Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-04-30
THE IMPORTANT WORK
OF THE FEDERAL
TRADE COMMISSION

dress delivered at the annual con-
ference of the National Board of
Farm Organizations, by Victor Muir
dock, chairman of the federal trade
commission:
am not a candidate for any Of
flee and l do not expect to be a can
didate for any office. Therefore |
should be free, on this occasion, of
any special pleading.
/ The highest economic condition in
the world is found in the occupying
owner of fair sized farm. We hear
/ in these days a great deal about the
conflicts of capital and labor. Now
in that man who combines in him
self the elements of labor and cap
ital and home owner 1t has be-
come the custom in recent months
upon the part of a portion of the
community in the problem of the
high cost of living to pass the, buck
to the farmer Perhaps, you gentle
men do not hear much of this in
your communities, but in the larger
centers in the East there is a belief
among many that the farmer is to
blame. Now, l contend that only
the most superficial will, after re-
Election, persist in any such accusa-
ton. Let us examine the accusation
moment
What goes into the price structure
of a loaf of bread, Wheat. Yes.
What else? Petroleum and coal,
steel, lumber, textiles and meat, all
are part of the price structure of the
loaf of bread. The coal which turns
the wheel that grinds the flour, the
coal that heats the furnace that
melts the iron that fabricates alike
the reaper on the farm and the tex
tiles which are a part of the milling
business, the leather which is in the
belt in the mill, the lumber that is
roof and wall, the blood that comes
from the steer, the product of the
corn, and which goes back into wheat
through the fertilizer-all these
form a part of a loaf's price struct-
ure. This is not merely fanciful.
am naming some of those basic ele-
ments without which men can not
have an edaQuate view of the price
structure of food stuffs. For no
one may know wholly the problem
of the high cost of living until he
knows the conditions prevailing in
how smart you are, how profound or
learned, until you have a view of
these basic commodities which go in
to preparation of food for a man s
stomach, which furnish raiment for
his body, and which provide a shelf
ering roof over his head, you will
have no adequate view of the high
cost of living or its causes.
That brings me to the Federal
Trade Commission work. We have
over in the Federal Trade Commits
sion two branches of work; one is
the economic branch and the other
is the legal branch
On our economic side we are the
eye of the country. This nation has
many economic problems to meet
and some of them are very difficult.
The first requisite is knowledge
The nation is not going to solve its
problems successfully; it is not go
ing to compose it's difficulties eff
fectually unless it knows what its
problems are in fact.
Therefore one of the functions of
the Federal Trade Commission is to
find out what the facts are, and we
are busy in our economic branch
finding the facts relating to the great
basic commodities and what the
situation surrounding those basic
commodities is in truth 1t is not
an easy task. 1t is in truth a very
difficult task and it is sometimes ac-
companied by criticism from those
into whose business we have been
directed to inquire. l need not tell
you gentlemen that there are back
OF some of these great basic COM
modities fundamental movements
which should have the attention of
every one in the country. l need not
tell you that there is in the United
States a continual accelerating rate
OF concentration Industrial units
here are growing larger and larger
! 1t is not Tor me to criticize unit be-
cause OF its magnitude But | do
think it essential to the people of
the United States and their welfare
that they know the rate of accelera-
ton in unification, the growth and