Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-09
A COURAGEOUS ATTEMPT
TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE
The Presidents Address a Proelama ton
Of the Obvious and Recon-
nnendation Of Futlitles

THE task which the President undertook
= when he addressed Congress yesterday
afternoon was beyond the power of NOR
tai man. 1t was an attempt to prescribe
an immediate remedy for that which
only time and long readjustment of the
conditions disjointed by war can heal.
There has been profteering and there
has been boarding. Proof is not lacking
Prices of food and clothing are so high
that workers find it impossible to main
! tain their families in the comfort which
| they knew four or five years ago Wages
in certain trades have gone up, but they
have not risen to keep pace with the rise
| in prices. But the rise in prices has not
been due primarily to boarding and prof
iteering. Prices have risen in Europe
as well as in America, and government
regulation of prices has been carried to
greater extreme across the ocean than
here The withdrawal of millions of
men from productive industry has de-
creased the supply of many commodities
and, by making it possible for those who
remained at work to demand and get
higher wages, it has increased the cost
and thus the price of what has been pro-
duced. Then, too, war has been accom-
panied by an excessive imitation Of the
currency in all the warning nations. The
multiplication of dollars has cheapened
them, and reduced their purchasing
power.
So long as this condition prevails
prices will be high. And so long as there
is uncertainty about the final settlement
Of the terms of peace the beginning Of
the restoration of world trade to peace
time conditions will be delayed.
The President intimated as much, but
he made suggestions intended to relieve
the pressure upon the pocketbooks of
the workers. None of the suggestions,
however, went to the. heart of the matter
His address, therefore, was little more
than proclamation of the obvious and
a recommendation of futilities.
Yet he had to make it. The country
expected him to do something, and with
most commendable courage he undertook
to meet its desires. A greater man
would have done more or less. He would
either have refraned from making
recommendations which if adopted will
do nothing more than touch the fringe
of the question, or he would have boldly
announced that we must grit our teeth
and submit to the conditions which war
has produced until the operation of the
well-known economic laws brings about
a healthy readjustment.
The suggestions for permanent
changes which he makes would involve
an interference by the government with
the operation of the economic laws. The
other suggestions if adopted would have
only slight and temporary effect upon
conditions.
The Lever food-control law is now
available for application to the situation
and will be available until the peace
treaty is ratified and the President pro-
claims the end of the war. 1t permits the
government to prevent the boarding and
monopolizing of food. 1t permits the
President to buy food products at price
fixed by him and sell them and use the
money obtained to buy more food to be
resold 1t forbids dealers to make un-
reasonable profits and permits the Fed
L
unreasonable. This is a war measure;
the President would have it continued
permanently and would have a food COM
missioner under it regulate the sale of
all food in interstate commerce. The law
has not worked so we'll as to justify be-
lief that it would bring order out of the
present chaos of high prices.
1t is doubtful whether a federal law
regulating cold-storage warehouses
would have any serious effect on prices.
The cold-storage system has stabilized
prices ard effected a uniform distribution
of perishable food throughout the year.
And it is certain that system of fed
era! licenses for all industries engaged in
interstate commerce and the subjection
of them to regulations made in Wash
ington would be such an invasion of the
domain of private business as would
produce intermnable confusion, reflected
in a decentralization of prices.
Yet the President says that he as
sumes that it is "our purpose to assume
national control of the processes of dis
tribution." Nothing less will suffice!"
he exclaims with fine assurance. Nothing
less will suffice if we are to enter upon
|
the experiment of state socialism. But
there are some level-headed men who still
think that the sooner Covernment inter-
ference with the processes of exchange is
removed the sooner will conditions return
to their normal state.
AS a remedy the suggestion that the
retailers be compelled by law to have
the cost price of what they sell marked
in plain figures on the article is childish
1t is based on the assumption that the
retailers are making exorbitant profits
and that the exhibition of the difference
between what they pay for an article and
what they sell it for will force them for
very shame to reduce the selling price.
There is no secret about the margin of
profit of the average retailer 1t is we'll
known that he has to add generous per-
| centage to the wholesale price in order