The Coconino sun., 1920-02-13
LOW PRICE PROMISES
 MAKE CONGRESS LAUGH

CTS bid for popularity conveyed in his promise to reduce the high cost of liv- ing IS meeting with considerable mer- riment in congress, especially as the department of labor persists in refut- ing his statements with facts to show that prices are still soaring.
 Representative Phil Campbell, of Kansas, in the house reminded the democratic leaders that they were ex- perienced in buncombe, having made the same promise in 1910 and 1912 in order to assist in securing power, and after eight years of that power hav- ing done so little to accomplish the rest promised, that prices have more than doubled.
 Palmer has declared that he will fol- low the profiteers to their lair and de- stroy them. The United States food controller, another democratic official, recently said: If it were possible to abolish profteering altogether, you would materially affect the present level of high prices" This last state ment agrees entirely with the express ed opinion of the republican leaders all along that high prices are caused by cheapening of the circulating me dium and imitation, and that they can come down only through restoration of normal condition, deflation, and the promotion of industrial prosperity. These leaders have said for eight years that promises otherwise are for political purposes and now that they are akin to thank God for Wilson he kept us out of war"
 Bradstreets has pointed out that prices are still going up. The depart ment of labor says they are still go- ing up. Everybody who buys any thing agrees they are going up. But Attorney General Palmer agrees that they will come down and that he will bring them down. Cincinnati and other cities have been told of the arrival of experts from the department who would assist in the work of reducing the high cost of living. After the eX- perts have left and the populace is in fine state of expectation the prices go on up.
 The man who has spilled the Palmer beans and shown up the administra- ton team work, though, is Royal C.. Meeker, United States commissioner of labor statistics. This is what he says:
 q see no prospect of any consider able fall in prices for several years to come. It will be impossible for the governments of the world to pay off their debts very rapidly. On the con- trary, there is every reason to appre- bend that credits must be issued to foreign governments, foreign manu- lecturers, and foreign business men in order to rehabilitate the broken and shattered industries of Europe. This being the case, we may expect that larger volumes of checks and credit instruments will be thrown into circu- lation, boosting prices higher"
 As long as the people have twice as many dollars with which to buy a smaller number of commodities, prices are bound to remain high. It will take a long time to defate the worlds in fated currencies or to inflate the worlds defated supply of goods. The profiteer is being blamed on all hands for the increase in prices. Undoubt- edly, profteering of most reprehen,- sibie sort has existed and does exist today, but the profteer is result of ever-increasing prices rather than a cause thereof His influence in boost | ing prices is neglible. If all the prof liteers in the world could be appre- hended and thrown into jail or lined up and shot, it would have no appre- ciable influence upon prices.