The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-08-09
President Wilson Calls Atten-
ton to Unreasonable Prices
Of All Neces-
stiles.
ARE VICIOUS PRACTICES
Calls Upon Congress to Take Steps
Which viii Put an End to
Soaring Figures
Soon.

President Wilson's address to con
gress yesterday on the high cost OF
living, considered in some quarters as
his most important speech, contains
some interesting matter for considera
ton His message is full was as fol-
lows:
Gentlemen Of the congress: have
sought this opportunity to address
YOU because it 10 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 meas.
ures which would be most effective
in controlling it and bringing it
down. The prices the people Of this
country are paying for everything
that It is necessary for them 20 use
4 shortage in supply, either present
or prospective, and In many cases
artficiaIIy and deliberately created
by vicious practices which ought i'm
mediateiy to be checked by law.
They constitute burden upon us
which is the more unbearabIe because
we know that it is wiIfulIy imposed
by those who have the power nd
that it can by vigorous public action
be greatly Iightened and made to
square with the actual conditions OF
supply and demand. Some of tho
methods by which these prices are
produced are already illegal, some OF
them criminal, and those who EN-.
ploy them will be energeticaIiy 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 de-
nanded and paid at the sources Of
supply, at the factory, in the food
markets, at the shops, in the restau-
rants and hotels, alike in the city
and In the village. They are familiar
to you. They are the talk Of every
home circle and OF every group Of
casual acquaintances even. It is
matter OF familiar knowledge, also,
that process has set in which is
likely, unleos 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 neces-
saries OF life come demands for in
creases in waoes-demands which
are justified II there be no other
means Of enabling men to live. Upon
the increase Of wages there follows
close an increase In the price of the
products whose producers have
been accorded the increase
not proportlonate increase, for the
manufacturer does not content him
self with that, but an Increase con-
wage cost, and for which the added
wage cost ID oftentImes hardly more
tnan an excuse. Tho iaborers who
90 not get an Increase In pay when
they demand It are likely to strike,
and the strike only makes matters
worse. It checks production; If It
affects the railways, It prevents dis
tr'oution and strips the markets, so
that there IL presently nothing to
buy, and there Is another excessive
ADDITION to prices resulting from the
scarcity.
Familiar With Facts.
These are facts and forces with
which we have become only too fami-
har; but We are not justified because
OF our familiarity with them or be-
cause OF any hasty and shallow con-
ciusion that they are natural and In
evltable in sitting inactively by and
ietung them work their fatal results
II there is anything that we can do
10 check, correct, or reverse them.
! nave sought this opportunity to In
iofm congress what the executive is
doing by way Of remedy and control,
ana to suggest where effective legal
remedies are lacking and may be
supplied.
We must. think, frankly admit
lnat there is no complete immediate
remedy to be had from legislation and
executive action. The free processes
y. supply and demand will not operate
themselves and no legislative or
eAecutlve action can force them into
iuil and natural operation until there
Is peace.
There Is now neither peace nor
war All the world 1t waiting-with
Nhat unnerving fears and haunting
,aouots who can adequately say?-wait- !
Jug 10 know when 1t shall have peace
uha what kind of peace it will be when
:. -, comes-a peace in which each ma
.'on shall make shift fer itself as it
.an, or a peace buttressed and sup
porled by the will and concert OF the
nallons that have the purpose and the
right
!, politically, economically, socially I
.ae world is on the operating table
s., s,d 1t has not been possible to admin
:, ,.'er any anaesthetic. 1t is conscious. !
even watches the capital operation ]