The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-24
Vulcan Vents Vfews on
History of Profteeri11g
Ancient God of Fiery Element Delves Into Past Show
ing Futility of Price Regulation Putarch
and Roman History Cited
BY EUGENE TRAVIS


f, test against them The prophets joined
IN the drive against these intermediary
profiteers anr hurled dart after dart at
them
What gets my goat is that you bull
Singing gasaboes think you were spring
ing new deal through government price
| fixing"
Old vuican's tones were hoarsely con-
/ temptuous.
PRICE-FIXING IN ROME
| Emperor Julian was the first guy who
ever proclaimed government price fix
ing" he resumed. "Wnen the luxurious
| citizens of Antioch complained of the
| high price of poultry and fish. Julian
publicly declared that frugal city ought
| to be satisfied with regular supply of
wine oil and bread. but he acknowledge
that it was the duty of a sovereign to
proYide for the sustenance of his people.
with this salutary view the Emperor
ventured on very dangerous and doubt
| full step, that of fixing by legal author
| ity the value of corn. HI enacted that
| in time of scarcity it should be sold
at price which had seldom been known
in the most plentiful years. That his own
example might strengthen his laws, the
| Emp. sent into the market $4,000 modii
or measures, which were drawn by his
order from the graneries of Hierapolts,
| of Chaleis andNsven of Egypt. The con-
sequences might have been foreseen and
were soon felt.
Same old system of your American
profiteers. The imperial wheat was pur-
chased by the rich merchants. The pro-
prietors of land or corn withheld from
the city the accustomed supply and the
small quantities that appeared in the
market were secretly sold at an adj
vanced and Illegal price. Julian stin
| continued to applaud his own policy,
/ treated the complaints of the people as
a vain and ungrateful murmur, and con
WINGED Antioch that he had inherited the
obstinacy, though not the cruelty, of
his brother, Gailus.
ONLY EXASPERATED HIM
THE remonstrances of the municipal
senate served only to- exasperate his in
| flexible mind He was persuaded, per-
haps with truth, that the senator's of
Antioch, who possessed lands, or were
cocerned in trade, had themselves con-
tributed to the calamities of their coun-
try And he imputed the disrespectful
boldness which they assumed to the
sense, not of public duty but of private
! interest The whole body, consisting of
| 200 of the most noble and wealthy ctl-
zens, were sent under a guard from the
! palace to the prison.
p, Cant you cheap skates see where the
! Roman Emperor tried the expedient of
!
the market How the imperial wheat
was bought by the rich merchants, and
how they sold secretly at an advanced
! illegal price Huh The Roman mer-
chants of those DAYS would make the
worst profiteer in Birmingham look like
| a piker."
| Pshaw! With all his mythical history,
| Old Man Vulcan apparently had Solomon
] beaten as consistently in the wiles OF
the world as the Birmingham physician
/ who held four aces four consecutive times
over a Montgomery lawyer.
Now. wretches, permit me to implant
this in your DOME Vulcan started out
| fresh LET me quote from Kings II:
QUOTES FROM BIBLE
"'And there was a great famine in
Samaritan ass head was sold for four
score pieces of silver, and the fourth
part of a cab about a pinD of dove S
dung for five pieces of silver.
Then Elisha said, Hear We the word
of the Lord. Thus said the Lord Tomor-
row about this time shall measure of
fine flour be sold for a shekel and two
gate of Samara.
! This certainly was a corker.
! "Follow me, you hgh-colored Birming-
ham chicken-chasers,' Vulcan continued
"Artaxerxes Mnemon had already tried
price fixing long before. Plutarch tells
| us that it resulted IN nOdrullS anu Tia.
during the reign of Mnemon, an ass
head fetched 60 pieces of silver
at was also tried in Sparta and fell
! actment But in the British Isles it was
urged as a remedy in the sixteenth CEN
fury. The price of wheat against which
the populace had risen had become
standardized The price of labor had
gone up somewhat to meet, half way,
the new price. But the accumulated
riches augmented dangerously They set
/ a higher standard of living to the sons
and daughters of merchants-a- standard
which could only be met by further IN
crease in profits, when coulc on.y "e
obtained either by lowering the price OF
labor or by raising the cost of the neces-
saries of life,
"There is a long edict of Diocletian
which goes into minute detail as to what
is a fair price, what is proflteering, what
is boarding and the punishments to pc
melted out to the guilty.
"Avaunt. now. you shrimps; it's me for
another snooze
And old Vulcan closed his trap.