The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-20
BY ANDREW JAY FRAME,
President Of the Waukeesha wis.
R~aL

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President Of the Waukeesha (Wls.)
National Bank
The high cost Of living seems to be
the paramount Issue throughout the
world today. To our mind the real
cause Is sidetracked because the falla-
cious millennium builders are filling the
air with blessed balsams" that appeal
to the masses to cure insidious dis
ease that If not checked will end only
In eating out our vitals and in slow.
Ing up human progress everywhere.
In the United States the Govern
ment is constantly being importuned
to regulate" everything. So-called
experts and commissions galore are
appointed and millions of the taxpay-
ers' money are Appropriated, to find thu
cause. With what results? To satisfy
public fallacious clamor, such reports
generally SANDER legitimate interests
and, in fact, contribute to higher costs
of living through indorsing shorter
work hours, increased pay, encourage
ment Of 1neff1ciency, and ignoring the
great underlying cause, towit: In
creased production. In other words,
ignoring the immutable law of sup
ply and demand"
Common-sense thinkers know that
capital and labor must 60 hand in
hand or human progress halts. Profit
eering Is confined to the few. Govern
ment reports indicated a few years
ago that out of some $4,000 corpora
lions 40 per cent. paid no income tax,
and the average profits of the whole
On capitals employed were but 43 per
cent. On the other hand no intelli-
gent man can honestly deny that labor
Is better housed, better clothed, and
better fed in the United States than
the worlds history records. There
fore, let us reason together little
over our largely mental hysteria.
An old Kafflr proverb reads: HE
who will not profit by the experience
of the past gets knowledge when trou.
BILE overtakes him" Surely we are
overtaken with troubles now mostly
imaginary.
Some Historic Examples.
The Bible says: THE poor we have
always with you" The parable of the
ten talents has not lost it's force. The
5000 proverbs of Solomon gave small
encouragement to the Stacker and the
spendthrift. Listen: He becometh
poor that dealeth with slack hand
but the hand Of the diligent maketh
IlCll SecSI tuOu d HAL OilBeuI III
business, he shall stand before
Kings" &C.
Permit US to cite a few facts on
Governmental attempts to regulate
prices. &c.
From the pages of THE Common
People of Ancient Rome" by Frank F
Abbott, we quote briefly from Emperor
Diocletian's remarkable and crude
edicts:
I For if the raging avarice
which, without regard for mankind, in
creases and develops by leaps anG
bounds, inasmuch as there is only
seen a mad desire without control to
pay no heed to the needs of the many
=" it seems good to US, who are the
fathers of the people, that justice in
4 tervene to settle matters impartially
Who is Of so hardened a hear
and so untouched by a feeling for hu
mainly that he can be unaware
that in the sale of wares which are ex
changed in the market al
exorbitant tendency in prices ha
spread to such an extent that the un
bridled desire of plundering is held il
check neither by abundance nor b.
seasons of plenty"
Professor Abbott comments as fol
lows:
; "If we did not know this was fount
on tablets sixteen centuries old, W
might think we were reading a news
paper diatribe against cold storag
plants or the beef trust"
The edict further says: at is GU
: pleasure, therefore, that those price