Indianapolis News, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 August 1919 — Page 1
NEARING THE END
in Chicago District Still Re fuse to Return to Work, but Many Others Are Back.
OFFICIALS OPTIMISTIC
Denver and St. Louie Employes Again on Duty, and Favorable Action It Taken in East.
Admit They Stopped
S NEWS
rtrmt Mmrmm Month* me
Dally average circulation City and County .66,09(1 Grand Total.. .114.768
/
TWENTY-FOUR PAGES i THREE CENTS
WEAPONS TO BE H. C. L FIGHT, SAYS L ERT SLA
MOTIVE
Action Was Baaed on Report James Slim Had No Established Place of Stftlneee—He Hae.
Staff
Meir#J August 12.— Slim, of Covington, complained to the that he ent for low- , ering prices and reducing the nigh I | cost of living in hta| town, he did not know what he was starting. Mr. Slim is not regarded as an aggresI Bivc person. | **l never fought any one In my life." he told Karl Houck, federal Inveatlga- - “and I don't wiah to fight other They are all my frlenda and I want to live peaceto put you out of Houck.
responded Mr. is federal offl-
- nervous. and how It
on the
‘ otTstudy
truck. He
.. ..
Webster Wholesale Grouty at Danvlile had refused goods, and that the refusal on a threat by Covington to refuse to deal with the •m If the Webster company
I to sell him goods.
Firm Officlala Summoned. Mr. Houck late yesterday afternoon August L. Webster, president of — company; George R. Angle, and credit man. and
secretary-treasurer
r at the office of A. it United States disthe Federal building, t the books of the firm were questioned at con-
by Mr. Dsnnts.
e men made a statement of their annual business, the cost and profits, and showed to the satisfaction of Mr. Houck that the firm was not proflteer1 — . But when Mr. Slim’s case was ht up they were not quite so clear, all admitted that their firm had refused to sail him goods, basing their refusal on the statement of one of their traveling meh that Mr. Slim had no established place of business in Covington, and It was their rule not to sell to persons without places of business that
were well established.
When Mr. Houck explained that Mr.
Slim’s store was about forty feet deep with a frontage of at least twenty feet and that he had been doing business in it for years, they expressed surprise,
them denied that he had knowlMr. Slim’s price cutting ven-
I Insisted
CHICAGO, August 12.—Condiditions due to the strike of rgilway shopmen were reported improved today in practically every district of the country except Chicago, Boston and Atlanta. According to reports received by railway officials in Chicago, all shopmen on the Norfolk A Western and Southern railways returned today and on the Louisville A Nashville road Is large number of men are back at their posts. Every shopman on the Seaboard Line has obeyed President Will edict and returned to work, and 1,000 men employed by the Baltimore A Ohio road at Baltimore are back. Conditions at Clevealnd and Columbus are reported nearly normal. Men in Northweet Back. Five hundred shopmen on the Chicago St Northwestern, and the Chicago, Milwaukee St St. Paul road in the northweet, returned, which enabled the former road to remove its recent embargo on perishable freight consigned to points in Iowa. One thousand car builders, who voted to go out yesterday, reconsidered their action today and decided to remain at
work.
It is estimated that there are about 28,000 shopmen out fn Chicago and vi-
cinity.
International officials today addressed a mass meeting of boiler makers urging
them to return to work. Denver Men to Return.
ACTION TO COMBAT H. C. L. Representative of Stanley Wyckoff, federal food administrator for Marion county, on market keeping in touch with sales. L. Ert Slack, United States district attorney, announces pitiless publicity will be given all persons or firms known to be profiteering. Meeting of housewives called for Wednesday afternoon at public library to form organization to take up fight against high cost of living. , . .Jr'4-..4.;- . ,Governor Goodrich, H. E. Barnard, federal food administrator for Indiana, and Ele Stans bury, attorney-general, in conference to push state efforts in fight Claris Adams, Marion county prosecutor, cuts vacation short and returns to Indianapolis to start action aganst food profiteers. Meeting held to arrange joint plana of co-operation between state, county and federal bodies. Commttee of market standholders called to meet by A. L. Taggart, president of board of safety, to discuss market conditions with Harry Libeau, market master, and Mr. Barnard.
