Show war time behavior of producers will determine nation s course by united states stales senator francis Cs newlands New lancis of nevada our war conditions now require supreme collective N effort and that carried out to tile tha full extent means socialism wo we have found that in war the law of supply and demand breaks down because nary demands are precipitated upon moderate si supply i prices soar and thit that means disturbances and readjustments for every k hind ind of labor and industry and for commerce we could not wait long enough upon entering the war for the usual effect of increased sed demand namely increased creased production to restore the price levels therefore in the lie tress stress of if war it becomes necessary to take over plants or control prices unless the desired results of reasonable prices can be obtained by understanding with alic producers when I 1 say reasonable prices I 1 mean reasonable prices not only for tile government but for the public it is not to bo be imagined that a country can successfully prosecute a war even though it obtains its supplies at reasonable prices if its industrial forces fc aces at home are upset by strikes and lookouts lockouts increasing prices inva liable mean a ferin ferment clit of labor troubles which in turn materially impair the military strength of a nation at the front tile the laborer is bound to compare the amount which a dollar of his wages will buy today with what wha t it would buy a month and a year ago ire he lias has to do this lie he is compelled to contend all the time for the maintenance of the power of his wages if things go up in price ins his wages wages 0 mut must go up too we must avoid such a race between prices and wages by keeping prices down not only for the sake of of conserving all our present industrial strength fur for war purposes but for the sake of the economic welfare of the united states after the war in its infer international national trade relations if wo we do not avoid such a race between prices and wages both will increase steadily etea dily till the end of the war when our wage level will be above that of the other belligerent countries in which there has been better control and the country with the highest wage level will then be at a disadvantage its cost of production of all commodities will be above that of the other countries which will put it out of the running in in any competition in its own markets and in the markets of the world and the high wage level will also bring an influx of labor which the country will not be able to handle every consideration therefore demands that a proper price level shall be maintained by government regulation and this of course involves a form of state r socialism ocial ism |