The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1919-08-20
REV. c. B. SMITHS SON
WRITES Of H. C. |.

washington, -. u, Aug. IL, 1919.
Dear Father:
Your letter received and 1 was very
glad to hear from YOU / will leave
month for home. You can expect me
the first of September at the latest.
1t might be possible thn, will leave
here about the Goth or 9th. If l do I
VIII telegraph you. See if you can't
arrange your vacation for about that
time.
Everything here now IS concentrate
ing on reducing the high cost of liv-
ing with the League of Nations run
ming close second. / cont see exact
~ how they are going 20 reduce liv-
ing to any large eXten: unless the
Government steps in and fixes all
prices, which in that event woul,. be
tantamount to declaring the United
States to be Socialized State. What
! thnk is causing the high prices is
due to several things. There is a
huge imitation of the currency, not
only here but to larger extent in the
| rest of the world. This in itself
makes money cheap and as counted by
the dollar makes living high. Then
with such large demand all over
the world for the necessities of life
and the world not up to its normal
production will also make living high.
And IN my opinion one Of the greatest
causes at present is the unpreccdent-
ed extravaganza which is sweeping
the country. People are demanding
and buying things they do not need
and 40 not care what the price is.
If they would try to economize and
only get those things absolutely neces-
sary and then pay no more than they
actually had to instead Of buying the
article first and inquiring the price
afterwards prices would come down in
order that the vendors could sell their
| articles. People are spending instead
OF producing. The labor unions are
demanding more money, taking the
cost OF living into consideration, than
ever before even contemplated by
them. They are entitled to decent
wage but so are other people and
where they profit unduly those whose
very existence makes the labor
unions possible suffer. 1t is first
step toward Bolshevism And contin-
uai governmental interference has
not helped to bring the prices down.
NOBODY knows where they are and are
scared to engage in anything new for
fear Of interference. There probably
IS some profiteering in the sense of
!
| monoDolize. But we have laws on the
Statute books now to take care of
| them and all the Jaws in the world
| will not better conditions if they are
not enforced.
AS to an individual profteering'
when he has entered into no agree
mcent with another individual. TO
profitcer either tacitly or implicitly,
that is his right. The Government
has no right to walk up to an indivi-
dual and say that he cannot charge
thus and SO for an article when he
bought it on the open market :: ,d is
selling it in the same place. If his
prospective customer does not want
to buy from him at his price there
are others he can go to buy. 1t is this
very, thing that makes competition
| which working togethe- with the law
OF supply and demand makes prices
more or less equable. Price fixing
kills both competition and the law Of
supply and demand and as a result
individual initiative dies and the coun-
try quits producing. This condition
beng, we are worse Off than before.
There is one advantage at the pre-
sent for cheap dollar, no matter how
you look at it. We have a tremen-
| dous indebtedness which will even
tually have to be paid. If the dollar
IS dear we pay so much more in re-
deeming the debt
think that if the Government let
1t be firmly understood that it would
be hands off in trade. cniy interfering
to see that no illegal practices and
combinations were entered into, and
quit dlshing out public money, at the
rate it has been doing, chat the coun
try would settle down eventually and
things would adjust themselves.
Otherwise we will go into Socialism
The unrest in Europe has lot to do
with the unrest here. VI things ever
get settled down over there and they
get to producing at their maximum
capacity we will have to come down to
meet them.
1t has been nearly winter I'D here
Tor two or three days. II was uncom-
fortably cold. There has been a lot
OF rain also. 1t is pretty hot TODAY.
however. and indicat;~rs are that it
will be hotter.
WILL ASSIST