The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-08

Further. the president recommended
a federal licensing system for corpor-
adons engaged in interstate COM
merce which would embody regula-
tions to insure competitive selling
and present unconscionable profits in
the methods Of marketing" He also
urged prompt passage of the law
pending to control securities issues.
Making an appeal for the ratifica
ton of the peace treaty to turn the
country from a war basis, the pres
ident said:
There can be no peace prices so
long as our whole financial and eco
nomic system is on war basis"
"a process has set in the pres
ident told congress, which is likely
unless something Is done, to push
prices and rents and the whole cost of
living higher and yet higher in a
vicious circle to which there is no
logical or natural end.
Some of the methods by which
these prices are produced are already
illegal, some Of them criminal, and
those who employ them will be ener-
eetically proceeded against but others
have not yet been brought under the
law and should be dealt with at once
by legislation.
Demands for increases of wages. ac-
companying the rising costs Of living.
the president said, wera justified. "if
there be no other means of enablin g
men to live"
Surplus stocks of food and clothing
in the hands of the government, the
president said, would be sold. and
boards Of food in private hands would
be forced out under the existing pro-
vision Of the food control law.
The normal operation of the laws Of
supply and demand, the president said.
had been set at naught in the cases of
many necessary commodities. He
cited the figures of the federal trade
commissions, showing rising prices in
the face Of greater stocks of food than
we're on hand in the country a year
ago.
Besides asking for the remedies he
proposed. the president called on con-
gress and the public to deal with the
subject deliberately. He appealed to
the merchants and others to deal
fairly with the people and to house
wives to exercise "a greater vigilance.
more thoughtful economy"
Leaders of organized labor, the
president said he was sure, will pres
emily yield to a second sober thought
and like the great mass Of their asso-
ciates, think and act like Americans" "
Strikes No Remedy
Strikes, undertaken at this time.
the president said. would only make
matters worse. and he expressed his
confidence, that the labor men would
realize it.
mo remedy Is possible while men
are in temper" said the president,
"and there can be no settlement which
does not have, as it's motive and stan
dard, the general interest"
| The president warned congress,
| however, that no complete and imme-
diate remedy was to be found in leg.
| islation or immediate action. Process
es of supply and demand would not
operate of themselves while the coun-
| try was neither at peace nor at war
Where there is no peace of mind
| there can be no energy Of endeavor..
said he. POLITICALLY, socially, econom
ically. the world is on the operating
table, and it has not been possible to
administer any anesthetic.
| There can be no confidence in in.
dustry, no calculable basis for credit
no confident buying or systematic sell
ling, no certain prospects of employ
ments, no normal restoration Of bust.
ness, no hopeful attempt at recon
struction or the proper reassembling
of the dislocated elements of enter
prise until peace has been esta blished
and so far as may be, guaranteed"
Speaking Of retail prices the pres.
dent said:
There can be no little doubt that
retailers are in part, sometimes in
large part, responsible for exorbitant
prices"
1t was practical, the president said
to supply the public through estab
lished governmental agencies and
through publicity with information on
which it might judge what the profits
should be- Congress should provide
necessary funds for these agencies
the president said.
The world, of course, the president
reminded congress, must pay for the
vast wastage OF the war, and take the
results of food fields turned to battle
grounds. At the same time 1t mus'
help Europe back to its normal state
I'VE and almost we alone, hold the
world steady" said the president. Il,