Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-08-09
PRESIDENT ASKS C ONCRESS FOR NEW LEGAL MEASURES TO CHECK
 VICIOUS CYCLE" OF HIGH PRICES
mankind-that American must must prove her mettle."

must prove her mettle." The address to congress follows: "Centlemen of the congress: "l have sought thls opportunity l to address 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 1 am capable the ! legislative measures which would be most effective in controlling it and
 bringing it down. The prices the people of this country are paying for everything that is necessary for them to use in order to live are not justi-, fled by shortage in supply, either present or prospective, and are in many cases artificially and deliber- ately created by vicious practices which ought immediately to be check ed by law They constitute burden upon us which is more unbearable because we know that it is wilfully imposed, by those who have the pow CT and that it can by vigorous public action be greatly lghtened and made to square with the actual conditions of supply and demand.
 Some of the methods by which these prices are produced are already illegal, some of them criminal, and those who employ them will be ener- getically proceeded against; but oth- CTS have not yet been brought under the law, and should be dealt with at once by legislation.
 Wage Demands Justified.
 "I need not recte the particulars of this critical matter; the prices demanded 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 domestic circle and of every group of casual acquaintances even. 1t is a matter of familiar knowledge. Also that process has set in which is likely, unless something is done, to push prices and rents and the whole ] cost of living higher and yet higher, sip \ 'y tious cycle to Mhi.ait there is < mo logical Or natural end.
 "With the increase in the price of i the necessities of life come demands for increases in wages-demands which are justified if there be no other means of enabling men to live. Unon the increases of wages there follows close an increase in the price iof the products whose producers have been accorded the increase--not a proportionate increase, for the manufacturer does not content him. self with that, but an increase con- siderably greater than the added wage cost and for which the added wage cost is often-times hardly more than an excuse. The laborers who do not get an increase in pay when they demand it are likely to strike, and the strike only makes matters worse. It checks production. It af- 1 fects the railways, it prevents dis tribution and strips the markets, so that there is presently nothing to buy, and there is another excessive addition to prices resulting from the scarcity
 Ask Legal Remedies.
 "These are facts and forces with 1 liar but we are not justified because
 cause of any hasty and shallow con-
 inevitable in sitting inactively by and
 letting them work their fatal re- suits if there is anything that we can /, do to check. correct or reverse them. I have sought this opportunity to in-
 form the congress what the executive is doing by way of remedy and con-
 trol. and to suggest where effective
 legal remedies are lacking and may
 be supplied.
 "We must, think, frankly admit that there is no complete immediate
 remedy to be had from legislation
 and executive action. The free pro- cesses of supply and demand will not operate of themselves and no legis- ,lative or executive action can force them into full and natural operation,
 until there is reace. There is now
 neither peace nor war.
 1 Peace Necessary.
 "All the world is waitipg-with what unnerving fears and haunting ldcuhts who can adequately say lwaiting to know when it comes-a peace in which each nation shall
 make shift for itself as it can, or a peace buttressed and supported by the will and concert of the nations that have the purpose and the power to do and to enforce what is right. Politically. economically, socially, the world is on the operating table. and lit has net been possible to administer jany anaesthetic. It is conscious. It
 eyen watches the capital operation !upon which it knows that it's hope
 of healthful life depends. It cannot think its business out or make plans
 or give intelligent and provident dir lection to its affairs while in such lease Where there is no peace of lmind. there can De no energy in sen- ldeavour. There can be no confidence lin indusrfy, no calculable basis for credits. no confident buying or sys- itematic selling, no certain pr0speet. lof employment, or normal rest0rAtion
 of business, no hopeful attempt II