Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1917 — War Time Behavior of Producers Will Determine Nation’s Course [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

War Time Behavior of Producers Will Determine Nation’s Course

By United States Senator Francis G. Newlands

of Nevada

Our war conditions now require supreme collective effort, and that, carried' out to the full extent, means socialism. We have found that in war the law of supply and demand breaks down because extraordinary demands are precipitated upon moderate supply. Prices soar, and that means disturbances and readjustments for every kind of labor and industry and for commerce. We could not wait long enough, upon entering the war, for the usual effect of increased demand, namely, increased production, to restore the price levels. There-

fore, in the stress of war it becomes necessary to take over plants or control prices, unless the desired results of reasonable prices can be obtained 'by understanding with the producers. When I say reasonable prices, I mean reasonable prices not only for the government but for the public. It is not to be imagined that a country can successfully prosecute a war, even though it obtains its supplies at reasonable prices, if its industrial forces at home are upset by strikes and lockouts. Increasing prices invariably mean a ferment of labor troubles, which in turn materially'impair the military strength of a nation at the front. The laborer is bound to compare the amount which a dollar of his wages will buy today with what it would buy a month and a year ago. He has to do this; he is compelled to contend all the time for the maintenance of the power of his wages. If things go up in price his wages must go up, tod. • We must avoid such a race between prices and wages by keeping prices down, not only for the sake of conserving all our present industrial strength for war purposes, but for the sake of the economic welfare of the United States after the war in its international trade relations. If we do not avoid such a race between prices and wages both will increase steadily till the end of the war, when our wage level will be above that of the other belligerent countries in which there has been better control. And the country with the highest wage level will then be at a disadvantage. Its cost of production of all commodities will be above that of the other countries, which will put it out of the running in any competition in its own markets and in the markets of the world. And the high wage level will also bring an influx of labor which the country will not be able to handle. Every consideration, therefore, demands that a proper price level shall be maintained by government regulation, and this, of course, involves a form of state socialism.