Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1919-08-16
HIGH PRICES
DECLARED TO
Be ARTIFICIAL
President Addresses Congress on
Subject Of High Cost
of Living.
LAWS ARE NOT ADEQUATE
Chief Executive Declares "vicious
Practices" Are Responsible for
Periious Situation Which Faces
the Nation-Makes lmpor-
tant recommendations.

and proposing remedies to check the
high cost of living, President Wilson
declared that existing laws were made
quate and that high prices were not
justified by shortage of supplies, pres
ent or prospective, but were created in
many cases "artificially and deliber-
ately" 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
intrastate shipments goods which did
not comply with it's provisions.
His address was as follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
1 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 am capable
the legislative measures which would be
most effective in controlling 1t and bring
ing 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 artiicially and deliberately created
ny vicious practices which ought imme-
diateiy 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 it can by vigor-
T.. 4 vs--t-A
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 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 legislation.
l need not recite the particulars of this
critical matter; the prices demanded and
paid at the sources of supply. at the fac
tory, lin 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. 1t Is
a matter Of familiar knowledge also, that
a process has set in which is likely, unless
something is done, to push prices and
rents anu 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
tnecessaries of life come demands for in
creases in wages-demands which are
justified II there be no other means of
enabling men to live.
Upon 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 a proportionate
increase. for the manufacturer does not
content himself with that, but an in
crease considerably greater than the
added wage cost ana for which the added
wage cost Is oftentimes hardly more than
an excuse.
The laborers who do not get an increase
IN NV when thew demand II are likely
to strike and the strike only makes mat
ters worse
II checks production. IL II affects the
ratIwavs II nrevents distrihution and
strins the markets. so that there is nres-
sn+1w nntb;ns IN INV ana thsre 10 another
eYcessiye addition to nrices resulting from
80 ss,r,,+n
INC
c.,a;4;.n. Ma uN.+ur.,n
~
These are facts and forces with which
we have become only too familiar; but
yHyQ iuStitle0 because
,ar,tv with them or because of any hasty
and shallow conc,nsion that thew are
...,at,naI., va ;nay;tah In sitting ynac-
.,,a,y nv and ,attinp them work their IA
-, ..s,,,.s ;f there ,s ANYTIME that we
20, =" ~ 'ohacL corrsct nv rayerse them.
e1' 49,, ~ samaht th;. ornort,,nitv fo in
form the congress VIVA, a and c cantro, enS
to suggest where effective legal remedies
are lacking and may be supplied.
We must, I think, frankly admit that
there is no complete immediate remedy
to be had from legislation and executive
action. The free processes of supply and
demand will not operate OF themselves.
and no legislative OF executive action can
force them into full and natural operation
until there is peace. 81
There 10 now neither peace nor war.
All the world It waiting-with what I'M
nerving fears and haunting DOUBTS VINO
can adequately say!-waltine 70 know
when 1t snail nave peace ano wha' Sano
OF peace u Will DC wneh IL co,lesLa po~oo
In which nation shall make sHIt Ior