The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1920-04-29
THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1920.
Hitting the Bulls Eye.
Washington Post)

The lurid and earnest denunciatlon
of profteering and profiteers launch,
ed in the Senate by Senator Capper
of Kansas, will evoke a salvo of ap'
plause from the ends of the country
One hundred millions of people stag
gering under the burdens OF high
prices which enrich small minority
have pleading eyes turned to Congress
and the government for sign of re-
lief, and the champion who rises to
voice their yearnings inspires hope
within their breasts.
Senator Capper submitted long
list of corporations whose profits
ranged last year from 20 to 200 pei
cent, the list including many concerns
engaged in the production Of clothing
and other necessaries of life. While
it is true that the tax collector has
taken large part of these generous
profits for the federal treasury, yet
the fact stands undoubtedly that they
represented to a large extent the cause
of existing high prices, which the
consumer was obliged to pay. Refer
ring to the recent court decision, which
exempts stock dividends from the eX-
cess profits tax, the Senator said:
"Wall streets melon patches con-
tinue to be warmed by the sun OF
privilege, fertilized by the perspira-
ton of labor and watered by the tears
of poverty"
But the melon patch Of Wall street
is not the only one flourishing in the
sun. What of the potato patch, the
yield of which has increased in price
more than $50 per cent. since the
war began What of the wheat field,
the concentrated product of which has
advanced in value 142 per cent. since
1913? What, also, of the poultry
yard, the eggs from which have gone
up in price Ill per cent. during the
past seven years? Why not include
the producers of these vital neces-
.sities in the general indictment of ex-
horbitant prices?
There is no disposition to exonerate
or excuse the profteering manufac-
turers who have adopted policy of
charging all the traffic would bear.
They have laid their hands heavily
upon the nation and squeezed from
the pockets of the toiling millions the
dollars won by hard labor. They, in
deed, have made the late Captain Kidd
look like "piker."
But why overlook the producers of
the foodstuffs? Everybody must buy
food. They wear last years clothes
and half-soled shoes and hats that
have made many journeys to the
cleaners, but the stomach demands a
never-ending supply of fresh, nutri-
tious food. For it there is no sub
stitute. Therefore, it is remarkable
that the public should inquire into
the tremendous rise in food prices?
During the past year, from March
1919, to March, 1920, there vas little,
if any increase in the prices Of cloth
ing, shoes ali other articles of wear.
But agricultural products never l.esi-
tated in their steady trend skyward
in that period. Here are some of the
advances reported during the year
by the bureau of labor statistics: Po-
tatoes, 134 per cent; sugar, 76 per
cent; cabbage, 81 per cent; onions, 81
per cent; rice and prunes, 81 per cent
each; rolled oats, "a per cent; bread,
Ia per cent; butter, 13 per cent; fresh
milk, 12 per cent; hens, II per cent;
corn meal, 10 per cent; cheese, s per
cent.
These are price advances recorded
within one year, superimposed upon
the tremendous price raises that had
gone before, and coming after the