PUBLIC AGIIATION CREDITED EOR CUT
General Trend of Food Prices Is I Shown to Be Slightly Downward.
MANY NEW DEVELOPMENTS
0. $. monte BEGINS
1 "
Cut In War Goods Is Government Plan for Readjustment of Retail Market Reduction.
COMMISSION’S LEGAL ADM ELS STORY
MILLER EXPLAINS LEAGUE NATIONS BASIS.
SENATORS ''; V ,-^t
ASK QUESTIONS
l WASHINGTON, August 12.-With the original American draft of a league of nations covenant before it, the foreign relations committee today began the questioning of David Hunter Miller, adviser to the league of nations commis-
sion of Versailles.
Questioned by Senator Brandegee, Reublfcan, Connecticut, Mr. Miller said e was a law partner of Gordon Auchincloss, son-in-law of E. M. House, one of the American delegates to the peace
conference.
"Did you have any experience in in ternatlonal affairs. In drafting treaties?” asked Senator Brandegee “Not prior to my appointment as a
wa« sont that! 8 J >ecia - 1 assistant In the state depart-
From Denver the report was sent tnai | , hor0y after the United States
6,000 striking shopmen voted to return to work today, pending the result of
that no merchant of
had ever complained to them or by letter or by wire about
as a price cutter, and declared they had not shut him off on that account.
Neither Affirm Nor Deny.
They did not affirm nor deny that such price cutting as Mr. Slim Indulged in might influence them, because the other merchants of Covington carried larger accounts than Mr. Slim did. They ad-
Continued on Page Twenty-ona.
MARINES OE EUROPEAN
FAME REVIEWED
SECOND DIVISION BRIGADE PARADES AT WASHINGTON.
the national referendum being taken and which must be completed by August 24. At St. Louis It was announced that all striking shopmen Of the St. Louis Sk San Francisco raiiroad, numbering about 7,ODD, were at work and as a result the embargo on freight shipments was removed. At Minneapolis letters to 25.000 striking shopmen in the northwest urging their return to work at once were sent out. The letters were signed by nine men prominently identified with the strike, including chairmen of six of the unions affiliated with the Federated Railway Shopmen. Assurances to the public that there was no occasion for apprehension again were given by R. H Alshton. north western regional director, and Hale Holden, director of the central western region. ■ “All food, ice and milk and some nonperishable freight are being moved, Mr. Alshton said. “Chicago has been one of the rail centers hardest hit by the walkout and yet the result here has not been as serious as in many other places. What the supervisors, superintendents and other executives have ac compllshed has been little short of a miracle. Some of them are even shoveling cinders to keep the traffic moving.” EASTERN OUTLOOK BETTER.
PRESIDENT WATCHES MARCH
WASHINGTON, August 12.—First of the world war to be reviewed by President Wilson, the brigade of the 2d division, marched today over Pennsylvania avethe capitol to the White
Some Employes of New Haven Road
Vote to Return.
BOSTON. August 12.—Cinfidence that the end of the mechanics' strike and the consequent resumption of normal service on the New Bngl&nd railroads would be brought about within a few days, was expressed b/ railroad officlala here, today. Strike leaders would make no comment on the action of the shopmen In Manchester and Nashua. N. H., in voting, yesterday, to return to work, other than to declare that the men will act finally as a body and that there could be no return before Saturday In the event that a majority of other locals took a similar stand. General transportation conditions on the affectedi railroads remained unchanged today, except for further curtailment In the passenger train schedule of the New York. New Haven & Hartford. Officials of the Boston A Maine and the Boston & Albany railroads planned to continue operations on the schedules established yesterday. ' . :
it^tht men h whoVnn^nHv.i me men wno won undv
T
.8*11
p the German the darkest conflict. The conby adjourning for veterans of Chateau Mont Blanc, St.
