Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-08-08


have sought this opportunity 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 leg
islative 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 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 artiicially and de-
liberately created by vicious prac-
tices which ought Immediately to be
checked by law. They constitute a
burden upon us which is the more I'M
hearable because we know that 1t Is
wflfully imposed by those who have
the power and that it can by vigorous
puoiic action be greatly lightened and
made to square with the actual con-
ditions or supply and demand. Some
Oh the methods by which these prices
are produced are already illegal, some
of them criminal. and those who en-
ploy them will be theoretically pro-
ceeded against; but others have not
yet been brought under the law. and
should be dealt with at once by leg
tslation.
need not recite the particulars Of
this critical matter: the prices de-
nanded and paid at the sources Of
.aupply, at the factory, in the food
markets, at the shops. in the restau-
RATS snd heteis. slike in the eltS aad
{His<ais sisx xi s5s 5h 81 S11 81 rs e
kcdg8fHtsM6esf eVeff. Il II matter 81
familiar knowledge also. that a proc
Somsthiqg - done, 70 push prices and
rents AID the whole cost Of living
higher and yet higher. ina vicious
sxe4e. to which there is no logfcaf or
: N4tnral and. With the increase in the
triees Of the necessaries of life come
demands for increases IN wages-de-
mands which are Justified IL there be
no other means OF enabling men to
live. Upon: the Increase Of wages there
fellows clese an increase in the price
Of the products whose producers have
been accorded the increase-1ot q
proportionate increase, for the manu-
facturer .doe4 not content himself with
that. but an increase considerably
greater than the added wage cost and
Tor which. the added wage cost is
oftentimes hardly more than an ex-
cuse. The laborers who do not get an
are likely to strike, and the strike
only makes matters worse. It checks
production, II it affects the railways
1T prevents distribution and strips the
markets. so that there. is presently
SnAfhinO IN hrv thara IA 0nnfhar
excessive addition to prices resulting
from the scarcity.
Have Become Familiar With Facts
These are facts and forces with
which we have become only too IA
niiliar; but we are not justified be-
cause Of our familiarity with them or
because Of any .hasty and shallow con-
clusion that they are natural and
inevitable in sitting inactively by and
letting them work their fatal results
If there is anything that we can do
to check. correct or reverse them. l
have sought this opportunity to inform
the Congress what the Executive is
doing by way of remedy and control.
and to suggest where effective legal
remedies are lacking and may be sup
piled.
We must, I think. frankly admit
that there is no complete immediate
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. There is now neither peace
nor war.
All the world is waiting-with what
unnerying fears and haunting doubts
who can adequately say?-waiting to
know when 1t shall have peace and
what kind of peace 1t will be when
1t comes peace in which each ma
tion shall make shift for itself as 1t
can, or q peace buttressed and sup
ported by the will and concert Of the
nations that have the purpose and the
power to do and to enforce what ts
right. Politically. economically, So
cially the world Is on the operating
table. and it has not been possible
to administer any anesthetic. It Is
conscious. 1t even watches the capital
operation upon which it knows that
its hope Of healthful life depends. 1t
cannot think it's business out or make
plans or give intelligent and provi-
dent direction to it's affairs while in
such q case. Where there Is no peace
OF mind there can be no energy in en-
deavor. There can be no confidence
in industry. no calculable basis for
credits. no confident buying or sys-
tematic selling. no certain prospect
of employment, no normal restoration
of business. no hopeful attempt at
reconstruction or the proper reas-
sembling Of the dislocated elements
Of enterprise until peace has been
established and. SO far as may be guar
anteed.
Our national life has no doubt been
less radically disturbed and dismem-
bered than the national life of other
peoples whom the war more directly
affected, with all its terrible ravaging
and destructive force. but 1t has been
nevertheless, profoundly affected and
disarranged. and our industries. our
credits. our productive capacity. ouI
economic processes are inextricably
interviewer with those of other ma.
lions and peoples-most intimately OF
all with the nations and peoples upon
whom the chief burden and confusion
of the war fell and who are now mos,
dependent upon the cooperative &C.
ton Of the world.
Shipping Greater Than Ever.
We are just now shipping more
goods out Of our ports to foreign
markets than we ever shipped befor,
not foodstufs merely. but stuffs ant
materials of every sort: but this IL NJ
index Of what our foreign sales will