The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-09

WaSnluelOns aug y. - GACS4uenN
Wilson's address to congress Friday
embodying recommendations designed
to reduce the cost OF living follows:
Gentlemen Of the congress-: have
sought this opportunity to address you
because it Is clearly my duty to call your
attention to the present cost OF living and
to urge upon you with all the persuasive
measures which would be the most ef-
fective in controlling II and bringing 1t
down. The prices the people Of this coun-
try are paying for everything that Is nee
essary for them to use In order to live
are not Justified by shortage In supply,
either present or ,pr1specSve ana are IN
created by vicious practices which ought
Immediately to be checked by law. They
constitute a burden upon us which Is more
unbearable because we know that it is will
fully imposed by those who have the power
and thar IL can by vigorous public action
be greatly lightened and made to square
with the actual conditions Of supply and
demand.
Some of the methods by which these
prices are produced are already Illegal.
some of them criminal, and those who em-
pIoy them will be theoretically proceeded
brought under the law. and should be
dealt with Mt once by legislation.
See Even Worse Condition.
need not reci,e the particulars of
this critical matter; the prices demanded
and paid at the sources Of supply, at the
factory. u
In the restaurants and hotels. alike In
the city and in the village They are IA
miiiar TO you. They are the talk OF every
domestic circle and of every group OF
casual ncquaintances even. 1t is a matter
Of familiar knowledge, also, that process
has set In which 10 likely. unless some
and the whole cost Of living higher and
vet higher, in n vicious cycle to which
there Is no 1gs% 0 or ~ tbe ene
Of life comes demands for increases In
wngcs--demands which are Justified II
there be no other means of enabling men
TO live Upon the increases of wages
there follows close an increase In the price
Of the products whose producers have been
accorded the increase-not a prOportionate
Increase. for the manufacturer does not
content himself with that. but an increase
cost and for which the added wage cost is
often-times hardly more than an excuse
The laborers who do not get an in
crease in pay when they demand 1t are
likely to strike, and the strike only makes
matters worse; 1t checks production. IL
affects the railway' 1t prevents dist TLoo
is presently nothing to buy. and there is
another excessive addition to prices result
ing from the scarcity.
Peace Must Come First.
These are facts and forces with which
we have become only too familiar, but
we are not Justified because Of our ia
mlliarity with them or because of any
hasty and shallow conclusion that they are
natural and inevitable in sitting in
actively by and letting them work their
fatal results II there Is anything that we
can do to check correct or reverse them.
have sought this opportunity to inform
the Congress what the executive is doing
gest where effective legal remedies are
lacking and may be supplied.
We must, 1 think, frankly admit that
there IL no complete immediate remedy to
be had from legislation and executive
action. The free processes of supply and
demand will not operate of themselves and
them into full and natural operation until
there Is peace There Is now neither peace
nor
World On Operating Table.
All the world is waiting-with what I'M
nerving fears and haunting doubts who can
adequately say-waiting to know when 1t
cOmes-a peace in which each nation shall
bnttressed and supported by the will and
concert Of the nations that have the purpose
and the power to do and to enforce what
Is right. Politically, economically. socially,
the world is on the operating table. and 1t
has not been possible to administer any
anesthetic. 1t is conscious 1t even watches
the capital operation upon which it knows
that Its hope and healthful life depends. 1t
cannot think its business out or make plans
or give Intelligent and pTovldent direction
to It's affairs while in such n case.
Where there Is no peace of mind there
can be no energy In endenvOring. There can
he no confidence in industry, no ealculable
basis for credits, no confident buying or
systematic selling. certain prospect of
employment, or normal restoration OF buai-
ness. no hopeful attempt Mt reconstruction
or the proper reassembIinE Of the dislOcated
elements of enterprise until peace hns been
established and, so far ms may be, guaran-
Not Merely National Problem.
Our national life has no doubt been less
radically disturbed and dismembered than
the national life Of other peoples whom the
war more directly affected. with its terrible
ravaging and destructive force. but II has
been, nevertheless, profoundly affected and
disarranged. and our industries. our credits,
our productive capacity, orr economic pro-
! cesses are inextricably interviewer with
intimately Of all with the nations and
peoples upon whom the chief burden and
confusion Of the war fell and who are now
most dependent upon the cooperative ac-
! ton Of the world.
! We are just now shipping more goods
out OF our ports to foreign markets than
merely, but stuffs and materials of every
sort; but this Is no index of what our
foreign sales VIII continue to be or Of the
/ effect the volume Of our exports will have
/ on supplies and prices. 1t is impossible
yet to predict how far or how long foreign
purchasers viii be able to find the money
! or the credit to pay for or sustain such
/ purchases on such scale: how soon or TO
sumo their former production, foreign
! farmers get their accustomed crops from
their own fields; foreign mines resume
| their former output, foreign merchants set
up again their old machinery Of trade
! with the ends Of the earth.
Speculation Until Peace Comes.
| All these things must remain uncertain
until peace is established and the nations
| OF the world have concerted the methods
by which normal life aud industry are ia
| be restored. AL that we shall do, in the
meantime, to restrain profiteering and put
the life of our people upon tolernble foot.
/ ing will be make-shift and provisional
There can be no. settled conditions here
or elsewhere until the treaty of peaee IL out
Of the way and the work OF IlquidattnR the
| war has become the chief concern of ouI
! government and Of the other government
of the world. Until then business will