Imperial Valley press., 1922-01-28
Communicated
PROSPECTIVE RETAILERS

In an interview emanating from
Washington few weeks ago, Attor-
ney General Daugherty announced his
intention of Investigating" the re-
tail merchants of the country, with a
view Of discovering whether any of
them were profiteering. The language
used by him, as reported in the news
dispatches, was 50 vigorous and de-
nunciatory as to warrant the conclu-
sion that the investigation to be un-
dertaken by his office would be
strangely wanting in the freedom
from bias and prejudice supposed to
characterize judicial inquiries. If Mr..
Daugherty was correctly quoted, he
has, by implication, at least, con-
demned the retailers of the country
as profiteers and then started out to
collect evidence to support his asser-
tions, thus reversing the usual meth
cd of collecting data first and arriv-
ing at conclusions afterwards.
To the cynical, the connection be-
tween this minatory attitude of the
department of justice toward the re-
tailers Of the country and the indie
pendent activity of the agricultural
bloc in Congress, seems to be more
than merely fortuitous. It has been
openly charged, in fact, that the ac-
tion of the attorney general in start
ing his investigation of the retailers
at this time is only beautiful poll
tical gesture, intended to lull and
sooth the farmer vote in Congress. 1t
is the ancient device of distracting
the attention of one political or econ
omic group from their own troubles
by starting a holy war against an
other group. The farmers, probably
with perfect justice, maintain that
as class they are the worst paid
workers in the nation. Through their
bloc in Congress they are exerting
steadily increasing pressure upon the
Harding administration to relieve
them from at least q part of the on
erous economic burden they are car
rying. With the organization of the
Farm Bureau throughout the United
States and the rapid growth of the in
fluence and prestige of the agricul-
tural group in the senate, the agra
rian party is bulking large in politi-
cal affairs at present, and no doubt
it is becoming matter of increasing
Importance to the politicians to re-
tain their favor
This assumption that Mr. Daugher-
ty is not quite ingenious in his in
vestigation of retail prices is streng-
thened by the manner in which he is
conducting his survey. Last week an
agent of the department of justice
visited Eel Centre and asked some Of
the merchants to submit a list of
prices, at wholesale and retail, on
certain staple articles Parentheti-
cally, we may add that so far as we
know there was nothing in the atti-
tude or conduct of this agent that
was in any way iEquisitorial or OBJ
jectionable. The information for
which he asked, however. was so gem
eral in its nature and so superficial
as to be practically worthless to any
one making an intelligent effort To
determine whether Ell Centre mer-
chants are realizing exorbitant pro-
fits. We feel sure that Mr.. Daugh-
erty is not such naive, unsophisti-
Gated fellow as to imagine that he can
get at the truth as to retail prices by
the means he is employing.
From our limited personal expert
ence and observation, however, we
can state most emphatically that the
merchants of El Centro are not prof
iteering. If Mr.. Daugherty finds any
evidence here that our merchants,
generally speaking, are realizing
more than fair profit from their
business, we will be most painfully
surprised. On the contrary, we have
personal knowledge of firms in this
city which have sustained severe
losses during the past year and are
now with great difficulty making
their business return expenses, to say
nothing of profit. The investigation of
the department of justice will in all
probability have not other result
than to create in the public mind a
feeling of suspicion against the re-
taller, which is in the great majority
OF cases wholly unjustified
RETAILERl