Evening star., 1919-08-24
ny EDWARD MARSHALL.


various plans proposed by
Congress for its reduction
by law and how really to get it down.
Suddenly he shook his head with en-
phasis.
You can't Iegislate an economic
law out of existence" he declared.
THE economic law which now at
fects US is that reaction against
the consumer always must follow the
combination of a demand which Is
Inevitable and Irresistible and a sup
ply which is affected by imperfect
distribution or controlled by selfish
= interests"
This statement seems complicated.
Read it carefully and you will find
1t very simple TaJ
The man behind 1t Is one OF the
best known economic authorities and
most forceful economic thinkers in
the United States--M. L. Requa, re-
Gently one of Mr.. IIoover's chief aids,
principal organizer. in fact, or the
United States Food ADMINISTRATION
and afterward general director OF the
oil division, United States Fuel Ad-
ministration. Since the beginning OF
the great conflict, which found Mr..
Requa technically very eminent as
an engineer, his fame was spread
until now he is known as one OF the
deepest and dearest thinkers intro
duced by the world convulsion into
that purely patriotic public effort in
which SO many Of the nations most
important men have participated
X Il + X
"Cost and price," continued Mr.. Re-
qua. "are topics very vital to the well
fare of the nation. Cost must not be
too high and must not be swollen by
avoidable waste; price must not be
too high nor swollen by unreasonable
profit Let US consider the peach
which I had for my breakfast. Prob
ably it came from California.
bought 1t in my New York hotel for
IS cents when peaches of the same
quality are selling in San Francisco at
Is cents dozen and probably are
selling elsewhere In California at
much less than that. Thus there is at
least a. difference of 43A cents be-
tween the original producers price of
IN cents and that paid by the ulti-
mate consumer. Worked out In per-
centage. this seems appalling, for it is
about $500 per cent. I paid about
thirty-five times as much. for my
peach in New York as the California
grower got for 1t. ,,,,.
-"Whom do blame? Let us see.
The hotel? No. The New York
wholesaler Of whom the hotel bought?
No. The transportation agencies that
brought 1t across the continent? No.
The jobbers In San Francisco? No.
And certainly do not blame the
grower Of the peach.
''The fact 10 that (speaking gener-
ally. I am not saying that there may
not be peach profiteers. az there are
profteers in other lines) individuals
are not responsible through unreal
sonable profits at any one stage Of
the progress Of the peach from tree
to lip.
"A vicious circle exists in which
each segment is more the victim than
the criminal. In other words, the
fault lies in the system rather than
at the door Of any Individual contrib
uting thereto-although again must
make the reservation that know
prohteers exist in the United States
and that they must be found and
penalixed drastically.
speaking generally. they will be.
But II the last profteer were behind
bars we still would find ourselves at
fected by price absurdities and cost
hardships II we do not seek, flnd and
eliminate the root Of the trouble.
'In order to do this we must 20
deeper than we can be carried by the
passage OF laws. What have statutes
done In the past to correct economic
evils unfortunately affecting business
and the people?
mot always what has been expect
ed of them. For instance, I always
have believed the attempt at govern
mont control through the Sherman
act to be fundamentally q mistake.
The dissolution Of the Standard Oil
Company did no real. good. Large
companies mean efficiency. Today the
Standard OIL Company saves to hu-
msnity practically all there 10 in the