B. A O. Employes Return.
MANCHESTER. N. H., August 11 — Repairmen and car inspectors of the Boston St Maine railroad, who have been on strike here since Thursday,
returned to work today.
Southern Men at Work.
DANVILLE. Va., August 12
compliance with President request. Southern railway returned to work today.
entered the war.”
Mr. Miller said he never had heard of any plan for a league drafted by New York lawyers and taken to Parts by the President. Senator Brandegee asked “as of what date” the “territorial Integrity* 1 mentioned under Article X of the covenant was to be guaranteed.
Regarding Boundaries.
"1 understand the boundaries and territorial Integrity of nations are to be guaranteed primarily as they existed at the signing of the treaty, and secondarily as they may be determined under the treaty by plebiscite! for instance." The plan for & league of nations used as a basis of discussion at Versailles, was not in any of the drafts submitted by the United .States, Great Britain, France or Italy, but was a combination of all of them, Mr. Miller said. Chairman Lodge and President Wilson had told the committee at the White House in March that the British plan drawn by General Smuts was used as a basis of consideration, but the witness protested that such was not his recollection. The plan taken as a basis of discussion, he said, “was modeled to some extent on the other plans, but it was not the Smuts plan.”
Recalls an Open Session.
The witness said he had submitted memoranda on the American plan, but did not see the finished product until Continued on Page Twenty.
MANY SHOPMEN FAVOR
AHACK BY LODGE
Senator Describes Covenant as “Deformed Experiment Upon a Noble Purpose.”
CITES ITS WAR PROVISIONS
Declares “Alliance” Would “Plunge United States Into Every Controversy on the Face of the Globe.”
WASHINGTON, Auguat 12.—Deacribing the league of nationa as a “deformed experiment upon a noble purpose,” Senator Lodfee, of Massachusetts, chairman of the foreign relations committee and Republican leader of the senate, declared in a senate speech today that there were features of the league covenant which “as an American ” he never
' c™tfo?not t . tawm, of ..woo .k.fj on ’ ub -
WHEAT PRICE CHANGES
RESUMPTION Of WORK DEMANDED BY FARMERS
SENTIMENT SHOWS RADICALS ARE LOSING CONTROL.
SOME STRIKERS STILL OUT
In
Wilson’s
gjS S them ^ , home. and fixed bayonets gave triumph to the r-General Wencommander of the briparade Assistant Secentertained the field wives at luncheon. fffstassrsr.s?^ I that, of *
See Parade. fixed and carrying light the two regiments and men in allavenue in platoons, while the crowds police lines cheered
GREY TO BE AMBASSADOR?
London Reports Say Former Foreign
Minister May Come to U. S. LONDON. August 12 (by the .Associat-
ed Press).—Viscount Grey, of Falloden, who retired as head of the British foreign office in 1916, it is understood, is likely to accept the post of British am-
bassador to the United States.
Reports received by railroad officials from other railroad centers today indicate that the radical leadership among the railroad shopmen who walked out last w^ek in an unauthorized strike Is rapdily losing control and that among the conservative element sentiment is growing in favor of returning to work in compliance with the demand of President Wilson and of conducting negotiations through the officers of the national brotherhoods. Approximately 400 shop employes of the Cincinnati. Indianapolis & Western railroad are back at work In the Moorefield shops and the roundhouse.
Tires of Quitting.
It is understood that representations
shopmen I havi been made to the men by strike
leaders but that a majority are tired of quitting their Jobs and then going
an alliance embracing many “provisions for war,” the covenant in its present form, he asserted, would kill the Monroe Doctrine, nullify any possibility of withdrawal from membership, impair the sovereign power of deciding domestic questions, and “plunge the United States Into every controversy and con-
flict on the face of the globe.
Warm 6a to Beware.
