The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-05-03
WILL PRICES DROP?
NO, NOT ACHANCE,
S|MMS DECLARES
Senator Capper Tells Cores
pondent That Hog Prices
May Drop, But Bacon Still
Remains Expensive.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SlMMS,
international News Service Staff
Correspondent)

WASHINGTON, May 81 hate to de-
stroy anything good. especially hope.
for hope is the greatest influence for
good which God in his wisdom put upon
earth.
But, people, there is about as much
chance of your hope of a materially
lowered cost of living coming true in the
near future as there is of an immediate
millennium.
Senator Arthur Capper, of Kansas,
has no such illusion Nor has any other
really informed member of congress.
Folks here, who have the inside track
on what is going on, admit that such
members of the government as are talk
ing of cheaper living are either taking
the wish for the deed, or are believers
in miracles.
Senator Capper, who boasts he can
not make a speech, is the only member
OF that august body with the gift of
silence, but the flow of ideas from that
genuinely superior brain of his is not
lessened an iota by reason of it, When
he sits down in front of his typewriter
he can play it like Paderewski does a
grand piano
out in Kansas he has a number of
newspapers, and he writes for them all
One of them is "Capper's Weekly"
wherein, once a week one can read the
notes composed by Senator Capper on
the keyboard of the instrument of his
choice
Hogs" says the senator's paper,
raised to feed Europe, dropped to $1l
and S11.50 at Missouri river markets
last week.
But good bacon still costs the con-
sumner 60 cents a pound, the same price
that was being asked for it last June
when farmers hogs sold for twice as
There's the whole thing: If the word
gets out today that next month the
price of pork on the hoof is going to
be a cent pound higher, the cost Of
pork at the butchers goes up five cents
pound today. But with the price of
pork on the hoof today one-half what
1t was a year ago, the cost of pork
at the butchers remains the same as
1t was or even a little bit more
The food gamblers and profiteers,"
says Capper's newspaper, loud
mouthed. self-possessed champions of
law, and order and 100 per cent Ameri-
canism-these greedy men. as spoilers,
agitators and trouble makers are a
thousand times more potent from harm
than all the reds in or out of Russia
The situation demands sincere activity
by this government against its enemies
the profiteers and food gamblers
"A government that can lick the Hun
1000 miles from home should be equal
to a few hundred or few thousand
arch-price ConspiratOrs here at home
The secret service, which, during
the war, ran rings around the German
spy system could get these spoilers on
short notice. Evidence of the misdeeds
is not lacking
Vocal war against profiteering is I'M
availng.
"Tf the department of justice will
come to grips with the gougers, it will
do more to stop strikes and restore
peace and order and good feeling to
the United States than all the speeches
and propaganda ever uttered or printed
Let action speak"
Capper says we forbid gambling with
cards, but we do not forbid gambling
with sugar.
With wholesale grocers and jobbers
and brokers gambling IN sugar" he de-
clared, the price has risen to % cents
pound and the people are warned it
will soon go to 20.
We are told that the refineries are
unable to provide for the enormous new
stocks of sugar. but corner in sugar
is formed right under our eyes.
And so it goes.
The Republican convention opens in
Chicago during the first days Of June
The Democratic convention begins at
San Francisco the last of June From
now until the conventions congress will
keen on with its game of passing the
buck for fear of hurting the chances
VI llulNlNludI IlICulDtTS IOF Te-el1CtlOn
or the party's chances in the coming
campaign.
During June there will be a recess
in all probability so that congress can
attend the conventions. So there can
be no work in June.
After June, should congress convene
again. it will go on marking time lest
one or the other Of the two parties, by
some act, blunder and lose the election
in November.
So do independent observers look at
things here.
Now turn back and reread the first
two paragraphs of this humble item.
WAYNE, Kan, April 30.-C. p.
Broncllus, a farmer living near here,
is raising his own lemonade.
From "A lemon tree raised in his
house, BronCllus recently picked a
dozen fully matured lemons One OF
them, a splendid, large specimen,