Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-08-18
1.-THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR.

Under this caption the Memphis
Commercial Appeal analyses the
present chaotic situation in regard to
profiteering and efforts to bring
down prices of commodities in about
the most satisfactory manner that
has yet been presented. 1t is worth
reading-and thinking about Says
the Commercial Appeal
Several houndred thousand rail-
road men struck They interfered
with transportation for ten days, then
they went back to work
Thousands of employees of agricul-
tural implement factories struck,
There was principle of collective
bargaining that they attempted to
establish. The plan was in vogue in
several large establishments. The
men in the establishments where the
scheme was alreay in effect struck
also. a.
Men in woodworking plants struck
and went back to work. The street
railway men struck in Cleveland. The
street railway men struck in Brook
lyn.
Many of the leading newspapers
and many of the public men, never
being able to look under the surface,
because tremendously alarmed be-
cause of these strikes. They an
nounced that the strikes must be put
down
If there was not a strike in the
United States today our lawmakers
and those whom we have put in high
places, and our spectators and those
who gamble in the things that pto-
pie produce, and those who are Idle,
but live off the energy of others,
would pronounce everything to be
serene and every prospect pleasing.
Ten day ago the matter
of the high price of food was brought
directly to Congress. The attorney
general got busy and he notified the
district attorneys to get busy, and
they are getting very busy, princi-
rally jumping up and down IN their
tracks.
Out in the far west farmers are
holding meetings and denouncing the
law that made 1920 wheat min
mum price. They say that wheat
olght to be higher, much higher
T. the hog-growing country every
time porker falls in price below
What we used to pay for an acre of
land there is wild cry that the pack
ers are about to enslave the farmer.
A few days ago retail dealer in
Mcmphis bought carload of water
ne ,cns from large fruit broker in
this city. The fruit broker bought
trese melons from Geo.G.a, iced
tlten and sold them to the retailer
fcl 3 cents a pound. Tha retail,r
: II t:lm for cents a pound. Some
h. did not sell because they were
over-ripe and this loss was taken out
of the 2-cent profit A day or two
later a man came IN from a farm
close to Memphis and offered to sell
the retailer a load of melons He ask
ed the retailer cents for his mel
ons. He did not ice them and he
did not pay any freight as the broker
did.
Friday a lady come to a store with
yard eggs. She had four dozen, She
asked the retailer what he would pay
her for the eggs. He told her he
would give 60 cents a dozen She
then asked him what he would sell
them for He told her he would sell
them at rs cents a dozen. She said,
81 will not give you the right to make
IS cents on my eggs, and l will not
sell them to you for less than 70
cents" and she departed.
Tha huckster buys stuff on Front
Row and peddles it. The grower
neddles his stuff and wants the same
price.
Even if the middleman is cut out
the food consumer does not get much
advantage.
Tie railroad machjnists struck be-
cause they are getting $5.44 a day
They want $3.50 a day. That is a
lot Of money. It takes four years
@ make a good machinist. When
ne starts to learn his trade he gets
80 cents aday, then he gets 81, and
50 on.
There are braken1en on the road
who earn from $175 to $500 month.
There are train porters who get from