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Show j on food was 85 per cent; shelter 23 per cent; clothing 100 per cent; fuel, heat and light 57 per cent. Few people realize to what eitent economic condition already have been i transformed. The old shibboleths of supply and demand; of competition and the like, are being used without a realization reali-zation that they are losing, if they have not lost, their meaning. "We still talk of competition in trade when practically there is no such thing. The country is paying a tax on foods not imposed by the government. The average housewife knows that this tax is none the less a tax because it is imposed by combinations combina-tions and not by the government. It is obvious that a readjustment must follow. But the processes of that readjustment must include protection against deliberate manipulation of the nation's supplies of necessary commodities. commod-ities. The productive elements still reside re-side in this country. They must not bo delivered to the unrestrained throttlo of profiteering combinations. ; CONGRESS TO ACT. According to Lender Mondell congress con-gress will take tho action proposed by the president in his address before the joint session on tho high cost of living. Soma of the senators are not inclined to go so far as Mr. Mondell, but there is much reason for the hope that tho necessary legislation will be enacted. In "the meantime the war department is sending price lists to postmasters throughout the country through which consumers may place their orders for surj.ius food stocks now in the hands of rthe government. These orders will betaken on and after August IS. The rar department 's price list shows that the consumer will be able to buy bacon at -25 cents a pound, baked beans for o cents a pound, flour at ?6 per hundred pounds, and other commodities at ' equally low prices. The effect of this order should be felt almost immediately. The government has vast stores of food purchased for the army on hand, for which it has no use now that most of the- men called to the colors have been demobilized. Much of this food would spoil if kept in storage a year or two, andrnow is the time to place it in the hands of tho people who were taxed to purchase it. :Ia speaking of the resumption of specie payments Horace Greeley said "the way to resume is to resume." The saying holds good as regards the effort ef-fort to bring down the high cost of liv- in.Mn other words, the way to reduce j is to reduce. If the administration and congress can pull together long enough j to place the necessary laws upon the statute books, all will be well. Otherwise Other-wise not. It must be realized at the outset, however, that the.'u are many conflicting interests and that representatives repre-sentatives of these interests will fiock to Washington to demand a hearing, j It must also be realized that a great many innocent business men are likely to suffer heavy financial loss while an attempt is being made to prevent the ; profiteers from piling up reat wealth at thVexpense of the great mrss of 7eo- ' pie who are now being charged exorbi- ! tant. prices for the necessaries of life.; We have no desire to witness any such j thing as running amuck. Nevertheless, ' food prices must be brought within rea- i eonable limits before the snows of win- j ter begin to fall. j The-signing of the armistice was j hailed as the end to bloodshed and fear- j ful destruction, and the people gave i thanks at the approach of peace. Down in their hearts also they were mighty j glad- that with peace would come at I least a partial lifting of the load of j wartime price additions. They believed be-lieved that as soon as the nation was . rid of wartime restrictions and controls end freedom was restored to individual en'erprise and free play to the economic eco-nomic factor of competition, increased production and lower prices would nec- essarih- prevail. Many months of ex- I pcrimcntation with control has proved I these expectations to be unfounded, at ; any rsip'so far as foodstuffs are con- ! ccrned. I The mistake seems to consist in supposing sup-posing that in the world of 1919 the ' economic fac'or of competition and operation, op-eration, or what tho old economists j called the law of supply and demand, j still plays a part in regulating the prices j of commodities. Tho truth 1b that this country, in common with others, is pass- i ing through a period of economic trans- I formation in which free competition to a very large extent is ceasing to cxi3t. Prices-are no longer determined by supply sup-ply and demand exclusively, as the old I theorists were wont to declare; nor are ! ih'y established by competition. Thcv "': sin; fixed by the control of great trade j combinations and organizations which I in one form or another at some stage of production, transportation or distribution distribu-tion now add in varying degrees to the I price of practically everything which the coi-sumer must buy. Reports of the federal trade commis- i;on dhow that food supplies in the I nltH .States have increased since the ' outbreak of the war, but price increases have been even greater. After a mr-vr-y of conditions the country ov r, the e.a'iijunl industrial eonferenco board aaiiondee, that the r-,,Hi of living for I An.rrlran wage c.arr.'rs wns 71 per cent I hihtr in Jul;; of I'lta than at the nut- j break ,,t t(,,, world v.ar in July of 101-1. i 'ibis is Maid to include an advance of i . per cent since :,,t M;,rr, nn, f jo , fer rent since June of last year. The i iot.-i) incrr-av for t(,; five venr period |