Show PUNISH THE speculators under the heading punish the speculators the american economist of august 17 deals a few well deserved cutting remarks to speculators and deals them out impartially to dealers in foreign merchandise as well as to dealers in home grown farm produce attributing to krofl profiteering and dishonest speculation and manipulation the great spread between the prices which the farmers receive for their products and those which the ultimate consumer pays for them the excellently edited periodical says in this connection several years ago certain speculators bought up large quantities of potatoes which they afterwards dumped into the mississippi river in order to create a shortage as an excuse C for boosting prices other speculators bought fields of potatoes and let them rot in the ground I 1 the purpose being the same thatis only one vegetable and only one kind hind of a scheme but it is only an example of a very extensive practice the practice of creating an artificial shortage or an apparent shortage in order to unduly advance prices in the new york world for august 8 is an account of how the speculators have allowed carload after carload of watermelons water melons to stand on the track in order to create a shortage and reap higher prices it is reported that twenty carloads were finally rushed on to the market because the melons had begun to sour to destroy damage or board any kind of food tor for the purpose of i creating an artificial shortage and to increase prices is a crime if it is not a 1 statutory crime it is an all economic crime and it should be made i 11 ade a crime by statutory enactment every such speculator should be punished for such acts load lead to a great deal of suffering especially among the poorer classes dealers are entitled to derive a profit from their transactions but they should do so by more liono honorable rable means it is the aim of all to acquire wealth but tho the profiteer and destroyer of food products for tile the purpose of gain is no lie more honorable than the highway robber or the man who blows open a safe one curious thing about the matter is the fact that the speculators and profiteers are the ones who are loudest in their denudation of the profiteer tariff on the ground that it increases the cost of commodities it is the modern variation of the thief who in order to divert attention himself and permit his escape ran and cried stop thief 11 in addition to working to draw attention from their own profiteering the dealers who are guilty of that practice are seeking to add still more to their ill gotten gains hy by putting the difference between the present tariff and the possible lower rate into their own pockets |