The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-05-07
HANDLE THEWTAL TOPICS
HIGH PRICES SUBJECT FOR
WISE DISCUSSIONS
SOLVE AFTER WAR EVILS
Business of This Government Is
Keynote Sounded BY Sena-
ator Edge
From Fridays Daily.
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch

Associated Press Dispatch.l
New York, April 30.-Bankers, edu-
Gators and economists Of the United
States and Europe discussed the facts
and causes Of imitation and high prices
and their remedies, at the semi
annual meeting Of the acamedy of
political science which opened here
today.
DR.. B. NJ. Anderson, Jr, of the Ma
tional Bank Of Commerce in New
York, speaking at the forenoon ses-
sion, declared that the shortage Of
goods and the attendant speculation
is the prime cause OF present high
prices in this country.
when our enormous export balance
disappears and when our domestic
markets are called upon to absorb
worth OF goods per months which they
have not been absorbing, We shall see
lower prices" he declared.
The speaker said that this had been
expected when the FIVE million men.
Withdrawn from industry for the army
and navy, returned, but that 1t had not
come.
FTOOuCStOn 10 ISess
In 1913 we produced less by at
least ten per cent in physical units
than In 1917" he said.
Edwin Kemmerer, professor Of
economics and finance, Princeton
university, after reviewing the two
groups Of causes for imitation the
country has experienced. which he
war causes" he said:
I'VE won our independence nearly
century and a half ago in a war,
financed predominantly by paper
money initiation. We maintained the
union a half century ago by a war
financed extensively by paper money
imitation. We have just preserved our
political inheritance by war financed
In the United States largely by de-
posit currency imitation and yet we
nearly all condemn imitation as a most
inequitable method Of financing war.
"The great difficulty has been and,
fear, will continue to be, that
financing a war by imitation, with all
fits injustice and with its necessary
aftermath OF economic and social
problems, is none the less both polit-
ically and economically, during the
war itself, the line Of least resist
ance."
Edge Urges Construction.
CONSTRUCTION, rather than recon-
struction is the great task confronting
this~Aeongress9lthe next congress and
perhaps even the sixty-eighth con-
gress," Senator Walter e. Edge of
New Jersey said, ,peakfng at the
luncheon meeting.
Se
too much government in business and
not enough business in government"
uncle SAM" he continued, must
be pried out Of the shipping business,
the real estate business, the whole
sale and retail Glothing and grocery
and other trades which he has In
vaded.l His mailed fist must be TAX
en- from the throat Of private enter
prises and his other hand from the
taxpayers pocket, conversely, we hope
that some modicum Of business will
be injected into the management Of
the governments legitimate public
business through the enactment of a
budget measure on which committee
Of which I am a member long has
1abored."
"Must Tighten Belt"
THE entire world must tighten IL
belt IL there Is to be enough for all
and that belt is strict control OF
bank credit without which the world
fiate,p declared M. Warburg, banker
discussing mutations, its causes and
remedies.
Summing up what he termed the
practitioners advice In the case, he
"First, we must hght imitation with
all the means at our disposal; by ar
resting the further increase Of gov.
eminent Indebtedness. and II possible
further bank credit and note issue
expansion. We would thereby de-
stroy) the atmosphere Of easy money
and paper prosperity that makes FOL
Individual and corporate extravaganza
and fosters discomfort among the
masses, rendering them disinclined t
give their full measure OF work. This
curt3tng the production or non essen
tials and Of stimulating the produc.
tionl Of essentials.
Fight High Prices.
And finally, we must fight rising
prices by stimulating essential pro.
duction, both here and abroad, which
means that we must furnish Europe
with the materials required in ordsl
to fehabilitate her industries, 50 thai
porting, as far as this involves the
granting Of further credits 1t should
be- our determined purpose to provide
them from our savings. II we arr
incapable or too irresponsible to &C.
cdmplish this, we must submit to pay.
ing for the unsaved balance by infia.
tibn. That would prove, as we have
table alternative, but It Is easier fol
30 fo hear the sacrifice than 20,