The Elbert County tribune., 1919-08-16
HIGH PRICES
DECLARED TO
Be ARTIFICIAL
President Addresses Congress on
Subject Of High Cost
of Living.
LAWS ARE NOT ADEQUATE
chief Executive Declares 'VIcious
Practices" Are Responsible for
PeriIous Situation Which Faces
the Nation--Makes lmpor-
tant Recommendation.

the Nation-Makes lnpor-
tant Recommendations.
Washington. Addressing congress
and proposing remedies to check the
high cost OF living. President Wilson
declared that existing laws were made
qunte and that high prices were not
justified by shortage OF supplies, pres
ent or prospective. but were created In
many cases "artificlally and deliber-
ately" by vicious practices"
The president recommended that the
food control act be extended to
peace time operation and that congress
exclude from interstate as well as
intrastate shipments goods which did
not comply with It's provisions.
His address was as follows:
Gentlemen OF the Congress:
have sought this opportunity to ad-
dress you because II Is clearly my duty
TO 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 1t and bring
Ing 1t down.
The prices the people of this country are
paying for everything that II 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
artificially and deliberately created
by vicious practices which ought imme-
diitely to be checked by law.
They constitute burden upon us which
IL the more unbearable because we know
that II Is wilfully imposed by those who
have the power and that IL can by vigor-
Gus public action be greatly lightened and
made to square with the actual conditions
OF supply and demand.
Profiteers Lawbreakers.
Some of the methods by which these
prices are produced are already Illegal,
some OF 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.
need not recite the particulars of this
nriticnl matter: the prices demanded and
paid at the sources of supply. at the fac
tory. In the food markets, at the shops.
In the restaurants and hotels. alike in the
city and in the village.
They are familiar to you. They are the
talk Of every domestic circle and of every
group OF casual acquaintances even. 1t is
n matter of familiar knowledge also, that
process has set In which Is likely, unless
rents and the whole cost of living higher
and vet higher. in vicious cycle to which
there IL no logical or natural end.
With the Increase In the prices OF the
c-cases In wages-demands which are
Justified II there be other means of
erehling 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-
IND fta i,,.~ Ito, 80.
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 1t are likely
to strike. and the strike only makes mat
ters worse.
1t checks production II 1t affects the
railways 1t prevents distribution and
strips the markets; SO 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 famil
iarity with them or because of any hasty
natural and inevitable. In sitting mac
lively by and letting them work their IA
tai results II there is anything that We
can do to check. correct or reverse them
l have sought this opportunity to. in
form the congress what the executive Is
doing by way of remedy and control. and
to suggest where effective legal remedies
are lacking and may be supplied.
We must, ! think. frankly admit thai
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 fun and natural operation
until there is peace.
There is now neither peace nor war
An the world 1t waiting-with what un-
nervlng fears and haunting doubts who
can adequately say?-waiting to know
when 1t shall have peace and what kind
of peace II viii be when 1t comes-a peace
In which nation shall make shift fol
itself as 1t can, or peace buttressed and
supported by the will and concert OF
the nations that have the purpose and the
power to do and to enforce what Is right
Politically. economically, socially the
world Is on the operating table. and IL has
not been possible to administer any anaes-
thetic, 1t Is conscious. 1t even watches
the capital operation upon which 1t knows
that Its hopes of healthful life depends
IT cannot think its business out or make
plans or give intelligent and provident di-
rection to its affairs while In such case
Where there is no peace of mind there
can be no energy in endeavor
Must Know Terms of Peace.
There can be no confidence in indus
try. no calcuiable basis for credits, nc
d confident buying of systematic selling
no certain prospect of employment. nc
normal restoration of business. nc
- .ss
proper reassembling of the dislocate
elements OF enterprise until peace has
been established, and. so far as may be
guaranteed. Our national life has nc
doubt been less radically disturbed ant
dismembered than the national life oi
other peopler whom the war more di
rectly affected. with all Its terrible
,.a AZ. .xI..nx n MI dastrucfIata farce hut L