Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-08-21
SAY PROF|TEERS
ARE CRIMINALS
President Wilson Gives GOugers
Their Right Name Says SpiIIane
BY RICHARD sPnLIANE.

IL IL
Because one man of authority and
commanding ability has spoken the
high cost of living question has as
sumed a new phase. From being one
of terror and seemingly beyond solu-
ton it at once has become possible of
partial solution or, at least, correc-
tion.
The costs of living will come down
Immediately. Meat, fish, vegetables,
grains and fruits will be somewhat
cheaper. So will clothes, hats, shoes
and various other things. Wholesale
prices will drop but the retail price
viii drop more, proportionately.
Whether the decline will be main
tanned depends largely upon the pub
lie.
There cannot be a pronounced re-
duction, one that will bring prices
anywhere near the pre-war level, for
the scale has been lifted by the war,
but much of the overcharge which
We term ~profiteering can and will be
eliminated and when that is done con-
d1tions will not be so oppressive.
Rarely has there been a more i'm
pressive Illustration of the need and
worth of leadership than President
wilson a given. For months the
cry has been going up throughout the
land against the ever rising cost of
everything. Writers, newspapers,
ACS lolhLOAos 6JlutA nave 6tNGu
voice to protest. Labor has demanded
wage increase upon increase. Evil
dence of wrong and injustice has been
forthcoming from every side. Pro-
Queer has been blamed by manufac-
turer n manufacturer by producer
for demanding or exacting unwar-
ranted profit. Both have accused
middleman and retailer and they
either have accused the other or justi-
fed themselves by the fact that
Everybody was doing it."
Never was there a more sudden and
absolute prostration of common and
business honesty. These are strong
words but they are true for there has
been a riot of wrong-such as the
nation never will see again. It look
ed as If there was to be no n to it
and that it would bring disorder such
as Europe has witnessed for while
many cried out few were heard.
And now, suddenly, because the
president has spoken, the aspect
changes. He brands profiteering as a
crime against humanity. He saws if
we have not the laws we must make
them to punish the criminals. He
promises to use the whole power with
which he is invested to root out the
evil which has assumed such alarming
proportions.
Before the president spoke every
profiteer, big or little, felt that he had
q right to get as much out of what
he had to sell as he could because
everyone else was doing likewise and,
II he didn't do it, others would do it.
The great body of h people felt it
was helpless because it had no method
by which it could reach all the rami-
fed branches of the vast oppressive
body.
But now, in an instant, the profteer
IN aUaru form and of auaru lind
lie from being helpless and almost
hopeless now feels it's power.
One touch of leadership has made
tremendous force.
1t is questionable whether President
Wilson was correct in saying-or
rather, his legal advisers were correct
in saying-there are no avs cover
ing profiteering. Our laws embrace
the bulk of the, old law Of England.
The law of England prescribes Fore-
stal1ing as a crime punishable by
death. To Corner foodstuffs orl
merchandise necessary to the well bel
Ing of mankind, to hold them for in
ordinate profit; to keep them from the
market In order to exact unjust toll
from the public; to make the public
suffer through monopolizing the nec-
essities of life is forestalling. On the
Indictment drawn by President wilson,
IN his speech in Congress it would ap-
pear there haze been forestalling with
the food supplies of this country. 1t
Is not likely the old English law will
be resurrected even If it still is in the
statutes for it has not been invoked
in centuries but 1t would not be