“Let us beware,” he said, "how we palter with our independence. We have not reached the great position from which we were able to come down Into the field of battle and help to save the world from tyranny, by being guided by others. Our vast power has all been built up and gathered together by our-
selves alone.
“We forced our way upward from the days of the revolution, through a world often hostile and always indifferent. We owe no debt to any one except to France in our revolution and those policies and those rights on which our power has Continued on Page Twenty.
WASHINGTON, August 12.— President Wilson today asked the congress for authority to use the secret service in running down profiteers and food hoarders and for an appropriation of $175,000 for the
work.
n>s Indianapolis News Baroaa,
88 Wyatt Building.
WASHINGTON, August 12.—Reports from all over the country to various governmental organizations today showed that the cost of living situation was easing the slightest trifle in most communities. While negligible variations in prices only were reported, the general trend appeared distinctly to be downward and this was taken as a most favorable indication of a possible steady revision downward of all prices, once the effect of the present agitation ia
permitted to take full force. Popular Agitation Effective.
It is doubtful whether any or all of the measures taken by the odmlnlstra tion have hod any effect at all except to strike terror In the hearts of the profiteers, but It seems certain that popular agitation has had its effect and that the public, having indicated that it will not stand for the upward tendency of prices, has itself been responsible for
the present situation.
The war department asserts that the food It Is selling Is having its effect on high prices, but this is somewhat doubtful, although the department is being generally commended for the manner in which it Is handling the food, once It got
started.
T<r Fix Its Own Prices.
“It will be the policy of the war de-
STATE’S AGENCIES OPEN PRICE WAR
Governor, Attorney-General and Food Administrator Effect Battle Lines.
PROFIT INQUIRY DECIDED
Indiana to Be Covered by Network
of Evidence Collection to Prosecute Commodity Profiteer*.
sistence commodities which will be lower than the prices at which similar commodities of like grade are selling In the retail market,” the department de-
Continued on Page Twenty.
Governor Goodrich, Ele Stansbury, attorney-general, and H. E. Barnard, federal food adminstrator in Indiana, today conferred relative to the state fight in Indiana against the food, rent, clothing and domestic commod-
ity profiteer.
The Governor has been out of the city and will leave tonight for the remainder of the week. Press of business brought him here yesterday and the first thing he did today was to call a conference of the heads of the fight in Indiana and make note of their progresa In the anti-
profiteer battle.
Clearing House Established. Three Important divisions of the work
virtually were effected by the conference. The Governor'e office will become
| a sort of clearing house for all !nf<
Goes Though Pile of Letters Concerning Prices Being Charged for Necessaries of Life in Various Indiana Cities and Agents of Bureau of investigation Are Instructed to Make Inquiries.
TRADE RESTRAINT PENALTY
ACTION APPROVED BY COMMITTEE.
SENATE
NOW GOES BEFORE BARNES
MORE FOOD IN STORAGE. CHICAGO, August 12—There were 13,650,514 more pounds of butter in cold storage houses in Illinois today than a year ago, it was shown in figures compiled by the bureau of markets for District-Attorney Qyne. There were also 33$,207 more cases of eggs in storage than one year ago. The figures: Butter today, 31,324,118 pounds; a year ago, 17,933,604 pounds. Eggs today, 875,880 cases (thirty-six dozen to a ease); a year sgo, 536,673 cases.
voted 210 to 12 to remain at work. Big! Four officials eay that only the men In their Indianapolis shops are not at work.
Back at Work.
Pennsylvania railroad officials have been advised by the shops at Terre | Haute. Brazil and Effltngham, 111., that the men have returned to work. The] Terre Haute shops employ 1.900 men, and about fifty are employed at the
other two shops.
Craftsmen of the Big Four. Pennsylvania and the Indianapolis Union shops in this city, however, are still on strike. Representatives of the men are holding daily meetings at Germania hall, the headquarters of the unauthorised strike movement in this city.
