River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1919-08-14
WILSON GIVES
HICn-COST CURE
President, In Message to Con-
greSS, Asks Strict Penalty
For All Profiteering.
WOULD CONTROL FOOD
Extension of War Act as Permanent
Law, Regulation of Cold Storage,
Federal Licensing and Limit
ing of Profits Asked.

ing OF FFoHLS ASkeos
Washington, Aug. 9.-President Will
son has proposed to congress the fol-
lowing definite program of legislation
to cope with the high cost of living:
Extension Of the Lever food con-
troll act to peacetime and broadening
of its authorizing provisions to cover
foodstuffs, fuel, clothing and other in
disputable necessaries of life.
Enactment Of law regulating cold
storage.
Federal licensing of all corporations
engaged in Interstate commerce with
specific regulations to prevent "un-
considerable profits"
Passage of the bill now pending for
control of security issues.
Provision Of adequate funds for gov
eminent agencies to enable them to
give full publicity to costs and selling
profits.
Definite provision for a penalty for
profiteering.
Provision for marking on the pack
age the price paid to the producer of
all goods to be shipped in interstate
commerce.
The Message.
The President said:
l have sought this opportunity to adj
dress 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 force of which
l am capable, the legislative measures
which would be most effective in con-
trolling it and bringing it down.
The prices the people of this country
are paying for everything that it 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 artificially and
deliberately created by vicious prac-
tees which ought Immediately to be
checked by law.
They constitute a burden upon us
which is the more unbearable because
we know that it is wilfully imposed
by those who have the power and that
1t can by vigorous action be greatly
Ightened and made to square with the
actual conditions of supply and de-
mand.
Some Of the methods by which these
prices are produced are already illegal,
some of them criminal and those who
employ them will be energetically pro-
ceeded against, but others have not
yet been brought under the law and
should be dealt with at once by legis-
lation.
All vitality Interested.
| need not recite the particulars of
this critical matter, the prices demand
ed and paid at the sources of supply,
at the factory, in the food markets, at
the shops, in the restaurants and
hotels, alike in the city and in the vii
lage. They are familiar to you. They
are the talk of every home circle and
OF every group of casual acquaintances
even.
1t is a matter of familiar knowl-
edge also that a 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 necessar-
les OF life come demands for increases
In wages-demands which are justified
Ii there be no other means of enabling
men to live./
The laborers who do not get an in
crease in pay when they demand it
are likely to strike and the strike only
makes matters worse. 1t checks pro-
duction; if it affects the railways it
prevents distribution and strips the
markets, so that there is presently
nothing to buy and there is another
excessive addition to prices resulting
from the scarcity.
We must, l think, frankly admit
there is no complete immediate RENE
dy to be had from legislation and exec
utive action. The free processes of
supply and demand will not operate of
themselves and no legislative or exec
utive action can force them into full
and natural operation until there is
peace
Other Nations Look to U. S.
Our national life has no doubt been
less radically disturbed and dismem-
bered than the national life of other
peoples whom the war more directly
affected, with all its terrible ravaging
and destructive force, but it has been,
nevertheless, profoundly affected and
disarranged, and our industries, our
credits, our productive capacity. our
economic processes, are inextricably
~NN~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~>Noo>o@o~~
Colombian Treaty Again Held Up.
Washington, Aug. "a presidential
decree issued by the Colombian gov.