Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-01-13
DAUGHERTY GOING
AFTER RETAILERS
INQUIRY INTO PRICES CHARGED
FOR NECESSITIES STARTED
BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
MAY PROSECUTE PRoFITEERS
Government Officials Believe, as Does
the Public, That Costs to the Con-
sumer Are Internationally High in
Many Gases.
By EDWARD B. CLARK

By EDWARD B. CLARK
Washington. - The department Of
justice is starting an investigation to
find out whether the prices charged
in the retail shops of the United States
for food, clothing and miscellaneous
things needed for the household and
for mans livelihood are higher than
is justified by the law Of supply and
demand.
1t Is said the attorney general in
common with a great many thousands
of the consumers of the country holds
that there is lot of profteering
among retailers just as there is, or
at any rate has been, profteering on
the part Of wholesalers and manu-
facturers.
1t is understood that the department
of commerce will cooperate with the
department of justice in an effort to
find out the truth about prices and
also in an effort to bring them down
and perhaps to punish those who have
maintained them on scale of profit
eering.
1t generally is believed that many
prices were doubled by men who sim
ply made the war an excuse for de-
handing twice what their stuff was
worth. In fact it virtually has been
proved to the satisfaction OF Wash
ington officials that profiteering has
been responsible for many advances
in the cost of necessaries.
~, hn.
lieved that prices would go down, but
seemingly it is one thing TO think and
another thing to get realization of the
thought. The government knows that
a great many manufacturers and a
great many wholesalers here put
down the prices of their goods, but it
also knows. or at any rate more than
suspects, that comparatively few re-
tailers have met the decline in the
selling of their own goods.
Many Inquiries, Few Results.
Washington finds itself wondering
today whether any good will come out
Of it. Long before the war the prices
of certain kinds of commodities adj
vanced very materially in the District
Of Columbia. Congress has full con-
troll over the district because it is
federal ground. There was an inves-
tigation by a congressional committee
of the cost of living in the district.
Hearings were held through many
weeks and witnesses by the hundreds
were called There was a voluminous
report but prices stafd just where
they were.
Naturally people are skepticaI about
government inquiries. Officials have
inquired and inquired and inquired,
and seemingly everything has been
taken out in merely inquiring. Results
have been clamored for but they rare
ly have been forthcoming. This is
simply the truth in the case and 1t
makes no discrimination between In
uuiries prompted by the Democrats
and inquiries prompted by the Repub-
licans.
Washington officials hope that the
present inquiry will work for good and
that it will be pressed through to the
point of accomplishment. This is de-
partmental inquiry and not con-
gressional inquiry, and therefore there
is stronger hope that there may be
some real achievement.
Question of Submarines.
Uncle Sam opposes ruthlessness at
sea and yet objects officially to the
abandoning Of submarines as weapons
of warfare.
Great Britain wants to do away with
the submarine absolutely. France and
Japan want to continue the underline
sea fleets. Germany has not been heard
from on the subject, although she was
heard from rather loudly only few
years ago.
The submarine question has been
causing ripples on the surface of the
conference deliberations for some time.
Great Britain seemingly is to lose It's
contention for entire abolition OF
U-boats, but it seems to be promised
that limitation will be put by agree
ment of their activities in time OF war.
Any agreement which Is entered into
by the conference concerning the war
time using of U-boats will be smiled
at a little bit by persons who have
read the recent history Of the world
Poison gases were not to be used in
warfare, but poison gases were used
in the great conflict. There was
maritime law that before any vessel
not a warship was sunk, ample provi-
sion should be made for the safety OF
the passengers and the crew. Mer-
chant and passenger vessels were sunk
by U-boats without any regard for the
safety of the passengers or the crew
skepticism Justified by History.
In the Immediately foregoing para
graph may be found the reason for
the smiles that one more than occa-
sionally sees here when it is suggested
that an agreement to limit the activf-
ties of U-boats in any coming war will
be binding. Service men and dipio-
mats know that the only way to limit
the activities of U-boats or the activi-
ties of any other weapon of warfare
is to scrap them all so that there will
not be any boat or any other thing by
which the activities may be carried