The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-08

, edy' for existing conditions, the coun- cils report proposes the following: "We demand that the government be authorized to buy standard commod- ities direct from producers and that these commodities be distributed through regular retail channels at retail price to be fixed by the govern ment
 We demand that this power be made use of as a corrective for profiteering and we call attention to the fact that
 the government has established a precedent for such action in it's sales of surplus war supplies.
 "We demand that the federal gov ernment, through the internal revenue department. ascertain the amount of excessive war profits extorted from the American people during the years 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919 and 1920. and that these excessive war profits be taken through it's taxing power by the federal government and applied to the eXtinguishment of the floating debt of the government and to the partial re- tirement of Liberty Bonds at par in order that the existing inflated struc- tue of currency and credit may be re- duced and that the government may carry out it's sacred obligation to the people to maintain its liberty and vic tory bonds at par.
 So-OI ILAit AIO4N "Co-operation should be encouraged as an effective means of curbing , profiteering. To stimulate rapid de- velopment of co-operatives, the fed eral farm loan act should be extended so as to give credit to all properly or- ganized co-operatives, just as credit is now given to individual farmers. Co., operation is no less vital and worthy | of support than are the railroads, which were given hundreds of millions of dollars and an area of land equal to New England to facilitate their estab- l 1shment. There should be legal enact ment to protect co-operatives against discrimination by manufacturers and wholesalers.
 Control of credit capital by those whose chief interest is the emulation of profits results inevitably in the open door of profiteering. We repeat and emphasize the demand of organ ized labor that control of credit be taken from the hands of private finan- ciers and placed in the hands of a public agency to be administered by voluntary and cooperative methods. CONSTRUCTIVE AND PRACTICAL We urge that the United States de- partment of labor compile and issue
 monthly statements of the cost of
 manufacture of those staple articles
 which form the basis of calculation in
 fixing the cost of living
 "As a means of aiding these and other
 anti-profttering measures the federal
 government should be authorized to es-
 tablsh permanent boards for the prompt
 Investigation of profits and prices. All
 income and other tax returns should be
 available for inspection.
 ''We do not demand, nor do we desire,
 a precipitate collapse in prices generally,
 for in such a collapse there would be
 the greatest danger of national calamity.
 The programme we have here laid before
 the nation is constructive and is practi-
 cal, because it contains measures native
 to American life and American thought,
 we urge and demand for it the imme-
 diate and effective consideration of the
 people and of the authorities of our
 country.
 "The cost of living must go no higher
 Wages must be advanced in every case
 tc a point at which the American stand
 ard of living is secure. The life and
 the productive capacity of the great
 farming community now stricken sorely,
 must be brought back to the richness
 that has marked it above the agriculture
 of all other nations. This will be pos
 sible only when the vicious forces that
 load the values of the farm with fic-
 titious and fabulous profits have been curbed and made powerless.
 Finally we call attention to the vital
 fact that the present non-partisan po-
 litcal campaign of the A. F. of L. of
 fers to the people everywhere an oppor-