, 1919-08-14
President Addresses Congress on
Subject Of High Cost
of Living.
LAWS ARE NOT ADEQUATE
Chief Executive Declares "vIcious
Practices" Are Responsible for
Perilous Situation Which Faces
the Nation-Makes lmpor-
tant Recommendations.

hiSh Nost VI II w iiSoi
declared that existing laws were made
quate and that high prices were not
justified by shortage of supplies, pres
ent or prospective, but were created in
many cases ''artifcially and deliber-
ately" by vicious practices"
The president recommended that the
food control act be extended to
peace time operation and hat congress
exclude from interstate as well as
intrastate shipments goods which lid
not comply with its provisions.
His address was as follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
1 have sought this opportunity to ad-
dress you because 1t 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 1 am capable
the legislative measures which would be
most effective in controlling it and bring
ing it down.
The prices the people of this country are
paying for everything that it is necessary
for them to use in order to live are not
justified by a shortage in supply either
present or prospective, and are in many
cases artifcially and deliberately created
by vicious practices which ought imme-
diately to be checked by law.
They constitute a burden upon us which
is the more unbearable because we know
that 1t is wilfully imposed by those who
have the power and that 1t can by vigor-
GUS public action be greatly lightened and
made to square with the actual conditions
of supply and demand.
Profiteers Lawbreakers
Some of the methods by which these
prices are produced are already Illegal.
some of them criminal. and those who
employ them will be theoretically pro-
ceeded against. But others have not yet
been brought under the law, and should
be dealt with at once by legislation.
! need not recite the particulars of this
critical matter; the prices demanded and
paid at the sources of supply. at the fac
tory. in the food markets. at the shops.
In the restaurants and hotels, alike in the
city and in the village.
They are familiar to you. They are the
talk of every domestic circle and of every
group of casual acquaintances even. 1t Is
"A matter of familiar knowledge also, that
a process has set in which is likely. unless
something is done. to push prices and
rents and the whole cost of living higher
and yet higher. in a vicious cycle to which
there is no logical or natural end.
With the increase in the prices of the
necessaries of life como demands for in
creases in wages-demands which are
justified II 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 ac-
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 Iaborers who do not got an Increase
In pay when they demand II are likely
to strike, and the strike only makes mat
tiers worse.
1t checks production; II it affects the
railways 1t prevents distribution and
strips the markets.: SO that there Is pres
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; but
we are not justified because of our famii-
iarity with them or because of any hasty
and shallow conclusion that they are
natural and inevitable. in sitting mac
lively by and letting them work their IA
tai results II there is anything that We
can do to check, correct or reverse them.
have sought this opportunity to in
form the congress what the executive is
doing by way of remedy and control. and
to suggest where effective legal remedies
are lacking and may be supplied.
We must. / think, frankly admit that
there Is no complete immediate remedy
to be had from legislation and executive
action. The free processes of supply and
demand will not operate of themselves,
and no legislative or executive action can
force them into full and natural operation
until there Is peace.
There is now neither peace nor war.
All the world 1t w~aiting-with what un-
nerving fears and haunting doubts who
can adequately say?-waiting to know
when II shall have peace and what KIND
of peace It will be when 1t comes-a peace
in which n nation shall make shift for
itself as It can. or a peace buttressed and
supported by the will and concert of
the 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 1t has
not been possible to administer any anaes-
thetic. It is conscious. 1t even watches
the capital operation upon which 1t knows
that its hopes of healthful life depends.
1t cannot think its business out or make
plans or give intelligent and provident d.
rection to its affairs while in such a case.
Where there Is no peace OF mind there
can be no energy in endeavor.
Must Know Terms of Peace.
There can be no confidence in indus
try, no cnlculable basis for credits. no
confident buying of systematic selling,
no certain prospect of employment. no
normal restoration of business. no
hopeful attempt at reconstruction or a
proper reassembling of the dislocated
elements of enterprise until peace has
been established, and, SO far as may be.
guaranteed. Our national life has no
doubt been less radically disturbed and
dismembered than the national life OF
other peoples whom the war more d.
rectly affected. with all its terrible
ravaging and destructive force. but 1t
has been nevertheless profoundly ar
fected and disarranged. and our indus
tries, our credits. our productive ca