Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1917 — PROMPT ACTION IMPERATIVE [ARTICLE]

PROMPT ACTION IMPERATIVE

The recent indictment of -the onion combine in Boston, and later of the egg trust in Chicago should pry open the eyes of our national law makers to the very potent fact that there is something rotten in. the United States —very rotten. For months now the people of this country have insisted that the present extortionate prices of commodities are traceable to the price manipulators; that while there may be a scarcity in certain lines of commodities, that scarcity is not by any means' acute enough to warrant, the almost prohibitive cost of the articles in question. It was ho surprise to the public to learn that the Chicago egg gang ■worked their scheme through fictitious sales. As a matter of fact; that is the established method of those gentry. Their whole nefarious'business is pure gamble and Squeeze, always at the expense of the consumer.

But with the exception of the prosecutions undef the Sherman law it seems that we are a long time in securing any relief. These prosecutions will not be a drop in the bucket, from the fact that they are likely to be long-drawn out and tedious, and to amount to very little in the end, The people of this country have not forgotten the farcical prosecution of the Standard Oil company and how very little, was accomplished'. . '. f , In the present emergency there is bat one remedy, and that is in government intervention to regulate prices, and from present indications we, fear another crop ’will be harvested and bagged by the speculating hogs before the law steps in and introduces a rule of reason and sanity. We believe the President is doing the best he can to this ehd, but he is handicapped by the procrastination of congress and the machinations of the hirelings of the speculators. One thing is certain, we must have both a maximum and a minimum price establishedidJn all commodities. The producer as well as the consumer must bo protected. If necessary, the products should be, marketed by government" bureaus, thus eliminating entirely the thieving horde of speculative middlemen. Bread riots are too near for comfort. They would be fatal in our national crisis. Herbert C. Hoover, the U. S, food expert, says that food speculators have been taking $50,000,000 a month from the American people for the past five months! No one will question this statement except to say that the estimate is probably too low. And yet they are permitted to go.> ahead and continue their thievery and gather in their ill-gotten millions! Pending food control regulations in congress President Wilson should act —-in fact should have acted lon-f ago—to put these freebooters out of business, using for his slogan the words of his immortal predecessor. President ’Jackson, who once said, “If there is no law that will enable me to act, by the eternal I’ll make one!” All accounts for merchandise must be settled by July 1, 1917, either by cash or bankable note. —■ THE G. E. MURRAY CO.