The daily times. [volume] (Wilson, N.C.) 1902-1936, 1919-12-31
74EEf OUTLOOK ld9k ,,,,.,
- AS TO PRICES
Royal Meeker Commissioner
of Labor Says Only Relief
Deflation of Currency
IMITATION OF LABOR

Everybody is anxiously watching
the course of prices and even more
anxiously inquiring when, if ever,
prices are coming down. The wish |
is father to the thought, and it is |
easy for the housewife to accept any
statement that prices are slated for |
fall in the near future.
Before attempting to answer the |
query as to when, if ever, prices are
to fall, it would be well to consider |
the remarkable rise in prices since
1915. These causes may be sum
married. as follows:
1. BY far the most important
cause of increased prices is the enor-
nous additions to the circulating me-
dunn, money and its substitutes,
during the past four years:
2. Decrease in the actual physical
quantities of goods produced and
! exchanged.
8. Manufacture for and purchase
| by the governments of the world for
| war and other purposes.
4. Changes in the demands for
and the supply of goods and serv-
| ices.
If prices are to be lowered, the
causes operating to boost prices
must be attacked. The amount of
| money and checks in circulation
must be appreciably reduced and
the quantities of necessary goods
must be increased in amount. The
stocks of commodities manufactured
on government account must, so far
as possible, be salvaged and thrown
upon the market. The extraordi-
nary demands for goods new and
old must either be curtailed or pro-
duction of these goods expanded to
meet the needs.
The financing of the war has made
two dollars grow where but one dol
lar grew before. This coupled with
the fact that there has been an enor-
nous destruction of economic goods
, and of the farms, mines, forests and
II
: plains the enormous and worldwide
: decrease in the purchasing power
i (value) of money, which causes in
D creased prices. AS long as the peo
pie have twice as many dollars will
which to buy a smaller number O
i commodities, prices are bound to re
: main high. 1t will take a long tim,
d to def1ate the worlds inflated cur
: rencies or to initiate the worlds de
e fiated supply of goods. The prof
: teer is being blamed on all hand
e for the increase in prices. Undoubt
}. edly, proteering of a most repre-
u hensible sort has existed and doe
, exist today, but the pro1teer is
result of ever increasing price
rather than a cause thereof is in
fiuence in boosting prices is negli
= gible. If all the profiteers in tn
b world could be apprehended an
thrown into Jail or lined up an
shot, it would have no appreciabl
influence upon prices.
j. 1t has been suggested that the ak
3, normally high prices are psycholog
h cal in origin and that prices will ia
lie just as soon as the people can b
le made to think falling prices. c
le course psychology is involved i
rs every price, but the larger quant
a. ties of currency and the smalle
re amounts of commodities are physic;
Mt facts that no psychic legerdemai
can overcome.
I see no prospect of any consit
cradle fall in prices for sever;
N years to come. 1t will be imposs
BILE for the governments Of the worl
80 to pay off their debts very rapid
On the contrary, there is every re-
son to apprehend that credits mu
be issued to foreign government
vk foreign manufacturers, and foreis
~ business men, in order to rehabil
10 tate the broken and shattred indu
10 tries Of Europe.