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Show IIS THERE A RFMEDY FO HIGH PRICES? Europe's awful crime and tragedy jj lis having its serious effects on the United States, and one of the adversities ad-versities inflicted on this country is the high cost of living. Such is Henry Clews' conclusion, alter analyzing the causes leading up to present food shortage and high prices. The New York banker shows how difficult is Ithe task of attempting to control food supplies and the other necessities of life and regulate the cost of living. 'War, he says, is the real cause for hish prices and abnormal conditions I nvil1 Prevail until after the conflict He recommends economy and the putting put-ting forth of extraordinary energy in stimulating national production. In the United States, prices would drop 25 per cent within six months, if economy were to be practiced by all the people. The American people can live well on one-half of the foodstuff food-stuff they now place on their tables The restaurants of the United States could feed the French army on the waste products of their kitchens. There are families underfed, but the great majority eat to excess and throw out. the back door a third of the food hrought Into the house. That Is inbred in-bred American extravagance. The New York banker, in his treat-I treat-I ment of the subject of high prices says: "A great deal of discussion Is current, cur-rent, especially among the politicians, concerning high prices and the high cost of living. Circumstances considered, consid-ered, this agitation is both natural and proper. Unhappily the issue Is befogged as usual with misinformation and prejudice The condition mill I be admitted, but the remedies offered are confusing and impractical. All sorts of paternalistic nostrums are projected, many of them of a highly socialistic nature. These include gov-ernment gov-ernment price fixing, and government ownership or control in some form or another. This socialistic tendency has received a tremendous push from the wide extension of government activities activ-ities in Europe incited by war necessities. neces-sities. Great Britain for instance, the home of industrial freedom, assumed control of shipping, railroads, distribution distri-bution of wheat, sugar cotton, wool, rubber, copper, coal and many other necessities. These movements were distinctly socialistic, and there has been considerable fear of their continuance con-tinuance after the war; but while Justified Jus-tified as solely a war measure they are working unsatisfactorily and proving prov-ing the government does not equal piivnte enterprise in either efficiency ef-ficiency or economy. Following foreign for-eign examples, our government Is making mak-ing many ventures into the s.uhp fi. d; and should we be drawn into war, government control, if not ownership, will certainly be exercised upon a much larger scale .than now. Thus far none of the foreign governments, not even the British, has succeeded in preventing high prices by these means: and in spite of strenuous, even harsh preventive methods, food prices and all other commodity prices have soared to extraordinary heights. The failures of foreign governments in this respect should provide a much needed need-ed lesson in economics, for they prove to the hilt that prices are still governed by the unalterable law of supply and demand, and more, that the most powerful governments in the world are unable to prevent, though they may modify, its operation for t ll C linif, nnli, O i .... v-nif, uni , oiiine iv, rive million men have turned their energies ener-gies from production to destruction, and many millions more are employed in making destructive munitions "instead "in-stead of tilling the soil and providing the ordinary necessities of life. The resultant scarcity of labor and commodities com-modities inevitably forces higher wages and higher prices in every direction. di-rection. In some instances this scarcity scarc-ity has been intensified bv short crops by derangement of transportation, by speculation and by the huge waste which war induces. No genuine relief can be expected until the war ends, or until industry resumes its normai state. Partial relief is possible by several means High prices should and will stimulate production, especially of food products. Waste should be "en-ergetlcally "en-ergetlcally stopped in all directions-efficiency directions-efficiency should be Increased wherever wher-ever possible, and ou.put stimulated by every legitimate means. The world is under sentence to consume less and work harder, such being the economic penalty for war. Whether we like it or not. the innocent will suffer with the guilty. Part of the penalty strikes us in spitr- of our prosperity. Even the far Inland peoples ol Asia and Africa will feel th.' pressure of this upheaval no less than ourselves |