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Show 1 ' ' J - X V X J Ml - ' " i , : " 1 JiSJ..:--vVi'r &&-.te?&Stf:v. . .vtx"':-JoJ cxxjwsao5e5tfsi&'i' V etilt-rn Newspaper UnlonV 1 Mit.vor Oillpn of Newark sup -rvlsing the sale ly ttie limnlcipality lo l lie iniliho of provisions bought from the government. - The U. K. 88, Hisi Ocriiian siilmuiritie to enter the Misslss'ppl, in dry dock at New Orleans for minor repairs. 3 First photogrnph a the "million dollar fire" at Columbry-les-Belles, France, when junked airplanes air-planes and other material were burned. HEWS REVIEW OF CURRENT EVENTS President Addresses Congress on Cost of Living and the Possible Pos-sible Remedies. PACKERS TO BE PROSECUTED General Campaign Is Started Against Profiteers Railway Unions Demand De-mand More Pay, Urge the Plumb Plan and Threaten to Strike. By EDWARD W. PICKARD. The open season for profiteers has come. If there is a bright spot in the world's sky, that is It. For the rest the clouds are black enough to suit the most confirmed pessimist. Government officials, investigating bodies, individual economists all have been earnestly seeking for the prime causes of the high cost of living. The cold-blooded, greedy profiteer who battens bat-tens on the misfortunes of the people Is the most easily discerned of those causes and is going to be the first to be dealt with. All the sympathy he gets must come from himself. President Wilson appeared before congress Friday and delivered a scholarly schol-arly essay on the subject, which included in-cluded various recommendations for legislative action, and told what the government already is doing in the way of curbing the operations of the profiteers. He urged the permanent extension of the food control act, a law regulating cold storage, a law requiring re-quiring that all goods entering interstate inter-state shipment be marked with the producers' price, prompt enactment of the pending capital Issues bill, and, what seems to the writer most important impor-tant of all, the passage of a law requiring re-quiring federal licensing of all corporations corpor-ations engaged in interstate commerce. The president did not overlook the opportunity to push the immediate ratification of the peace treaty and league covenant. He devoted much of his message to assertions, In varied form, that until peace Is established only provisional and makeshift results can be accomplished in the way of reducing re-ducing living costs. There can be no settled conditions anywhere in the world, he declared, until the treaty is out of the way. Such views did not meet with the approval of most of the Republican Re-publican congressmen, and their Indignation Indig-nation was aroused by the fact that the president used the domestic Issue as a weapon In the contest over the League of Nations. Most prominent of the alleged profiteers profit-eers are the Chicago packers, the "big five" who are reputed to control much of the world's food supplies. Some time ago they were investigated by the federal, trade commission and that body-made body-made a report that was bitterly attacked at-tacked by the defenders of the packers. pack-ers. Now with that report as a basis President Wilson has directed the department de-partment of justice to institute at once civil and criminal proceedings against the big five. The attorney general stated stat-ed that he was satisfied the evidence developed indicated a clear violation of the anti-trust laws, and that Isador J. K reset of New York was in charge of the prosecution. The packers are to be accused of unfairly and illegally using their power to manipulate live stock markets, to restrict Interstate and international supplies of foods, to control the prices of dressed meats and other foods, to defraud both the producers and the consumers of foods, to crush competition, to secure special privileges from railroads, stock yards companies and municipalities, ami to profiteer. The department of justice will proceed again-- them not only for violation of the mifi-trust laws but also under the provisions of the food law of 1918 against the hoarding food. As for the heads of the big packing companies, some of them profess to welcome the legal action as giving them n chance to demonstrate to the public their Innocence, barmiessnes-i and helplessness, help-lessness, and all of them repeat ihcir oft heard protestations that they are the victims of economic conditions beyond be-yond anybody's control. Their assertions asser-tions that they make an almost lnfin-itesmal lnfin-itesmal profit and often operate at a loss do not seem to make much impression im-pression on either the public or the agencies of justice. That their statements state-ments are not always ingenuous is instanced in-stanced by the following assertion of the "commercial research department" of one of the big five: "The general high price level Is not due to manipulation. This is shown by a recent report of the war industries indus-tries board, which proves that prices in other countries of the world have risen as much as or more than they have in the United States, and that this has been true even In countries relatively unaffected by war conditions, such as Japan and Australia." The truth is that Australia is glutted with food products and its people are struggling to keep prices up to a profitable prof-itable level. Also, while there was a big advance In the prices of Japan's chief food, rice, It was admittedly due to the manipulations of hoarders and profiteers and was the cause of riots and of government action. The sugar situation is confusing and statements are as conflicting as those relating to the packing industry. However the government believes the sugar men also are profiteering and three officials of the Pittsburgh branch of a Chicago concern were arrested. It is asserted that scalpers have vast quantities of sugar stored away and that dealers are forced to buy where they can and pay what is asked. In this, as In the case of other food products, prod-ucts, the accused say the government is partly' to blame for shipping vast supplies to Europe and thus creating a domestic shortage. The concerted attacks by federal and local authorities authori-ties caused Immediate and sharp declines de-clines in the wholesale prices of many foods, but there was little evidence that the consumer was profiting by the declines, which seemed to put some of the onus on the retailers. The federal trade commission lately late-ly has been making an inquiry into the shoe business, and has Informed congress con-gress that the high prices