The Wrangell sentinel., 1920-04-15


 returning soldier seeking a job was offered a much smaller wage than he knew was paid for the same work while he had been fighting It in- censed him. He figured that he had given four years out of his life. had come home tired and broke. He look ed upon the decline in wages as a positive discrimination against him.
 Comparison Breeds Discomfort.
 Everywhere I have heard these men say: "We are out of luck. The bands played and we were applauded when we left to fight. While we were gone the wages went up. We don't begrudge the men who stayed at home the wages they got. but it's damn funny that when we come back down go wages. The cost of living don't go down. guess we're out of luck"
 I found two phrases inseparable In the speech of the discontented. "the high cost of living;" "the protiteer." Workingmen with whom l talked, freely admitted that some of the high cost of living was the legitimate re thing and the natural shortage. hut in the same breath they insisted that much of 1t was due to the mercenary. ghoulish protiteer.
 The profiteer took blood money dur ing the worlds greatest tragedy. He exacted usury from the toiler at home and the fighting man at the front. He drew dividends out of the tears and walls of broken-hearted women and fright-Stricken children. He minted his gold out of agony. starva- tion, heartaches. He stands today the Judas of the wnr, the most de spised man of earth.
 The profiteer is not an Engishman. a Frenchman. Italian or American He Is found in every country of the world. man without nationality. without conscience, without humanity. He is the pimp of civilization. He is still on the job.
 The profiteer has given the United States a terrible black eye. A com mon comment of Europe is, 1.-The United States made money out of the war" These people do not refer to the money we made legitimately. They point to the fact, fact that has been given great publicity in Flu rope, that in August, 1914, there were about 1000 millionaires in the United Ctofa r-hi of hn nf CiCp- ing of the armistice it was estimated the millionaire colony had increased by 23,0OO, making a total of 3OOOO millionaires in the United States. The profiteer is still on the job. He is holding up the world, starving, cold world.
 Profiteering Case In Point.
 Under date of November 17, 1919. J. S. Bache X Co.,, members of the New York stock exchange. in their financial letter say: "In mercantile circles there is proceeding at the present time a vast amount of speculation on very large scale in commodities. An incident is cited to us of one con- cern that is carrying $15,00O 000 worth of vegetable oils, which are in great demand, and the concern is holding them for higher prices. This Is a distinct damage to the consumers. and keeps living prices in these things, used daily, at top and increasing lev els. Speculation of this kind Is real detriment to the community"
 The pair of shoes the workingman once bought for S3.50 are now $S and $1O. It is true that the cost of labor and material have gone up but not enough to warrant any such eXOrbi- tant prices. Business men have talk en advantage of the situation. and jus tify their larcenies on the ground of the law of supply and demand. A shoe man with prominent Chicago firm, a man long in the business. told me that the present unwarranted and outrageous price of shoes was due to the fact that American shoe manufac- turers could get almost any price for shoes from the barefooted people of Europe.
 Governments are blamed for not dealing with this species of holdup. The discontented ask "Why isn't these Fagans be sent to the wall with a firing squad as an escort?"
 Copyright 1920. Western Newspaper Union)
 Greatest of Hun Crimes