The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1919-12-26
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

AS long as the consumer IS able and
willing to buy the goods at constantly
increasing prices, there is good reason
to expect high level of prices to hold
for the raw product. Increased pro-
ductlon may tend to keep prices from
soaring beyond the present figures, but
as long as the demand is greater than
the supply-a condition prevailing in
practically all lines prices will be
what we call "good, meaning high.
While many people complain of the
high prices, most people look with
dread to falling prices. With the alb
normally high cost of living. and the
cost mounting higher, times are good.
Money is free, wages are high, spend
ing is free, not to say reckless. There
is work for everybody who wants a
job more jobs than men and women
to fill them. The efforts of the gov
ernment to bring down the high cost of
living are looked upon more or less as
joke. And as far as the results of
these efforts are concerned, the joke is
complete. The public does not care
snap about the cost of things, as long
as the money is plentiful, the demand
for labor and goods high, and the mar
gin of profit sufficient to meet taxes,
living expenses. pay for pleasure, good
clothes and automobiles. 1t looks as if
large money volume was a good
thing. The function of money is large
ly one of facilitating exchange. If the
money volume keeps pace with the vol
ume of production. the. exchange of
goods is made easy; and the last couple
years indicate that high prices have
tendency to stimulate production. If
this is true, a large per capita circula-
tion of money is highly desirable.
~
In this connection it may be we'll to
call attention to the Importance of the
relation between high prices and the
quality of the labor or goods. If the
quality of labor runs down while prices
run up, the results will be disastrous.
The same is true of goods. High cost
and poor quality goods will be the ruin
of good times and economic prosperity.
q stin8olses- point of ethics; it is
profiteering by default. It is form
of cheating. 1t is in that sense that
the Investigations of the government
into the high cost of living has some
real value, if it is carried on honestly. /
To bring the man to the block who is
not delivering the goods is matter of
enforcing the moral law, not the eco
nomic one. A combination on the part
of the, capitalists, or on the part of the
laborers for the purpose of extortiOn
is a crime against the public. The
mere fact that prices are high, because
there is plenty of money and great
power of consumption, has nothing
criminal or undesirable in it. The pro-
ducer who charges the price but does
not deliver an adequate amount of
goods for it, and the laborer who sells
his time at high price but does not
render an equitable amount of service,
are the culprits that the government is
after to put an end to their wrong
doing.
In the tobacco industry the increased
prices all along the line are accounted
for in the same manner Barring the
effect upon prices of the profiteer and
the inability of the supply to keep pace
with the demand, the high price is
really set by the power of the consum-
er Of cigars, cigarettes and manufac-'
tured tobaccos to pay the price. As
long as the public can afford to pay 15
cents for cigar that before it could
not afford to pay more than 10 cents
for, or cents for cigar that formerly
sold for cents, The price for the un-
manufactured leaf will stay up The
fact of the matter is that the relation
between the increase in the cost of leaf
and that of the price of cigars and
manufactured tobaccos is rather a
shade in favor of the raw material.
The jump in the price of cigars and
smoking and chewing tobacco is pro-
portionately no greater, if as great, as
the advance in the average price of the
leaf. If anything should happen that
would decrease the buying power of
the consumers, the reaction would at
once be felt in the price of the raw
leaf. The suggestion made by some
economists, so called, that the money
volume should be contracted in order
to bring down prices. does not appeal
to the everyday man. The stabilizing
of prices on the basis of large money
volume by cutting out the profiteer
capitalist and the profteer laborer. the
nricp.fy trucfc of canifal and 0f