Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1919-08-14
INCH PRICES
DECLARED TO
= Be ARTIFICIAL
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.
p. the Nation-Makes Impor-
eA tant Recommendations.

x .
Washington. ~ Addressing congress
md proposing remedies to check the
high cost of living, President Wilson
declared that existing laws were made
auate and that high prices were not
Justified by shortage of supplies, pres
ent or prospective, but were created in
many eases "artificially and deliber-
ately" by vicious practices"
The president recommended that the
food control act be extended to
peace dime operation and that congress-
exclude from interstate as we'll as
lntrastate shipments goods which did
not comply with its provisions.
His address was as follows:
Gentlemen Of the Congress-:
L have sought this opportunity to adj
dress yon because 1t is clearly my duty
I'd 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 1t and bring
ing 1t down.
The prices the people of this country are
saying for everything that it is necessary
for them TO use in order to live are not
justified by 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 burden upon us which
10 the more unbearable because we know
that It IL 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 energetically pro-
ceeded against. But others have not yet
been brought. under the law, and should
q be dealt with at once by legislation.
q 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
Z talk OF every domestic circle and Of every
. group of casual arquaintances even. 1t Is
q Dtter OF familiar knowledge also, that
q process has set In which is likely. unless
something fs done, to push prices and
and yet higher, In a vicious cycle to which
there is no logical or natural end
z With the increase in the prices of the
necessaries of life come demands for in
(. creases in wages-demands which are
justified II there be no other means of
enabling men to live.
4, Upon the increase OF wages there fol-
VOyUG rinse av 20 n ho nf he
products whose producers have been ac-
corded the increase-not a proportionate
II 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 &. 4. 80 - a. u, 4
: THE laberers who do not get an increase
In pay when they demand 1t are likely
to strike. and the strike only makes mat
tiers worse. go
1T checks production; if 1t affects the
raflwayssit prevents distribution and
strips the markets; 80 that there is pres
emily nothing to buy, and there is another
excessive addition to prices resulting from
the scarcity. -.
q :. Conditions Not "Natural.n
These are facts and forces with which
I'VE have become only too familiar: but
we are not justified because of our famil-
slarity with them or because of any hasty
and shallow conclusion that they are
natural" and Inevitable. in sitting mac
stiveiy by and letting them york their ia
stal mesults il there Is anything that we
,can do to check, correct or reverse them.
u 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 ald may be supplied.
We must, j 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 car
4 force them into full and natural operation
until there Is peace.
.-..There Is now neither peace nor war
An the world 1t waiting-with what un'
nerying fears and haunting doubts who
can adequately say?-waiting to know
when 1t shall have peace and what kint
OF peace 1t will be when it comes-a peace
la which a nation shall make shift FOL
rself as It can, or peace buttressed ant
supported by the will and concert O.
4 the nations that have the purpose and thu
L. ~ A