The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1919-08-22
That, and Provision of Penalties
for Profiteering, Advocated
by the President.
TO FORCE SALE OF SURPLUS
in Address to Congress the Chief Elk
ecutive Makes Assertion That We
"Are Dealing With Very Criti-
cal and Difficult Matters"

L
high cost of living, President Wilson
declared existing laws were made
quate and high prices were not justi-
fed by shortage Of supplies, present
or prospective, but were created In
many cases "artificially and deliber-
ately" by vicious practices"
He spoke practically as follows:
Gentlemen 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
paying for everything that it is necessary
for them to use in order to live are not
justified by a shortage in supply, either
present or prospective, and are in many
cases artihcially and deliberately created
by vicious practices which ought imme-
ldiately to be checked by law.
Profteers 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-
been brought under the law and should
be dealt with at once by legislation.
With the increase in the prices of the
necessaries of life come demands for in
creases in wages-demands which are
justified if 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 proportionate
increa se for the manufacturer does not
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 than
an excuse.
The laborers who do not get an increase
In pay when they demand 1t are likely
to strike, and the strike only makes mat
ters worse.
II checks Production; if it affects the
railways it prevents distribution and
strips the markets; SO that there is pres
emily nothing to buy, and there Is another
excessive addition to prices resulting from
the scarcity
Conditions Not Natural"
These are facts and forces with which
we have become only too familiar; but
we are not justified because of our famil-
iarity with them or because of any haSty
and shallow conclusion that they are
natural" and inevitable, In sitting mac
lively by and letting them work their ia
tai results if there is anything that we
can do to check, correct or reverse them
We must, l 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 or executive action can
force them into full and natural operation
until there is peace.
Must Know Terms Of Peace.
There can be no confidence in indus
try, no calculable basis for credits, no
confident buying of systematic selling,
no certain prospect of employment, no
normal restoration of business, no
hopeful attempt at reconstruction or a
proper reassembling of the dislocated
elements of enterprise until peace has
been established, and, SO far as may be,
guaranteed Our national life has no
doubt been less radically disturbed and
dismembered than the national life of
other peoples whom the war more di-
rectly affected, with all it's terrible
ravaging and destructive force, but 1t
has been nevertheless profoundly af-
fected and diSarranged, and our indus
tries, our credits, our productive ca
pacity, our economic processes are in
extricably interviewer with those or
other nations and peopies-most init
rnately of all with the nations and peo-
pies upon whom the chief burden and
confusion of the war fell and who
are now most dependent upon the CO.
operative action of the world.
Exports Greatest In History.
We are just now shipping more goods
out of our ports to foreign markets than
we ever shipped before-nOt foodstufrs
merely. but stuffs and materials of every
Sort but this is no index of what our
foreign sales will continue to be or of
the effect the volume of our exports
will have on supplies and prices. 1t Is
impossible yet to I-edict how far or
how long foreign purchasers will be
able to find the money or the credit to
pay for or sustain such purchases on
such a scale; how soon OF to what extent
foreign manufacturers can resume their
former production, foreign farmers get
their accustomed crops from their own
fields foreign mines resume their former
output foreign merchants set up again
their old machinery of trade with the
ends of the earth. All these things must
remain uncertain until peace is estab-
lished and the nations OF the world have
concerted the methods by which normal
life and industry are to be restored.
All that we shall do in the mean
time to restrain profiteering and put
the life OF our people upon tolerable
footing will be makeshift and provi-
sionaL There can be no settled condi-
ton here or elsewhere until the treaty
of peace Is out OF the way and the
work OF Mouidating the war has be-
come tue chief concern OF our govern
ment Rnd OF the other governments OF
the world
~Eurore win not cannot recOup her