Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1919-08-15
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-
eeutivs Makes Assertion That We
"Are Dealing With Very criti-
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 and high prices were not justi-
fed by shortage of supplies, present
or prospective, but were created in
many cases "artlfcially and deliber-
ately" BY vicious practices"
He spoke practically 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 II and bring
ing Il 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 a shortage In supply, either
present or prospective. and are In many
cases artihcially and deliberately created
BY vicious practices which ought imme-
diately to be checked BY law.
Profteers 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 enerEetically 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 10 the prices OF the
necessaries OF life come demands for in
creases In wages-demands which are
justified n there be no other means OF
enabling men 70 live.
Upon the increase OF wages there fol-
lows close an Increase I'm the price Of the
products whose producers have been ac-
corded the increase-not a proportlonate
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
vase cost In oftentimes hardly more than
an excuse
The laborers who do not get an increase
in pay when they demand Il are likely
70 strike. and the strike only makes mat
tern worse.
II checks production; II II Affects the
railways It 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 our famil-
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 II there is anything that we
can do to check. correct or reverse them.
We must. / think. frankly admit that
there Is no complete immediate remedy
20 be had from legislation and executive
action. The free processes Of supply and
demand win not operate OF themselves.
Nd NJ, Inrrln Iafl
force them into fun and natural operation
until there Is peace.
Must Know Terms Of Peace.
There can be no confidence in indus
try. no calcuiable basis for credits. no
confident buying of systematic selling.
no certain prospect OF employment. no
normal restoration OF business no
hopeful attempt at recohstruction or a
proper reassembiing of the dislocated
elements OF enterprise until peace has
been established. and. so far as may be,
guaranteed. Our national life has no
doubt been less radically disturbed and
dismembered than the national life OF
other peoples whom the war more al
ructiy affected. with all its terrible
ravaging and destructive force. but II
has been nevertheless profoundly af-
fected and disarranged. and our indus
tries. our credits our productive ca
extricably interviewer with those oi
other nations and peoples--most inti-
mately OF all with the nations and peo-
Piles upon whom the chief burden and
confusion Of the war fell and who
are now most dependent upon the co.
operative action Of the world.
Exports Greatest In History.
We are Just now shipping more good
out Of our ports to foreign markets thai
we ever shipped before-not foodstuff
merely, but stuffs and materials of ever.
sort: but this is no index Of what ou
foreign sales will continue to be or o
the effect the volume Of our export
viii have on supplies and prices. II
impossible yet to pyedict how far o
how long foreign purchasers will b
able to find the money or the credit I
pay for or sustain such purchases o
such a scale: how soon or to what exten
foreign manufacturers can resume thel
former production, foreign farmers &c
their accustomed crops from their ow
fields: foreign mines resume their forme
output. foreign merchants set up agai
their old machinery Of trade with III
ends OF the earth. All these things mu,
remain uncertain until peace is estal
lished and the nations Of the world hav
concerted the methods by which normi
life and industry are 10 be restored.
All that we shall do In the near
time to restrain profiteerlng and pt
the life OF our people upon tolerabl
footing will be makeshift and prov
sionaL There can be no settled cond
tion here or elsewhere until the treat
OF peace is out OF the way and II
work OF liquidating the war has b'
come the chief concern of our govern
ment and OF the other governments
the world.
Europe will not. cannot recoup n