The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-10-17

A Statement Concerning the High
Cost OF Living.
To the Public: Oct. s, 1919.
The United States Council of Ma
tional Defense, composed of the
Secretaries of War, Navy, Interior,
Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor,
has made a careful investigation of
the MISUNDERSTANDING problem, and
finds:
That the Nations productive
powers have not been fully utilized
since the armistice.
That too few goods, notably the
necessities Of life, have been pro-
duced, and that even some of these
goods have been withheld from the
market, and therefore from the peo-
pie.
That the high cost of living is due
in part to unavoidable war waste and
increase of money and credit.
That there has been and is consld-
cradle profiteering, Intentional and
unintentional.
The Council believes that the
remedies for the situation are:
To produce more goods, and to
produce them in proportion to the
needs of the people.
To stamp out profiteering and
stop unnecessary boarding.
To enforce vigorously present laws
and promptly to enact such further
new laws as are necessary to prevent
and punish profiteering and needless
boarding.
To bring about better cooperation
and method in distributing and mar
keting goods.
To keep both producer and con-
sumner fully informed as to what
goods are needed and as to what
supplies are available, so that pro-
duction may anticipate the country's
demands.
Goods and not money are the
means of life. Better standards of
living are impossible without pro-
ducing more goods. Man can not
consume what has not been pro-
duced.
At the wars end eur Allies had
desperate need of the essentials OF
life We have had to share our re-
sources with them, but this drain
will gradually lessen. In SO far as
our shortage of goods is due to this
cause we can well afford to be
patient.
It is just essential that we have
patience with economic situation
here at home. The process of pro-
duction requires time. If produc-
ton is rapidly increased, vastly i'm
proved conditions will prevail in
America when the results of present
and future labor begin to appear.
Team work is imperative. 1t is
just as essential between retailer,
wholesaler, and producer as it is be-
tween employer and employee. One
group of producers can not wait on
another group. The manufacturer,
the farmer, the distributor must
each Immediately assume his part of
the burden and enter upon his task.
The Nation can not afford curtail-
ment of goods vital to the people.
On American business rests a
grave responsibility for efficient CO.
operation in bringing about full and
proportionate production. On Amer
lean labor rests an equally grave re-
sponsibility to attain maximum unit
production and maintain uninter-
rupted distribution of goods il labor
itself is not to suffer from further
rises in the Cost of living.
The entire Nation-producer, dis
tributor, and consumer alike-should
return to the unity that won the war.
Group interest and undue personal
gain must give way to the good of
the whole country if the situation is
to be squarely met.
Our common duty now, fully as
much as in the war, is to work and
to save. In the words of the Presi-
dent in his address to the country on
August 25, 1919, only "by increasing
production, and by rigid economy
and saving on the part of the people,
can we hope for large decreases in
the burdensome cost of living which
now weighs us down."
Work, save, cooperate, produce.
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