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Show QUICKER ACTION TO COMBAT HIGH PRICES URGED IN CONGRESS WASHTN"GTOX, Aug. IS. Quicker action ac-tion by congress in the campaign to reduce re-duce the cost of living was urged today on senate and house. Senator Walsh declared de-clared high prices were at the bottom of all the unrest and charged that congress con-gress was wasting time when some tiling should have been done already in response re-sponse to President Wilson's recommendations. recommen-dations. Mayors of New Jersey cities appearing ! before the house agricultural committee : said action was needed at once to stop j the rising scale of prices. Regulation of I imports was one means suggested. The j amendment broadening the food control act will be considered tomorrow by the committee and probably reported to the house. Sale of surplus army food began today at storage centers throughout the country. coun-try. Definite reports were not available, I but it was believed that orders had been ; received for many millions of pounds oE . canned meats, beans and other staples, to be sent out by parcel post. ! Debate in congress was occupied to a great extent by living cost problems. Absence of a quorum in-the house delayed de-layed until tomorrow final action on a resolution calling for the federal trade commission to begin immediate inquiry into "the Increase in the price of shoes." Representative Siegel of New York, Republican, Re-publican, submitted figures on the increased in-creased cost of clothing, which he said were obtained by New York clothing manufacturers, and showed that "in most cases the retailer makes 50 per cent profit and in some places 100 per cent." The manufacturers' cost, he said, was due to the cost of labor. He presented figures fig-ures to show that an overcoat costing the manufacturer $10.80 in 1917 advanced to $17.57 in 1918 and to $22.62 by last week. He urged that dealers be required, re-quired, to mark the cost prices on all commodities. The United Fruit company was attacked by Representative Fitzgerald of Massachusetts, Massa-chusetts, Democrat, who asserted it had made a 40 per cent profit and paid off millions of dollars of bonded indebtedness indebted-ness not due for some time. Investigation of freight charges to determine de-termine whether there was fraud in capitalization capi-talization of railroads, as charged before be-fore the interstate commerce committee, was urged by Representative Huddleston of Alabama, Democrat, who asserted the transportation charges affect retail prices "three or four times." "If you want to bring down the cost of shoes," declared Representative Good of Iowa, Republican, "all that Is necessary neces-sary is for the president to put an embargo em-bargo on shoes and leather temporarily." Similar action on meat and other products prod-ucts would force down the domestic market, he added, declaring exports from the United 'States are of the greatest volume in history. Congress, he said, could do little to reduce the cost of living, while the punishment of profiteers, he added, was the only suggestion "that will get anywhere and that not very far." The embargo proposal of Mr. Good was attacked by Representative Sanders of Louisiana, Democrat, who said its "effects "ef-fects would be too horrible" by starving the world. He defended the government price fixing of sugar, asserting that without with-out It the cost would have been 16 to 20 cents a pound, despite the fact that sugar Is plentiful : "There is no reason why the grocer cannot sell 100 pounds to one person as well as one pound;" asserted Mr. Panders, Pan-ders, "unless it is that the market is, dominated and controlled by the American Ameri-can sugar trust." Cotton manufacturers also were attacked at-tacked by Sanders, who asserted that they could pay 60 cents a pound for the raw product and "still make a reason- able profit." Producers of both cotton and sugar, he said, did not get a high , price. |