of shoes are due to the unprecedented and unjustified unjust-ified profits taken by the slaughterers, tanners, manufacturers and dealers. Here, again, the packers are hit, for they are charged with causing an unwarranted un-warranted increase in the price of hides, the supply of which they are said to control. Following up the memorandum of the locomotive engineers' presented to die president, fourteen railroad unions uni-ons acting as a unit handed to Director General Hines a demand for wage increases in-creases with a general program designed de-signed to meet the present crisis, involving in-volving the threat of a general railroad strike. They ask that congress appropriate appro-priate the money to provide increased pay and that the proper rate-making body then determine what increases if any should be made In rates. "Any permanent solution of the railroad rail-road problem must necessarily remove the element of returns to capital as the sole purpose of operation," say the unions, and so the director general Is asked to recommend to President Wilson Wil-son that be try to obtain the passage by congress of the so-called Plumb plan. "This plan, in eliminating private pri-vate capital from the railroads, not only proposes but demands that the present private owners be reimbursed with government bonds for "every honest hon-est dollar that they have invested"; that the public, the operating manage-I manage-I incuts, and labor share equally in cor-! cor-! poratlons to take over the railroads, ' and that In all revenues In excess of the guarantee to private capital Ihenp-i Ihenp-i erators and employees share one-ha'f. j "either by increasing the means for j service without increasing fixed charg-I charg-I es or by reducing the cost of the service ser-vice which the machinery then in ser-render." ser-render." The union leaders say that if the Plumb plan Is rejected they will start a campaign both In and out of congress con-gress th-jt will compel Its adoption, ! and they declare frankly that it Is their hope that it will lead to the nationall- zation of all other basic industries. ; Senator Thomas of Colorado do-i do-i notinced tin demands of the rail work-i work-i ers as near treason, and oilier niem-! niem-! hers of congress shared his opinion, tlioii''' 'lev were less outspoken. Already the railroads of the country are greatly hampered by the strike of the shop workers. This was not authorized au-thorized by the national unions, and it began to collapse when the president told the men their demands would not be considered until they resumed worli, Both England and France are handling han-dling their tremendous labor difficulties fairly well. In the former the strike of city policemen seems to be a failure, fail-ure, though In Liverpool it was accompanied accom-panied by serious rioting. In France the workers have sensibly agreed to postpone all strikes for six months and meantime they will join with the employers em-ployers and the government in earnest efforts to solve the problems of wages and prices to stimulate greater production, pro-duction, which alone, it Is believed, can save their coutnry from economic disaster. It would be an unmeasur-able unmeasur-able blessing if some of the common sense that has moved the French laborers la-borers to keep up production could be instilled in the American workers so they might realize that in cutting off production they are cutting their own throats. Chicago's race war, which at bottom was largely industrial and partly political, po-litical, practically came to an end, and on Thursday more than 3,000 colored employees of the packing houses returned re-turned to work. As they walked in, a large number of white employees laid down their tools and quit, some of them because most of the colored workers are nonunion and others because be-cause they objected to laboring under police and military protection. After Bela Kun and his communist government of Hungary quit and made way for the Socialists things moved rapidly in Budapest. The Roumanian army, which had routed the Hungarian Red troops, advanced to the city and occupied it, and Roumania issued an ultimatum to Hungary which was not countenanced by the allied peace council. coun-cil. Therefore French and American troops were sent to Budapest and assumed as-sumed control and the Roumanians were told they must get out. Next the socialist government was overthrown and its members arrested and Archduke Arch-duke Joseph assumed power with the title of governor of the state. He was supported by the entente mission in the city and announced he would form a coalition cabinet with Stephen Friedrich as premier. The Austrian peace delegates made their counter-proposals to the treaty terms submitted by the allies. These were unexpectedly mild and the complaints com-plaints of the Austrians are almost pathetic. They assert that too much territory is taken from their country, citing especially the Tyrol and southern south-ern Bohemia, and say the war debt loaded on them Is so heavy they are not sure the Austrian people can exist under such conditions. Japan, through Foreign Minister Uchida, promises to restore Shantung to China on conclusion of arrangements arrange-ments with the Peking government to carry out the pledge given in the agreement of 1915. President Wilson, however, now reveals the fact that the Japanese peace delegates gave substantially sub-stantially the same promise In the inter-allied conference of April 30 without with-out any reference to the agreement of 1915. The president believes the Japanese Jap-anese statement clears up the doubt about the Shantung affair. Secretary of State Lansing told the senate foreign for-eign relations committee that China had never protested to t lie president against the Shantung settlement by j the allied peace- council: that the j clause was accepted by the decision of I the president and that he. Mr. l.an-' l.an-' s!ng. did not believe It was needed to obtain Japan's adherence to Ihe League of Nations. Secretary of War Baker has presented pre-sented to the house and senate committees com-mittees on military affairs the administration admin-istration bill for a permanent military policy. It calls for a regular army with a peace strength of 510.000 and a war strength of 1.250,000. the reserves I to he provided through a modified form i of the selective service act. Included j Is a system of military 'raining of i three months for all elif IMe youths in their nineteenth year. This feature I may gain for the bill the support of Ihe advocates of u.ilversal military j I training, |