Republican farmer., 1919-08-15

washington. Aus. S-ln ms ad- drcss on tlir hlgh cost of living to tho oio. session of Congress today, Prcsdeot Wilson said:
 Gentlessken Of the Congress:
 have sought this opportunity to address you because IL is clearly my duty to cali your attention to the present cost of living and to urge upon you with all the persuasive force of which am capable the Legislative meauIres which would be most eff fcctive in controlling 1t and bringing 1t down
 The prices the people of this ooun- try are paying for everything that 1t is necessary for them to use In order to live arc not Justified by a ahort- csc in supply. either present or pros pectivc, and are in many cases arti- hcially and deliberately created by Nicious practices which ought imme- diataiy to be checked by law
 They coustitute burden upon us which Ia the more unboarablo be- cause wo know that it Ia N!lfully i'm posed by thosc who have the power. and that it can, by vigorous public action. be greatly liEhtoucd and mado Co square with the actual conditions of supply and demand. Some of tho methods by which these prices are produced are already illegal, some O. them eEin1lnaI. and thoac who em- pIuy them will be cuerFcticaily pro cacded against; but others have not yet bpen brought under the law and fhould be dealt with at once by leg is1ation.
 l need not recite rhe particulars of thi, critical nuttcr The prices de- 1nsnded srd paid at the sources of supply, at the factory, in the food markets, ot the shops. in the restaur- ants and hotels. arc alike fin the city and in the village. They gro familiar to you. They nro the talk of every domestic rirvin and of every group of casual noqustntsnccs even.
 1t Is matter of famIliar knowledge. also that n process has set tn which is IikoIy. unless something is done, 10 push prices aud rents and the whole cost Of living higher and yet higher in Q vicious circle to which there is no logical or natural end.
 With tho increase in the prices of tho uece-sartcs of lie come demands which are Justified if there be no other mems of enabling men to live. Upon the increasc of wages there fol- lows close an incrcass in the price of the products whose producers have been accorded the increasc--not a pro- portionate increase for the narufac- turcr does not content himself with thnt-but m increase considerably greater than the added wage cost. and for which tho added wage cost IS of-tutimcs hardly more than an ex- Cuse.
 The laborers who do not get an in crease fin pay when they demand 1t gro likely to strike. and the strike only makes matters worse. If checks rroduction. 1T it affects the railways, it prevents distribution and strips the markets SO that there Is presently nothing to buy, and there is another excessive addition to prices resulting from the scarcity.
 These are facts and forces with which we have become only too fsrni- liar: but wo are not justified. because of our familiarity with them or be- cause of any nasty and shallow con clusion that they are "naturaI and inevitable. in sitting inactiycly by and letting them work their fatal results if there is anything that we can do Co check. correct or reverse them. have sought this opportunity to in form the Congress what the Execu- five Is doing by way of remedy and control. and to suggest where enec-
 
 may be supplied.
 We must. I think. frankly admit that there Is no complete. immediate remedy to 5e had from legislation and executive action. The free processes Of supply and demand will not oper- s.fc of themselves and no legislative or executive action can force them into fuil and natural operation until there is peace.
 There is now neither peace nor war. All the world is waiing-with what rnncrving fears and haunting doubts who can adequately say?-wafting to know when 1t comes, peace in which each nation shall make shift for itself as h can. or peace but 4ressed and supported by the will and concert of tho nations that have the purpose and the power to do and to enforce what Is right
 Politically. economically socially the world Ia on the operating table and it has not been possible to ad- minister any anaesthetc. It is con srious. It even watches the capita .pcration upon which it knows that iis hope of hcalthful life depends. I cannot think it's business out or nakt p1ars or give intelligent and provi- don't direction to it's affairs while ir fuch a case Where there is nc prace of mind there can be no ener- gy in endcavor There can be nc confidence in industry, no calculable basis for credits. TO confident buy ing ar systematic selling, no certain prospect of employment, no norma restoration of business. no hopefu uttempt at reconstruction or tho proper reassem bling of the dislocateC clements of enterprise until peace ha, been established and, so far as may be guaranteed.
 Our national life has no doub {, been less radically disturbed and dis Tnernbercd than the national life O other peoples whom the war more directly affected with all its terrible ravaging and destructive force, but i has been. nevertheless. profoundly af fccted and disarranged and our indus tries. our credits. our produ uctive ca pacity. our economic processes arr inextricabiy intcrwoven with those o other nations and peoples-most in tir,1ateiy of all with the nations anC v,r,p1na upou whom the chief burdeI