The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1920-02-06
While Palmer Declares He Will Save
the Other Administration
Producer.

Washington, D. C.-Attorney Gen.
eral A. Mitchell Palmer's bid for pop
ularity conveyed in his promise to re-
duce the high cost of living is meet
ing with considerable merriment in
congress-, especially as the department
of labor persists in refuting his state
ments 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 1872
in order to assist in securing power,
and after eight years of that power
having done so little to accomplish
the rest promised, that prices have
more than doubled"
Palmer has declared that he will
follow the profiteers to their lair m
destroy them. The United States food
controller, another democratic official,
recently said: 'If it were possible to
abolish profiteering altogether, you
would not materially affect the pres
ent level of high prices" This last
statement agrees entirely with the ex-
pressed opinion of the republican
leaders all along that high prices are
caused by cheapening of the circulat-
ing medium and initiation, and that
they can come down only through re-
~storation of normal conditions, deflat-
ion, and the promotion of industrial
prosperity. These leaders have said
for eight years that promises other
wise are purely for political purposes.
Bradstreets has pointed out that
prices are still going up. The depart
ment of labor says they are still going
up. Everybody who buys anything
agrees they are going up. But At
torney General Palmer agrees that
they will come down and that he will
bring them down. Cincinnati and 9TH
err 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 a fine state of expectation the pri-
ces go on up.
The mar who has spilled the Pal
mer beans and shown up the admin
istration team work, though, is Royal
C. Meeker, United States commission
err of labor statistics. This is what
he says:
81 see no prospect of any consider
able fall in prices for several years
to come. 1t will be impossible for
the governments of the world to pay
off their debts very rapidly. On the
contrary, there is every reason to APP
prehend that credits must be issued
to foreign governments, foreign man
ufacturers and foreign business men
III 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 cir
culation, boosting prices higher.
GAS long as the people have twice
as many dollars with which to buy
a smaller number of commodities, pri-
ces are bound to remain high. 1t will
take a long time to deflate the worlds
inflated currencies or to initiate the
worlds Debated supply of goods. The
profiteer is being blamed on all hands
for the increase in prices. Undoubted-
ly, profiteering of a most reprehen-
sible sort has existed and does exist
today, but the profiteer is a result of
ever-increasing prices rather than a
cause thereof. His influence in boost
ing prices is neglible. If all the prof.
iteers in the world could be lined W
and shot, it would have no appreciate
influence on prices"