The sun., 1919-02-25
Take the Governments Hands on
All PTicesi

All Pricesi
When Secretary REDFIELD of the
Department of Commerce talks about
the need Of getting The law of supply
and demand back on the job" to end
Industrial etagnation he talks gospel.
When Secretary REDF1ELD talks about
getting the law Of supply and demand
back on the job by the fixing of n
Government fair price he talks rot.
The Secretary merely states hard
cold fact when he declares that mills
and factories are not buying basic
materials, merchants are not buying
finished products and labor Is not OBJ
tanning employment because prices are
too high for normal business. But he
!! goes off into the economic no mans
land when he proposes to find the
right prices-his fair prices
through cooperation of producers, la.
Dor and the Government" That pro-
posal ignores the consumers. 1t Is the
consumers who constitute the supreme
demand. Given an actual or potential
abundance Of supply, the one to strike
the bargain must be the consumer;
the dynamic force to drive the eco
nomic engine must be demand.
In this industrial stagnation which,
closing mills and factories by the
thousands, threatens to muster labor
in bread lines as long as the miles
from eeaboard to seaboard. the cop
per producers point the true way.
Stocked up with unstable copper at
the sudden close of the war, they cut
the price from &c cents to 90. THE
Sun warned them at the start that
the new price would be futile. They
were merely pairing the peel when
they needed to cut to the core. Then
some of them went down to 20 cents.
to IS cents, to II cents Producers
who were resolved to create mar
ket are credited with slashIng even
to Is cents--and selling copper.
/ With the copper men there has
price" whether through Government
aid or not. Their aim has been to
! reach a selling price, If they can
not make business that way there is
no way on earth they can make It,.
As n matter of fact, they are begin
ming to make II, not through Gov
eminent decree of a fair price, but
by allowing their product to go on
the market under the natural work
ing of the law of supply and demand.
The steel producers must do the same
thing. SO must the coal, the textile
and other producers.
The Government itself must do the
same thing with the wheat which It is
compelled by contract to take FROM
the farmers-all they raise and Of
fer-at $226. II it doesn't do 1t, II
can't sell 1t. With more wheat on
hand and in sight than this country
needs and than the world needs,
either the Government must put It Oh
the open market to sell. under the law
Of supply and demand, at the price
that consumers will pay for 1t, or the
Government must be stuck with hun
dreds Of millions Of bushels of its
overabundant wheat.
The way to find market, then, is
to reach for 1t from the point Of view
of the buyer. The producer. may
think a price Is fair, labor may In
dorse It as fair, the Government may
decree 1t fair, but II 1t doesn't suit
the buyer he will not pay it, fair
or unfair.
American labor wants to work.
American capital wants to operate.
American industry wants to produce.
American business wants to trade.
They all are waiting, they all must
wait, for one thing-an unshacklcd
market having free play under the
law of supply and demand. Let Them
have 1t; let the Government take its
hands Off all price fixing, and they
VII, nave it. Then the whrerSJi pro
duction will hum again, the marts of
the nation will resound with activity,
the sunshine Of prosperity will food
the land.