The Colorado statesman., 1919-08-16
President Addresses Congress on
/ Subject of High Cost
of Living.
LAWS ARE NOT ADEQUATE
Chief Executive Declares "Vlcious
Practices" Are Responsible for
Perilous Situation Which Faces
the Nation-Makes lmpor-
-! tant Recommendations.

Washington. Addressing congress
and proposing remedies to check the
high cost of living, President Wilson
declared that existing laws were made
quate and that high prices were not
justified by shortage of supplies, pres
ent or prospective, but were created in
many cases "artlficlally and deliber-
ately" by vicious practices"
The president recommended that the
food control act be extended to
peace time operation and that congress
exclude from interstate as well as
intrastate shipments goods which did
not comply with its provisions.
His address was as follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
have sought this opportunity to ad-
dress you because 1t 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 conrrJlling 1T and bring
Ing 1t down.
The prices the people of this country are
paying for everything that 1t is necessary
for them to use In order to live are not
Justified by shortage in supply, either
present or prospective, and are in many
cases artifcially and deliberately created
by Vicious practices which ought imme-
diately to be checked by law.
They constitute burden upon us which
Is the more unbearable because we know
that 1t Is wllfully imposed by those who
have the power and that it can by vigor-
Gus public action be greatly lightened and
made to square with the actual conditions
of supply and demand.
Profiteers 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 energeucally pro-
ceeded against But others have not yet
been brought under the law, and should
be dealt with at once by legislation.
| need not recite the particulars of this
critical matter; the prices demanded and
paid at the sources of supply, at the fac
tory in the food markets. at the shops.
In the restaurants and hotels, alike in the
city and In the village.
They are familiar to you. They are the
talk of every domestic circle and of every
group of casual acquaintances even. 1t Is
a matter of familiar knowledge also, that
process has set in which Is likely, unless
something is done. to push prices and
rents and the whole cost of living higher
and yet higher. in vicious cycle to which
there is no logical or natural end.
with the increase In the prices OF the
nccessaries of life come demands for in
creases In wages-demands which are
justified If there be no other means of
erahling men to live
Upon the increase of wages there fol-
lows close an increase in the price of the
products whose producers have been ac-
corded the increase-not proportionate
increase, for the manufacturer does not
content himself with that, but in
crease considerably greater than the
added wage cost and for which the added
wage cost is oftentimes hardly more than
an excuse.
The laborers who do not get an Increase
In pay when they demand 1t are likely
tolstrike, and the strike only makes mat
tets worse.
It checks production; If 1t affects the
railways 1t 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.