WASHINGTON, August 12.-Demands that changes be made in government wheat standards under the price guarantee act “so as not to penalize every grower of wheat,” were made In a statement prepared by Chairman Gronna and representatives of farm organizations and approved today by the senate agriculture committee. Chairman Gronna announced that a committee would be named to present the demands to Julius H. Barnes, president of the United States Grain Corporation, and representatives of the department of agriculture In the hope of having modified government regulations by which It was charged “the producers are defrauded and the consumers receive no benefit.”
INCREASE IN RECEIPTS RESULT OF FIGHT ON PROFITEERING.
STORAGE GOODS RELEASED
CHICAGO. August 12.--Concerted at tacks by federal, state and municipal officials on the high cost of living re suited today in lower prices of many articles of produce to Chicago consumers. It was the first definite benefit to resqjt from the attacks on food profiteers and hoarders. Withr the decrease in wholesale and retail price, there came a substantial increase in receipts of various articles of food. It was said
Injustice Done Farmer.
In the. statement designed to give the farmers’ side of the high cost of living question, the senate committee said it believed grave injustice was being done the former and might “continue to accumulate and seriously injure not only agriculture, but the entire nation as
well.” >
Millions of bushels of wheat have been shriveled by the heat this season. It was declared, and under present grading rules can not sell for more than $1.50 a bushel. Millers, however, plan to gather up this grain and make it into . high grade fiour to sell at prices based | on No. 1 wheat, the statement said. “While entirely sympathetic with the hardships which present prices cause the people of the city.” the statement said, “fanners individually and through their organizations are no less concerned with their own economic sltua-
| tion.
Should
to work only to be again caL-d out The men have expressed tneir decision to railroad officials to negotiate only through the regularly elected officers of
the brotherhood.
Says Many Still Out.
A member of the strike committee at the headquarters in Germania hall, today declared that at least 7,000 shopmen are still on strike in Indianapolis. This figure, he said, is a conservative estimate. He declared that there is no immediate prospect of the men returning to work. The men. he said, will not return to work until some definite assurance is received from the railroad administration that they will receive the increase in wages they have demanded. Information has been received by Big Four railroad officials that a delegation from the Indianapolis strike committee visited the shops at Mattoon, 111., Monday night in an attempt to induce the men to quit work. Word received at«
the Big Four office ht that the men | ernment is now being set in motion to
apprehend and bring to justice those who are guilty of conspiring to restrain trade and secure undue profits. But it must be remembered that this drive is now coming at a time when the great staple products of the farm are going to market, and that in selling the wheat crop, for instance, the farmer is selling his entire season's labor. This is an experience with which the farmer is very familiar and he instinctively connects it with the interests which in the past have pyramided their profits
that producers were rushing shipments to the Chicago market In fear of further reduction of prices in the near future and large quantities of supplies were being taken out of cold storage ware-
houses and offered for sale.
The first sale yesterday of army canned gopds at two downtown department stores resulted In the disposal of fri.OCO cans of corn and peas at a saving of 80 per cent, over the current retail price. To meet this competition there was a general reduction of price by re-
tailers.
• The prevailing retail price for sugar was 12 and 13 cents a pound in a majority of stores after the federal food administration officials had declared that 12 cents was a fair price. A few days ago sugar sold as high as 18 cents a pound. Potatoes today dropped 21 a 100 pounds in retail price, and there was a corresponding reduction in nearly all vegetables and fruits. . The price of peaches tumbled after the receipt of eighty cars from southern Illinois, Oklahoma, Missou'ri, Arkansas and California. ACCUSED OF MUODER ON RETURN FROM flERAL TWO WOMEN ARRESTED AFTER BURIAL OF VICTIM.
■■PNPMBilPMViPilP for-
mation that may be of value to the state officials in their fight to put down
the household foea.
The attorney-general's office will spread a net of co-operation over the state with the assistance of the judicial circuit prosecutors and will collect evidence and prosecute cases established against violators of the state and antitrust law. The state food administration will establish price investigating committees In every county In the state and will begin an Investigation to determine what is a reasonable margin of profit between cost and sale prices as applied to the various domestic arti-
cles.
