The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1919-08-26
||AGE FIXES FAIR
PROFITS FOR THE
n. c. RETAILERS
Machinery is Set in Motion For
Campaigning Against
Profiteering.
Is AND rs ON FOODSTUFFS;
33 1-3 ON FURNISHINGS
Fair Price Committee of Eight
Will Be Appointed in
Each County.

the retailer Of other foodstuffs and
thirty-three and a third to the retail
er of clothing, shoes and furnishings,
added to cost. is the profit that Food
Administrator Henry Page will hold
is legitimate If the senate passes the
amendment to the Lever food control
bill this week. And where these three
margins are not observed, Mr.. Page
will recommend action against deal
ers by the district attorney on
charges of profiteering.
All the machinery of the attorney
generals department, including the
bureau of investigation Of the depart
ment of justice, has been set in mo-
ton for the nationwide campaign
which is "off" when the senate passes
the amendment. This, it is believed,
will be done early this week.
Mr.. Page, drafted back into service
at the instance of Attorney General
Palmer, has called upon all county
food administrators to appoint fair
price committees in every county
When these committees are appoint
ed they will inform retailers and
wholesalers alike of the profit Mr.
Page has concluded is sufficient and
where the margin is not observed, &C
ton by the Department Of Justice will
be ordered. Where the investigation
discloses profteering, trial in United
States court will follow on the crimi
nal charge.
In Terms Of the Jury.
For the time, Mr.. Page has once
more surrendered private business to
administer the food law In North
Carolina. He is not, as he was during
the war, the final arbiter in food mat
tiers but instead is talking in terms of
uries, fines and imprisonment. He is
convinced that there has been an
enormous amount of profiteering 60
ing on in North Carolina and that tho
way to stop 1t is to hang out few
hides" He believes that any jury
in the State will regard his fixed
margins of profit fair and reasonable
and when it Is shown that retailers,
cess, a Jury will quickly convict on
the criminal count, Conviction puts
the disposition Of the case squarely
up. to Judge Henry Groves Conner
and he is empowered, by the provi-
sions of the bill pending before the
Senate, to impose fine UP to $4,000
or jail sentence not 10 exceed two
years, sssaaa n s
The agents or the Department OF
Justice have already been gathering
data. Since the President addressed
Congress on the high cost Of living,
hundreds Of retailers and wholesalers
in North Carolina have been investi-
gated and the District Attorneys Of
flee is filled with an enormous amount
of data furnished by the merchants.
boarding Is Another Matter.
Hoarding of food, which, according
TO reports, has been uncovered in sew
eral sections of the state, Is distinctly
separate matter from profiteering
and will be prosecuted wherever
found. Sugar and cheese seem to be
the favored commodities held for a
short market and information now in
the hands of the district attorneys, 1t
Is said, shows where cheese in great
quantities has been bought and placed
in cold storage with storage charges
paid until January /, 1920. Sugar, in
lots of $4,000 bpounds and greater,
has been uncovered in the state by
federal agents.
Charges likely to grow out of these
and similar cases will, according to the
officials, be presented to the respective
Federal grand juries.
The appointment of the fair price
committee in each county will be made
by the County Food Administrator,
who has been notified by Mr.. Page to
Immediately organize the committee
and hold a meeting. With the request
40 htr Nv Do Of he q
ministrators, he has sent copy of
the telegram from Attorney General
Palmer and suggestions of the profit
margains he has decided upon as fair.
Personnel of the Committee.
The personnel of the fair price COM
mittee, as suggested by Mr.. Palmer,
will consist of one retailer Of grocers,
one retailer of dry goods, one repre-
sentative Of the producers, one repre-
Of organized labor, one rep
of the housewives, two
representatives of the purchasing pub
lie and one representative of the
wholesale grocers, making eight in all.
The members of the committee, says
Mr.. Page, should be the most infiuen-
tial and patriotic In the county.
II believe that most dealers" he
writes the county administrators,
will be found amenable to reason
and that there will be small need for
invoking action by the U. S. Depart
ment of Justice. However, it is de-
sired that this committee shall secure
data, covering cost to dealer, selling
price and other pertinent evidence
covering exaction Of excessive profits,
for consideration of the U. S. Depart
ment of Justice, in any and all cases
where the committee itself is unable
to correct the cvil.'
Suggestions to the Committee.
Mr. Page also makes the following
suggestions to the committee:
1.-THE county fair price committee is
a legal body, appointed through the
machinery of the Food Administra-
tion, and acting under the direction
of the Attorney General of the Unit
ed States for the Department Of JUS
tice.
1T is intended to procure informa-
ton of profiteering, boarding, ETC., of
food and clothing and to correct same
by admonition and reproof as far as
possible, and to report dealers who
will not act in harmony with them to
the Department of Justice, through
the Federal Food Administrator for
North Carolina. II an involved and
intricate situation presents itself
which deserves and demands outside
help, by reason Of its importance. up
bn request a secret service agent will
be sent to make the investigation.
Lit is believed that many retailers
food, clothing and shoes are exact
excessive and unreasonable mar
of profit, and that close inves-