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Show AT THE BOTTOM OF OUR TROUBLES. Paying a high tribute to the United li States Council of National Defense, Scientific American says '; Frequently during the war n ' i since that highly able end repre sentative body of men the Cnif. I ed States Council of National De fense, haB addressed Itself to tho j nation in words of Instruction ind 1 encouragement; but Devei has It put forward more timely or force ( ful facts than those in !ts last statement on the high cost of liv- jj s a result of a careful inv?stl I gaticn it finds that the nation's productive powers have not been fully utilized since the armisvice; that too few goods, notably ttu- ne- cesslties of life, have been pro duced; that even some of these ' goods have been withhold om the market, and therefore from the people; that the high cost of Mv ing Is due, in part, to unavoidable war waste, and an lncreu. in money and credits; lastly, that there has been and is considerable profiteering, both intentional and unintentional. The council tells js that the I remedies are: to produce moic goods, and to produce in prcpor-tion prcpor-tion to the need for them, to stamp out profiteering and to stop unnecessary hoarding, to ntorc1 vigorously present lws, and promptly to enact such further laws as are necessary to prevenr and pnlsh profiteering and needless need-less hoarding; to bring about bet ter co-operation and methods in distributing, and in marketing goods; and, finally to keep both producer and consumer fully In formed as to what goods are avail able, so that production may anticipate an-ticipate the country's demano. And so, perhaps we shall not be lar wrong If we say that this prob lem is as much a moral as an ceo. nomic one. We referred sonv weeks ago to America's moral breakdown since the end of the war. This breakdown now menaces men-aces our material as well as spiritual spir-itual welfare. Let us eliec it! |
