New-York tribune., 1920-05-25

t1aI industry. PernapB tnat would be
moro correctly stated not for the pur-
pose, but their use.
"Profteering and speculation aris-
Ing from the combined opportunity in
the two previous items.
Matter OF adjustment OF taxation,
particularly the excess profits tax.
Decrease in our own productivity
due to relaxation Of effort since the
war, to strikes and other causes.
increase in our own consumption,
the waste of commodities and increase
in extravaganza.
"Dcterioration of our transport sys-
tom during the war.
Expensive and wasteful distribu-
tion system and other less important
causes"
Export Demand Decreases
As far as the drain on the United
States through exports to Europe is
concerned, Mr.. Hoover said, we can
look for relief from this pressure. as
the production of Europe is steadily
decrease in export demands from us.
Mr. Hoover said the peoples of Europe
and especially Of the Allied countries
have at last buckled down to work and
their production and exports are in
creasing.
AS to the relation Of imitation to the
high cost of living, Mr. Hoover thought
"it was necessary in order to finance
the war to make use of imitation
through the Federal Reserve system
in placing government issues"
"The continuation of these methods,
however, since the war;" he added, "is
doubt great conflict Of argument as to
how much it is the effect or the cause
of high prices. 1t is probably both.
but one of its undoubted major effects
lies in the expansion of credits and
this has added to the facilities for
speculation and proftcering in the
midst of a world shortage.
at would appear now that it would
have been better to have continued the
war cooperation of the banks, the
Treasury and the Federal Reserve sys-
tenn, to effect some definite check upon
the diversion of credits and capital for
speculative and non-essential purposes
until we were in smoother water"
Remedy for Living Cost
The remedy for the high cost of lv-
ing, he said, lies in two alternatives:
Either to make use of the indirect
pressure of the reduction of credit and
imitation, pending stimulation of pro-
duction and a reduction of consump-
tion, or to impose vigorous regulation
and Intervention of the government in
commerce Of the order maintained dur
ing the war"
The excess profits tax, Mr.. Hoover
said, has failed to accomplish it's pur-
pose of distributing the large burden of
the country's taxation upon the larger
incomes of the country in some gradu-
ated form and is to-day, in effect, be-
ing distributed per capita on the popu-
lation.
"A shift of taxes to luxuries and
non n-essentials is needed" said Mr..
Hoover
To eliminate the industrial and eco
nomlc waste of strikes, Mr.. Hoover
urged the adoption of the plan pro-
posed by the recent Industrial Confer
ence at Washington, of which he was
a member. This plan, he said, is based
upon the better organization of COL
lective bargaining, the impartial de-
termination Of the rights or wrongs
of these disputes, with a view to en-.
llstment of public opinion as a press
ure to settlement"
He came out emphaticaly against
industrial courts of the nature of that
introduced in Kansas, as we'll as
against compulsory arbitration, when
he said:
"Legislation leading to legal COM
pulsion and the Jail will, l believe, de-
feat it's own object"
Another considerable contribution
to the high cost Of living" Mr. Hoover
concluded, "has been the Deficiencies
in our transportation system, brought
about by the impossibilty of normal
expansion during the war"