The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-07

lines, but it is bound to take time.
There are two immediate improve
ments. The first is a mutual agree
ment between the workers and mas
tiers to postpone all strikes, say for
a period of six months. The majority
of French workers have come to the
realization that striks for better wages
and shorter hours do not get them
out of the vicious circle Of higher OPP
Grating expenses and higher prices.
Some, however, are still unenlightened
and today there are serious traffic tie
ups as a result of strikes at principal
French Atlantic ports. Railroad men
here declare that in the present down
at the heel condition of rolling stock
and roadbeds, one single days tieup
takes ten days to straighten out How
much worse when as now the greater
part of incoming merchandise is cum
bering the wharfs or blocking the
freight yards in western ports.
1T will take US six months to get
the traffic stream running properly
again." said the director of one of the
principal French railroads a few days
ago, even If there are no more
strikes No one outside Of the rail-
road business can imagine how diff
cult it is to unravel bad tangle like
this unless (and this is the second i'm
provement suggested) the government
will return for stated period to mob
iliZation conditions-that is, to run
ming every train in the country a the
same rate OF speed. France carried
out her enormous mobilization pro-
gram without hitch by abolishing al
most all civilian railroad traffic for
whole fortnight and running all trains
at a uniform speed of thirty kilOmet-
ers an hour. If that system is repeat
er now it would cause a certain in
convenience to passengers, but it
would straighten out the freight mud
die rapidly by obviating the necessity
for sidetracking freight trains. III
guarantee that in a month we would
hear no more of perishable goods
wasting en- route or cOnsignments go
ing astray, or any Of the thousand and
one other mishaps that now make my
life burden and contribute to the in
crease Of prices"
Prcfteering Wholesale and Retail.
Whether this plan be as successful
as with mobilization or not, it certain
ly is a fact that dealers, both large
and small, in foodstuffs claim they are
forced to make a higher percentage of
profit than usual on what they sell be-
cause Of the abnormal percentage Of
loss on perishable commodities from
transports ton delays. 1t is a sad fact
that insurance rates on perishable
stuffs are so high as to warrant the
belief that losses are abnormal
But much Of the profiteering has no
such justification and contrary to the
general notion it is more fragrant in
/ the case of small retailers than with
! big men who have more to risk and
over whom control is far easier One
of the latter buys half a million francs
worth of goods and sells them weeks
| later for 100000. The profit is sensa.
tional and would cause an outcry if it
got in the papers. But it is only %
| percent, whereas street vendors buy
! barrow-load Of fish or tomatoes for
I so francs at the Halles and sell it for
100 every day
The greatest French economist, the
late Professor Leroy Beaulieu, once
laid his finger on the true cause OF
profiteering which is now rampant in
! France from the wholesaler to the re
taller.
Have you ever noticed he said
that when an import duty Of say %
cents per hundred pound is placed on
coffee, the retail price to the consum
err will jump or cents per pound
That is, that the four or five persons
through whose hands that hundred
pounds of coffee passes from importer
to consumer will divide the extra ben
eft Of 200 cents or more. They argue
| correctly that the consumers psychol
| Ogy will lead him to accent an apDar
emily trifling increase from Is to Is
or 50 cents pound just because he
has heard there is a new duty of q
cents to be paid somewhere.
Profits Were Too Large.
The war has had just that effect
again and again. Each time the whole
sale price made a legitimate advance
as a result of war conditions every