Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1937-04-08
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National Topics interpreted - 498a4a91AA7@@
by William Bruckart f[2G9@QEZ
Washington, D. c.

borrow money; the criticisms were
continued because loans simply
were not being made and no exami-
nation of the reason why loans were
not being made ever was under
taken.
Next in the chain Of events and
still continuing came labor troubles.
The New Deal avowedly was on the
side of labor and against employers.
Strikes followed in increasing num-
bers.
The results of this combination
of factors and circumstances now
are showing. Considered from any
angle, one can not fail to see why
they constitute cycle of events
that lead to higher prices.
| When the dollar was cheaper by
devaluation, more dollars we're re-
quired to feed a family than had
been required before. Workers felt
this sting. They demanded more
dollars in pay for their work. Pres
| sure from the New Deal administra-
ton together with labor's use Of
the strike weapon forced business
to pay higher wages.
But, business must live. It can
not live unless it gets back it's costs
| of production. Agriculture can not
subsist unless it receives reason
able price for it's production. Mel
| Their agriculture nor industry will
go ahead unless there is reward
in the shape of profit. Conse-
quently, neither agriculture nor in
dustry is going to absorb these in
creased costs alone. The natural
and the only way it has to get back
those expenditures is by charging
higher prices to the buyers of those
products. Thus, we have the COM
plete cycle-and the consumer, as
usual, is the goat. The consumer
pays and if that consumer be not
| in a position to enforce a higher
return for the services he renders,
he is caught between the upper
and neither nillstones. It appears
that the consumer is fast getting
himself into the grip of that wise.
In connection with this increasing
price level, and the dangers inher-
ent in the general
Credit situation, I think
EccIes credit ought to be
given to President
Eccles, of the Federal Reserve
board of governors, for the bold
statement he made few days ago.
Mr.. Eccles warned the country very
frankly what the dangers are in a
situation where labor continues to
clamor for a greater share of the
profits of commerce and industry
and where labor's leadership seeks
to take advantage of the inability of
employers to protect themselves.
The Eccles statement took occa-
sion to link labor's position with the
general money market and the eff
feet labor's position is having on
the country as whole. He re-
ferred to the demands of some la
Dor leaders for working week of
80 hours and while not completely
discarding that theory, he gave the
very definite impression that shorter
hours do not constitute solution
for our present problem.
Increased wages and shorter
hours" said Mr.. Eccles, "when they
limit or actually reduce production
are not at this time in the interest
of the public in general or in the
real interest of the workers them
selves. When wage increases are
passed along to the public, and par
ticularly when industries take adj
vantage of any existing situation to
increase prices far beyond in
creased labor costs, such action is
shortsighted and an indefensible
policy from every standpoint.
stttWage increases and shorter
hours are justified and wholly de-
sirable when they result from in
creasing production per capita and
represent a better distribution of
the profits of industry. When they
retard and restrict production and
cause price imitation, they result in
throwing the buying power of the
| various groups LII IIle GLIlIG SCOIl-
omy out of balance, working a par
ticular hardship upon agriculture,
the unorganized workers, the recipi-
ents of fixed incomes and all con-
sumers.
''The upward spiral of wages and
prices into infationary price levels
can be as disastrous as the down
ward spiral of defation. If such
conditions develop, the government
should intervene in the public inter-
est by taking such action as is nee
essary to correct the abuses.
''The remedy for price imitation
when the country has unused man
power, natural resources and CAPT.
tai, is through more, not less pro-
duction, through an orderly, bal
anced use of these three funda-
| mental factors and not by creating
needless, artificial shortage of any
one of them"
Thus we have brought into bold
relief a criticism of the final factor
entering into the present increasing
| price level. I refer to the artificial
shortage in food products that re-
| suited from the ridiculous crop con-