The daily Alaska citizen., 1919-12-25

! cd l"2N convictions. with fines aggre-
 gating $35,OOO
 Besides setting up these local tri-
 bunals to which complaints against
 dealers are submitted appeal tribun-
 als have been established in specified areas of England Scotland and Wales.
 In addition central committees also have been formed to investigate sup posed trusts or monoplies which may b. manipulating wholesale prices This has been done under the prof t-cring act
 Apart from the prosecution of com ] paints, the board of trade, which is
 charged with administration of the nti-prohteering law, is independent 1 ly investigating prices, costs and
 profits of a large number of disting- uished accountants. which k assist
 ing the central committee. in it's task X subcommittee on trusts has been empowered to obtain whatever tech nical and expert assistance may be required.
 In scope, the act applies 10 any article or class of articles which is one of d kind in common use by the public or to any material, machin- cry or accessories used in the pro ducuon of such articles" The act does not apply to controlled ar- ticIes such as butter, sugar, beer. flour, liquors commodities for which maximum prices were fixed by war time legislation.
 A cleaI-cut definition of the term 'prohteering' has been point which has given local tribunals much difficulty in the prosecution of their tasks. So far, the definition laid down by Sir Aukland Geddes. presi- dent of the board of trade has been accepted as basis for prosecution It follows: The making of an un- reasonably large profit, all the cir cumstances being known, by the sale to ones fellow citizens of an article which is one, or one of a kind, in common use"
 On the moot question Of what con sututes an unreasonable profit" C.. A. McCurdy, parliamentary secre- teering is the fact that the public tary to the ministry of food, recently declared, One of the causes of prof seems to have lost all sense of what ls a reasonable profit A good prinCi- pie for tribunals to work upon is not to ask themselves whether the profit lis higher than someone else is charg- ing. but is the profit arrived at on any reasonable business principles or is it merely dictated by ayarice and greed?"
 Mir. McCurdy has characterized the protteering act as an abnormal remedy for an abnormal state of public feeling an act not intended to harass British trade, but to help it restore it to normal and healthy conditions"
 Critics of the governments anti protiteering machinery point to off, cial figures just published in the board of trades Labor Gazette show ing that, despite efforts to beat down living costs, the general level of re- tail prices on October 1, was about l20 per cent above pre-War figures, or an increase of five Der cent as compared with the level of September last when the local tribunals were just getting under way. But 1t is not contended even by these fault finders, that the increase would not have been larger had the govern ment made no effort to bring the profiteers to book.
 Against such objections may be set such testimonials as that of the Yarmouth profteering committee which claims that a reduction in wholesale prices by as much as thir ty-five per cent has been noticeable in that locality.
 Membership of the local tribunals is fixed at from seven to twenty-five, two of whom must be women. All complaints are heard in public ex- Cept in special cases when under authority of the board of trade, pro ceedings may be in private. Books or documents produced at private hearings are to be treated as con
 iIdential if the person lrnducing them so desires. Labol Ia represent ed on the local tribunals and on the central cimmittee, among the mem bers of the committee being T. H. Thomas, executive head of the rail way men during the recent strike and G. H. Stuart Burning, president of the British trades union congress.
 Local tribunals have been empow- cred to investigate all claims brot before them and, if the allegations of excessive charges are established, to institute proceedings against the