Meager Legal Authority.
The state officials each declared that there is meager legal authority for direct attack agaiast the profiteer, and they are calling on the public to support them with moral backing and on the public itself "to Investigate margins of profit. Information already nas reached the state authorities that organizations in the state whose members are in the profiteering class are fully aware that the state authorities can not go far legally to break down their practices and in some instances, it was declared, attorneys have been retained by the persons who may be charged with profiteering so that they may be advised as to how far they
may go within the law.
Governor Goodrich solicits all informa tion not of a trivial nature that will help put down the profiteering evil and stop the extortion of the public, espe
daily as to foodstuffs. Cites One Instance.
One such Instance that came to his attention was that of a cheese manufacturer who visited a retail store and inquired of the proprietor for the price of a brand of cheese the store was handling. The manufacturer learned, the Governor said, that the retailer was reselling the cheese at a 100 per cent, profit The manufacturer remonstrated with the retailer, whereupon the retailer is reported to have retorted that during the war the government told him where to step, and now that there are few enforceable regulations he proposes to
fa In, **
Attorney-General Stansbury declared
Continued on Page Twenty.
UPH.C.L0UES1NS
PROSECUTOR EXAMINES LAWS
THAT MAY BE USED.
Pitiless publicity is to be one of the weapons used by federal authorities in running down persons responsible for the abnormal cost of living, according to L. Ert Slack, United States attorney for Indiana, who today personally took up the work of directing the federal investigation of the food situation within
the state.
You may say for this department.” said Mr. Slack, "that not only are we going to prosecute, but we are going to give pitiless publcity to all persons who are found to be guilty of attempting by any means to keep up the prices of foodstuffs. We will give as much publicity as the newspapers will let us to the men who are responsible for keeping up or helping to keep up the oost
of living.”
; Goes Through Letters.
The first work at hand for the district attorney when he returned to hie office after spending his vacation at Edinburg. Johnson county, was . to go through a large pile of letters froix persons throughout the state who have sent information regarding dealers alleged to be using unfair means to keep up the cost of living. - .. Much of this Information was at once taken up by Mr. Slack as a baste for investigation, while some of it waa of so general a character as practically to be useless. In regard to the general Information, Mr. Slack said that much time would be saved and the work of the authorities expedited If informants would give specific Information on which agents of the bureau of investigation
could get to work at once.
The business operations of P. F. klay, of Straughn, Henry county, are to be investigated at once by the agents of the bureau of investigation. This action ^ was decided on by the district attorney, after reading information from Straughn alleging that May, a retail grocer, had been hoarding ■ sugar and selling It for 12 cents a pound, or 1 cent more than the price established by the United States food administration.
Inquiry at Rushville.
Instruction was also sent by the district attorney to the food Investigators at Rushville to make an Investigation of the cause for an Increase In the price of food at three restaurants at~ that place. Complaint pf these raises in price also came in letter from a resident of
Rushville.
T-
SERVICES HELD IN INDIANA
Remember Farmer.
“The powerful machinery of the gov-
m im,
Sim
me past nave pyrammeo tneir profits upon his production at the beginning
of the marketing season.
“Julius H. Barnes, of the United States Grain Corporation, opendly states
Continued on Page Ten.
c
I [Special to The Indianapolis News] DAXV1LLE. 111., August 12.-Mrs. Grace Whisman and Mrs. Martha Holtz were formally charged late yesterday with the murder of Walter J. Whisman. the former’s husband. They were arrested as they came from the funeral of Mr. WhLnnan, where they had gone is company with two deputy sheriffs. Charles Holtz, husband of the other accused woman, was shot as he lay asleep lost Saturday morning, the bullet striking the base of the skull, but he will recover. A few minutes later Mr. Whisman, who had rushed to aid Holta when the lafter’s wife called for help,
was shot and killed.
