The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-04-15

"yHERE was a time, not very long ago, when the bust
ness men of Montana, as a class, enjoyed an enviable
reputation for probity, uprightness, honesty and
worthy citizenship. When a man said he was a business
man, he said it with justifiable pride.
Most of them had built up their business by means of
square dealing, honest methods, and close margins of
profits made necessary by ever pressing competition.
They had been giving the highest possible amount of per
sonal service to their customers and with the growth Of
their business there had also grown up a close friendship
between them and the public. This friendship was the
o~utgrowth of well-placed confidence in the merchant as
a result of his honest dealing during a long period Of
years.
Then came an era of unprecedented initiation and prices
commenced to rise. They rose steadily and inexorably. The
consumer immediately Jumped to the conclusion that the merch-
ants were responsible and the confidence which had remained
mistaken for so many years wavered as a result of a popular
outcry which branded all business men as "profteers."
Followed the hue and cry which sought to ~apprehend the
merchant and bring him to book. Few sought the real cause of
high prices few realized that the real profiteer, although not res
ponsibe for high prices, was not the legitimate merchant, but
the stock jobber who takes his toll without rendering any useful
service to the public. Few realized that, even if the merchant
were disposed to profiteer, he would only add a small mite to the
prevailing high prices which have resulted from an unprecedent-
ed initiation.
The merchant was as helpless to stem this rising tide of in
dignation against him as he was to stem the tide of rising prices.
He absorbed advances continually rather than pass them along
to his customers, but he was the last link in a long chain from
the producer to the consumer, and he was the victim of a con-
dition for which he was in no way responsible.
AS is always the case when public clamor arises against any
existing condition, politicians came forward and undertook to
legislate away the evil. Half baked laws made their appearance,
some of them proposed by law makers more anxious to popular
ize themselves in the eyes of the public than to remedy conditions.
Montana came in for her share of this sort of legislation.
House Bill No. IA was passed by the legislature, placing the
regulation of the retail business of Montana in the hands of the
trade commission. Out of this law came in logical sequence the
famous. Order No. 4, which required the business man to mark
his invoice cost in plain figures upon all goods exposed TOR sale.
The majority of people have finally come to realize the fact
that the invoice cost is not the actual cost and that a consider
able margin exists between the two. To the invoice cost the bust
ness man must add freight, drayage, rent, clerk expense, delivery,
the cost of carrying charge accounts and a host of other expenses
which are incurred in order to make it possible for him to render
adequate service to the consuming public.
But the injustice and impractical nature of Order No. 4 was
not the only indictment, nor the important one, against House
Bill No. IA. What made such legislation appear so pitially flu
tile in the eyes of the thoughtful Individual was the fact that it
attempted to remedy a worldwide condition by placing a burden
upon the last man in the long line reaching from the producer
to the consuner-the one who is powerless to control prices.
The retailers margin of profit is not variable; his cost price
is a factor over which he has nc control; competition, on the
other hand, controls his selling price TO a large degree.
So House Bill No. IA FLASHED in the pan" and died; it has
been buried in the legislative "potters field" alongside of other
freak legislation passed in this and other states by opportunists;
it S a sample of the halfbaked legislation which is always hand
ed to the public by legislators who, although they have their
ears continually to the ground, yet lack the Judgment to interpret
Alright the voice of the people even when they hear 1t. Well
meaning as they may be, they are poweress to remedy by iiegis-
lation an economic condition which they do not understand.
Laws passed with the best of intentions have gone wide of
the mark. The only thing they accomplished was to turn the
accusing eyes of the public toward the merchant, while the con-
ditions which were really responsible for rising prices continued