Carroll County democrat. (Huntingdon, Tenn.) 188?-1971, 1919-08-22
President Addresses Congress on
Subject Of High Cost
Of Living.
LAWS ARE NOT ADEQUATE
Chief Executive Declares "Vlelous
Practices" Are Responsible ier
PeriIous Situation Which Faces
the Naton-Makes Impor-
fant Recommendations.

OlBn cost Oh IlNlHS, AAVoluShb WAt7
declared that existing laws were made
quate and that high prices were not
justified by shortage Of supplies pres
emit or prospective, but were created in
many cases "artlfcially and deliber-
atelyn 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
Interstate shipments goods which did
not comply with its provisions.
His address was as follows;
aentlemen of the Congress:
I 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 controlling 1t and bring
ing 1t down.
The prices the people of this country are
having for everything that it is necessary
for them to use in order to live are not
1nSIlNGQ d
present or prospective, and are In many
cases artihcially and deliberately created
bv vicious practices which ought imme-
diately to be checked by law.
s!si1s5,- car.stitnta burden upon US winch
ia the more unbearable because we know
that 1t is wilfully imposed by those VINO
have the power and that 1t can by Visor-
Gus public action be greatly hghtened ana
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 VINO
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 legislation.
| need not recite the particulars OF this
critical matter; the prices demanded and
paid at the sources of supply, at the iac-
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 acquaintance even. IL Is
a matter of familiar knowledge also, that
a process has set in which Is likely, unless
something is done, to push prices ana
rents and the whole cost of living higher
and vet higher, in vicious cycle to which
theru is no logical or natural end.
with the increase in the prices OF the
necessaries of life come demands tor IN
creases in wages-demands which are
justified If there be no other means OF
enabling men to live.
ITpon 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 proportional
increase, for the manufacturer does mo-
content himself with that, but an in
crease considerably greater than the
added wage cost and for which the added
wage cost is oftentimes hardly more thar
an excuse.
The laborers who do not get an Increase
in pay when they demand It are hke!
to strike, and the strike only makes mat
ters worse.
It checks production; If it affects thu
railways it prevents distribution ant
strips the markets; so that there is pres
emily nothing to buy, and there is anothe
excessive addition to prices resulting iron
the scarcity.
Conditions Not Natural"
These are facts and forces with whic
we have become only too famillari pu
we are not justified because Of our Iamii
liaritv with them or because Of any hast
and shallow conclusion that they ar
"naturar' and inevitable, in sitting mac
lively by and letting them work their Ia
tai results If there is anything that
can do to check, correct or reverse theIl
have sought this opportunity to IN
form the congress what the executive
doing by way Of remedy and control, an
to suggest where effective legal Temedie
are lacking and may be supplied.
we must, | think, frankly admit tina
there is no complete immediate remed
10 be had from legislation and executiv
action. The free processes Of supply an
demand will not operate of themselves
and no legislative or executive action ca
force them into full and natural operauo
until there is peace
''There is now neither peace nor wa
All the world it waiting-with what vi
nerying fears and haunting doubts WI
can adequately say?-waiting TO kno
when it shall have peace and what KIN
of peace it will be when it comes-a peat
In which a nation shall make shift Il
itself as it can, or peace buttressed an
supported by the will and concert
the nations that nave lle purpUsc dHu VI
mower to do and to enforce what is righ
Politically, economically, socially, Il
world is on the operating table, and it hs
not been possible to administer any amaze
thetic. 1t is conscious. 1t even watch'
the capital operation upon which It know
that its hopes OF yhealthful life depend
II cannot think its business out or mai
plans or give intelligent and provident q
rection to its affairs while in such cas-
Where there is no peace OF mind the
can be no energy in endeavor.
Must Know Terms Of Peace.
There can be no confidence in indn
try, no calculable basis for credits. ]
confident buying Of systematic sellin
no certain prospect Of employment, q
normal restoration of business.
hopeful attempt at reconstruction or
proper reassembling Of the dislocat
elements of enterprise until peace h
been established. and, so far as may
guaranteed. Our national life has
doubt been less radically disturbed al
dismembered than the national life
other peoples whom the war more
rectly affected. with all its territ
ravaglng and destructive force, but
has been nevertheless profoundly 9
f,cted and disarranged. and our indu