The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-01-19
THAT Practice as Well as Hoarding
and Cornering Food Were Pun
ished by Death in oden
Times
DIOCLETIAN MADE RULE
This Sovereign Who Rose to Power
from Ranks of Peasant Made
Drastic Laws Concerning
Wages and Prices.

Death was the penalty for protiteer-
ing in ancient Rome. Hoarding and
"cornering the market" likewise were
made capital offenses.
That picturesque old warrior-em-
peror Diocletian, who rose from
peasants howell in Dalmatia to the
throne which made him master OF the
world, issued an edict in the year
3O1 A. d., the preamble of which por-
trays state OF affairs almost identi-
cal with conditions existing at the
present time. The people, grooming
under load of taxation, were in adj
dition compelled to pay prices for
food, clothing and other necessaries
which must have made living well
nigh impossible.
IF the raging of avarice," says
the Diocletian preamble, the San
Francisco Argonaut notes, (which, in
utter disregard of human principles
begins TO increase as it has been
doing by leaps and bounds, not only
from year to year, month to month
or even day to day, but, SO to speak,
from hour to hour, nay, from minute
to minute-if this avarice could be
held in check by an ethical regard
for moderation; or Ii the condition
of the people were such that they
could bear the burden of this mad
license, there might be justification in
trying to wink at the situation and
saying nothing.
But, inasmuch as this money
making madness appears to be be-
yond control and is entirely needless
of the needs Of the many, it has
seemed good to us, the peoples par
ent, having regard for the future
as well, to intervene with impartial
justice to remedy that for which we
had long vainly hoped to find a re-
lief in common sentiment of
ct is our pleasure, therefore, that
those prices which the subjoined sum-
mary specifies be held as the prevail
ing rates throughout our empire, and
know all that license to exceed these
prices is forbidden.
"And likewise we ordain that II
any shall violate this law he puts his
life in jeopardy
The list fixing the maximum prices
included about 500 articles, covering
the entire range OF human
needs.
Meats are the subject of schedule
No. 4. Taking a pound as the unit |
If measurement, the list, in part, fol- |
ows: Pork, 73 cents; beef, 40 cents |
lam, - cents; fowls, 26 cents; lamb. |
'.3 cents; veal, To cents.
Butter, by a curious displacement,
appears as item No. SO on. this !
schedule, and its maximum price !
ooks almost incredible TO the present !
lay eye-9.S cents.
Fish, the chief subject Of schedule
70. 5, ranged from AS cents a pound
or season quality river fish to l4.6 I
cents for sea fish with sharp spines."
oysters were 1875 cents a hundred. +
md another unaccountable misplace /
nent dry cheese" figures in the /
anne schedule at 7.3 cents a pound. ,.
In schedule No. 6, which is rather +
cabbages (besl) are rated
t IT cents for FIVE; the same price
eing permissible for ten small ones. i
i've large artichokes cost 4.3 cents;
I've heads OF the best lettuce, II 4
ents, and ten large turnips, IT
entS.
Item No. 43 ON this schedule is
which modern restaura-
eurs will shudder to think that only ]
GIG years lie between them and the ]
tatute which would have made them
ay with their lives for the present
ay charges. The item IN question Is
ggs. Four large ones for 1t cents
the maximum price at which bio Il
letian Of blessed memory assessed s
lem. II
Labor was paid premium scales. /,
twenty-five kinds Of toilers figure in q
chedule No. 7. Among them are not t
My manual laborers, at 1913 cents a v
ay, and bricklayers at 216 cents,
ut also writer's at 100 cents for t
20 lines best writing" and 1877 cents b
,r 100 lines ordinary writing"
The same schedule allows lawyers 5
, charge "for presenting case i