to live are not
justified by shortage in supply. either
present or prospective. and are in many
cases artifcially and deliberately created
by vicious practices which ought imme-
diately to he checked by law.
FiOIltCSIS LSWDTSdkCIS-
Some Of the methods by which these
prices are produced are already Illegal.
some or them criminal and those who
employ them will be energetically pro-
ceeded against. But others have not yet
been brought under the law. and should
be dealt with at once by legislation
With the increase in the prices or the
necessaries OF he come demands for in
creases in wages demands which are
isYnt
enabling men to live.
Upon the increase Of wages there fol
lows close an increase in the price Of the
products whose producers have been ac-
corded the increase-not a pToportionate
increase. for the manufacturer does not
content himself with that. but an in
crease considerably greater than the
added wage cost and for which the added
wage cost is oftentimes hardly more than
an excuse.
The Iaborers who do not get an increase
In pay when they demand IL are likely
to strike, and the strike only makes mat
ters worse.
It checks production. II It affects the
railways It prevents distribution and
strips the markets; that there Is pres
emily nothing to buy. and there is another
excessive addition to prices resulting from
the scarcity
Conditions Not Natural"
These are facts and forces with which
we have become only too familiar but
we are not justified because of our fanil-
iarity with them or because of any hasty
and shallow conclusion that they are
natural and inevitable In sitting mac
lively by and letting them work their ia
tai results If there is anything that we
can do to check, correct or reverse them
We must, j think, frankly admit that
there Is no complete immediate remedy
to be had from legislation and executive
action. The free processes of supply and
demand will not operate of themselves,
and no legislative or executive action can
force them into full and natural operation
until there is peace.
Must Know Terms of Peace.
There can be no confidence in indus
try. no calculable basis for credits no
confident buying of systematic selling,
no certain prospect of employment. no
normal restoration of business. no
hopeful attempt at reconstruction or a
proper reassembling of the dislocated
elements of enterprise until peace has
been established. and so far as may be.
guaranteed. Our national life has no
loubt been less radically disturbed and |
than the national life OF
other peoples whom the war more di- |
-ectly affected. with all its terrible |
and destructive force. but it |
has been nevertheless profoundly af- |
ected and disarranged, and our indus |
ries. our credits, our productive ca |
'acity. our economic processes are in |
interviewer with those of |
'ther nations and peoples-most init |
nateiy OF all with the nations and peo-
lies upon whom the chief burden and |
confusion of the war fell and who
IRE now most dependent upon the CO.
operative action of the world.
Exports Greatest in History
We are just now shipping more goods
ut of our ports to foreign markets than
We ever shipped before-not foodstuffs
merely but stuffs and materials of every
ort: but this is no index of what our
oreign sales will continue to be or of
he effect the volume of our exports
VII have on supplies and prices. 1t is
yet to predict how far or
ow long foreign purchasers will be
Die to find the money or the credit to
ay' for or sustain such purchases or
UGH scale; how soon or TO what extent |
oreign manufacturers can resume their
ormer production, foreign farmers get
heir accustomed crops from their own
eds; foreign mines resume their former
utput. foreign merchants set up again
heir old machinery of trade with the
nds of the earth All these things must
emain uncertain until peace is estab-
shed and the nations of the world have
oncerted the methods by which normal
re and industry are to be restored
All that we shall do in the mean
me to restrain profteerinR and put
he life of our people upon a tolerable
ooting will be makeshift and provi-
Ional. There can be no settled condi-
on here or elsewhere until the treaty
peace is out of the way and the
-nrk Of liduidating the war has be-
ONE the chief concern OF our govern
rent and of the other governments of
,e world
Europe Will not. cannot recoup her