Both women say that burglars broke into the house and did the shooting, picking up Holtz's revolver from a dresser. Circumstantial evidence gathered by officers under the direction of John H. Lewman, state s attorney, is said to point to the wives of the men as
being the assailants.
The warrant for the arrest of the two women was sworn to by Mitchell Whisman, of Battle Creek, Neb., brother of the dead man. The body of Whisman was taken to West Lebanon, Ind., late yesterday for burial
CUTS SHORT HIS VACATION A thorough Investigation of what can be done through the enforcement of the law to reduce the high cost of living was started today by Claris Adams, Marion county prosecutor, who arrived in Indianapolis from a vacation trip. Prosecutor Adams believed the present situation is so critical and there is such a great call for public action against food profiteers that he cut his vacation a week short in order to come here and see what he could do a» an official. He at once began the examination of the antitrust law and other Indiana laws which might be used in prosecuting men who are wrongfully boosting the prices of foodstuffs and other supplies used by the householders.
Will Welcome Evidence.
made an investigation of ...»
which are being made by the prosecutor In that city to check illegal agreements for raising prices. Mr. Adams called on Samuel Doerfler, prosecutor In Cleveland, who is making a campaign against ae alleged combination of milk dealers in that city to raise the price of milk. The prosecutor has begun legal action against these dealers, and indictments have been returned. A careful inquiiy Into the successful methods of procedure in these cases by the Cleveland prosecutor was made by Prosecutor Adams In order that he might get pointers for the enforcement
of the Taw in Indianapolis.
Mr. Adams was contemplating a trip farther north when he read in the Indianapolis papers that Ele Stansbury, at-torney-general of Indiana, had said that the prosecutors of the state could take strong action against profiteers under the state law, and he decided to return to Indianapolis at onoe and to take whatever steps It appeared that the {prosecutor in this county should take, I
The handling of sugar will also come in for Investigation at Washington, Ind., where, it is reported to Mr. Slack; the wholesale price has been, in certain instances, 812.88 a hundred pounds. Particular attention will be paid to reports of high prices on sugar for the reason that A. Mitchell Palmer, attor-ney-general, In a general circular to the district attorneys, has called attention to the fact that the United States food administration takes the position that when sugar is retailing for more than 11 cents a pound that fact indicates that either the wholesaler or the retailer is making an unreasonable profit. It ie suggested by the attorney-gen-eral that, in the case of sugar dealers, licenses held under the provisions of the food control act may be canceled for illegal practices. Under the food control'act, licensee have been issued to all dealers in sugar except retailers doing a gross business amounting to $100,000 or less, and these dealers are prohibited from charging “exorbitant, unreasonable or unfair commissions, profit or storage charges” or from making resales in t{je same trade without reasonable Justification when such resales tend to make a higher market price to retailers and consumers
Federal Conspiracy Act.
Mr. Slack made it known during the day that he was determined to prosecute all persons guilty of violating the federal act against conspiracy In restraint of trade and the act against the hoarding of food. The conspiracy act provides for a penalty of $10,000 fine or two years In prison, or both, and the
The Marion county grand jury is now i hoarding aC t for a fine of $8,000 or two
in session, and Mr. Adams will welcome i any evidence that might be used in detecting illegal profiteering While in Cleveland, O-, Monday, Mr. Adams — - - - - investigation of the efforts
years in prison, or both. All information coming to the district attorney, which can be used by the state food administration, is to be turned over to that organisation. Investigations of high prices and means used In promoting such prices will be left largely to the various county food administrators by Mr. Sleek, who will use the bureau of investigation agents and special federal investigators under his direction for the purpose of ferreting out violations of the federal acts against conspiracy in restraint of trade and the
hoarding of food.
Definite information, not only fn regard to the hiijfi price of food, but also In regard to the high price of clothing or rents, will be received St the office of the district attorney. A conference to arrange for the Joint werk Continued on Page Twenty.