Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1919-08-22
WOULD extend
WAR CONTROL
OF ALL FOOD
That, and Provision Of Penalties
for Pr0fiteerng, Advocated
by the President.
TO FORCE SALE OF SURPLUS
IN Address to Congress the Chief Ex-
ecutiVe Makes Assertion That We
"Are Dealing With Very criti-
cal and Difficult Mattersp

cal and Difficult Matters"
MISUNDERSTANDING congress
and proposing remedies to check the
high cost of living, President Wilson
declared existing laws were made
quste and high prices were not justi-
fed by shortage of supplies, present
or prospective, but were created in
many cases "artlfclally and deliber-
ately" by "vicious practices"
He spoke practically as follows:
Gentlemen OF the Congress:
l hsye sought this opportunity to ad-
dress you because it is clearly my duty
to call your attention to the present cost
Of living and TO urge upon you with all
the persuasive force Of which am capable
the legislative measures which would be
most effective in controlling it and bring
Ing 1t down.
The prices the people of this country are
paying for everything that It is necessary
fer them to use In order to live are not
Justified by shortage in supply either
present or prospective, and are in many
cases artlhcially and deliberately created
by vicious practices which ought imme-
diately to be checked by law.
Profiteers Lawbreakers.
Bone Of the methods by which these
prices are produced are already Illegal,
seMe Of them criminal, and those who
employ them will be enC7Getloally pro-
essded against. But others have not yot
bssn brought under the law. and should
be dealt with at once by legislation.
with the increase in the prices Of the
nsesssRries Of life come demands for in
cressss in wases-demands which are
Justified Il there be no other means of
enabling men to live
Upon the increase Of wages there fol-
lows close an increase in the price Of the
products whose producers have been &C
corded the increase-not a propOrtiOnate
Increase for the manufacturer does not
content himself with that, but an in
crease considerably greater than the
added wage cost and for which the added
wage cost is oftentimes hardly more than
| an excuse,
The laborers who do not get an Increase
in pay when they demand It are likely
to strike and the strike only makes mat
! tiers worse.
| 1t checks production; If it affects the
railways Il prevents distribution and
entity nothing to buy, and there is another
excessive addition to prices resulting from
the scarcity.
Conditions Not "Natural"
These are facts and forces with which
| we have become only too familiar; bu
we are not justified because of our famil
| isrity with them or because Of any hast,
and shallow conclusion that they ar
| -. tttr nd tpa fol In uift Inn n
lively by and letting them work their IA
| tai results II there is anything that VI
can do to check correct or reverse them
We must l think, frankly admit tina
there is no complete immediate remed.
to be had from legislation and executive
action The free processes of supply ant
| demand will not operate of themselves
and no legislative or executive action cal
force them into full and natural operation
until there is peace,
Must Know Terms OF Peace.
There can be no confidence in indus
try, no calculable basis for credits, n,
confident buying OF systematic selling
no certain prospect of employment n
normal restoration of business n
hopeful attempt at reconstruction or
proper reassemblng of the dislocate,
been established, and SO far as may be
guaranteed. Our national life has n
doubt been less radically disturbed an
dismembered than the national life o
other peoples whom the war more di
rectly affected, with all its terribl
ravaging and destructive force, but
has been nevertheless profoundly af
fected and dsarranged, and our indus
tries, our credits our productive ca
pacity, our economic processes are in
extricably interviewer with those @
other nations and peoples-most init
mately of all with the nations and peo
pies upon whom the chief burden an
confusion of the war fell and VIII
are now most dependent upon the &C
operative action of the world.
Exports Greatest in History.
We are just now shipping wore goot
out of our ports to foreign markets tina
we ever shipped before-not foodstuf
merely, but stuffs and materials of ever
sort; but this is no index Of what OF
foreign sales will continue to be or
the effect the volume of on; eyvo or
will have on supplies and prices. t
impossible yet to predict how far
how long foreign purchasers will
able to find the money or the credit
pay for or sustain such purchases c
such a scale; how soon or to what eHtel
foreign manufacturers can resume the
former production, foreign farmers g
their accustomed crops from their oN
fields; foreign mines resume their form
tltput, foreign merchants set up asa
tEeir old machinery of trade with Il
ends Of the earth All these things mu
remain uncertain until peace is esta
a ~