Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1919-08-14
WILSON SPEAKS ON
HIGH COST OF. LIVING
EPlToME OF REASONS FOR THE
PRESENT ExoRslTANT PRICE
OF NECESSITIES OF LIFE.
ONE REMEDY IS RATIFICATION
Energetic Enforcement of the Law Is
Recommended to Force Out Hiding
Vast Stores of All Kinds.

Vast Stores of All. Kinds.
hington.-President Wilson laid
several specific proposals before Con-
gress for checking the high cost of
living, but at the same time declared
permanent results could not be ex-
pected until peace time bases were
fully restored by ratification OF the
peace treaty.
High prices, the President told Con-
gress, were not justified by shortage
of supply, either present of prospec-
tive. hut were created in many cases
'artifc.ally and deliberately" by wi
cious practices" Retailers, he said,
were responsible in large part for ex-
tortionate prices.
Strikes, the President warned the
labor world, would only make matters
worse and those who sought to en-
ploy threats or coercion were only
preparing their own destruction"
Leaders of organized labor, the Presi-
dent said. he was sure would present
ly yield to second sober thought.
illegal" and criminal" were the
words the President used in ciarac-
terizing the methods by which some
present day prices have been brought
about.
Present laws, he said, would be en-
erget!caliy employed to the limit to
ffppo Nut food hCo ,,1c nd N
situation SC far as possible, but to sup
plemont the existing statutes he spe-
officially urged the following:
Specific Recommendations
Licensing Of all corporations en-
gagged in interstate commerce, with
| specific regulations designed to Sc
cure competitive selling and prevent
"unconscionable profits" in the meth.
| cd of marketing.
Extension of the food control net to
| peace times and the application of it's
provisions against boarding TO fuel,
clothing and other necessities of life
as we'll as food.
A penalty in the food control act for
! profteering.
A law regulating cold storage, lin
iting the tine during which goods
may be held, prescribing a method of
dsposing of them if held beyond the
permitted period and requiring that
when released goods bear the date
| of storage.
| Laws requiring that goods released
! from storage for interstate commerce
bear the selling prices at which they
went into storage and requiring that
all goods destined for interstate COM
MERGE bear the prices at which they
left the hands Of the producer.
Enactment of the pending bill for
the control of security issues.
| Additional appropriations for gov
eminent agencies which can supply
the public with full information as to
prices at which retailers buy.
Early ratification of the peace treaty
so that the free processes of supply
and demand" can operate.
Immediate Steps Promised.
Immediate steps by executive agen
cies of the government promised by
the President included:
The limiting and controlling Of
wheat shipments and credits TO facili-
tate the purchase of wheat in such a
way as not to raise, but rather to
lower the price of flour at home.
Sale of surplus stocks of food and
clothing in the hands of the govern
ment.
The forced withdrawal from storage
and sale of surplus stocks in private
hands.
General Recommendations.
General recommendations included:
Increase Of production.
Careful buying by housewives.
Fail dealing with the people on the
part of producers, middlemen and
merchants.
That there be no threats and undue
insistence upon the interests of sin
gle class.
Correction of many things" in theI
relation between capital and labor in|
respect to wages and conditions Of la
bor
In concluding the President made al
plea for deliberate, intelligent action,
reminding Congress that an unbal-
anced world was looking to the United
States.
1--WE and we almost alone" he said,
NOV hold the world steady. Upon
our steadfastness and self possession
depend the affairs Of nations every
where. 1t is in this supreme crisis
this crisis for all mankind that Amer
lea must prove her metal"