The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, August 27, 1919, Page 4

FOUR orenernmsecnirnie tes na BISMARCK DAILY TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, AUG. 27, 1919 THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE Paid cae axxo el a SRE Entered at the Postoffice, Bismarck, N. D., as Second Class Matter. GEORGE D. MANN, - - - - + *» Editor Foreign Representatives G. LOGAN PAYNE COMPANY, CHICAGO, | coe PANE CONTANT pergorn larquette Bldg. oe. 16,6678 Kresge 7 ¥ PAYNE, BURNS AND SMITH NEW YORK, oe ss Fifth Ave. Bldg. MEMBER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all news credited to it or not otherwise credited im this paper and also the local mews published herein, All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. MEMBER AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION SUBSCRIPTION RATES PAYABLE IN ADVANCE Daily by carrier, per year......... eer 4) Daily by mail, per year (In Bismarck) eceseees 1.20 Daily by mail, per year (In state outside Bismarck) 5.00 Daily by mail outside of North Dakota...»+++ 00 THE STATE’S OLDEST NEWSPAPER, (Established 1873) iS» SPARROWS, JACKRABBITS, AND JAPANESE In the library of the department of agriculture there is a little book which gives the date on which the original pair of English sparrows were turned loose in Brooklyn, N. Y. The book also gives the dates when they were brought to other cities, as far west as Dallas, Texas. Not over a few score pair were ever brought over at all, and most of the city flocks in America today are descended from one or two pair, because sparrows do not usually fly from city to city. They came over in the early fifties. Australia has a similar story to tell about the jackrabbit, as every schoolchild knows. And America may soon have another such story to tell—about the Japanese. In 1918 there were 4219 Japanese babies born in California. In 1906, there were only 134. In Placer county, California, in 1918 the Japa- nese births were twice the white. In Los Angeles county the Japanese birth rate has increased 3000 per cent per year as the result of the importation of Japanese “picture brides.” In some California schools the Japanese outnumber the white chil- dren 10 to 1. The Japanese birth rate seems to be five times that of the whites. It has been figured that if the Dillingham bill, now pending in the senate, were enacted into law, and the Japanese “allotment” of immigrants per year were adopted, the Japanese birth rate would bring the Japanese population in the United States by 1928 to 318,600, by 1938 to 542,000, by 1943 to 875,000. To carry the thing out to its logical conclusion, in 160 years the Japanese population here would be 216,000,000, and the white race would long since have been completely supplanted. Existing conditions are merely the fogical re- sult of the conditions of existence. LET’S TALK IT OVER Americans meet great national crises by first getting together and talking them over. This was the “town-meeting” method, our’ most important contribution to popular government. It is the democratic method. If it fails democracy fails. Toleration, discussion and acceptance of the ma- jority opinion so evolved is the essence of our whole system of government. The evolution of a common mind rests on meetings of opposite minds from corner groceries to congress. The moment’s most pressing problem is the relation of labor to industry. Strikes, lockouts and wage and hour fights of all. kinds, collective bar- gaining, closed shop or open shop, industrial man- agement, profit and power-sharing are phases of this problem. Without we can so satisfy labor as to insure continuous production, labor and most of our institutions will break down. So far there is least trouble in industry where there is the most frequent meeting and freest dis- cussion, Collective bargaining and shop manage- ment through joint committees seem to point the way toward better relations. Common knowledge is at least the first step toward common action. Why not talk it over in a great national indus- trial convention? Congress cannot meet the need. It does not contain the people most interested or best informed in regard to the subject. It does not fairly represent the parties in controversy. It has neither time, ability nor machinery to meet the situation. The best it could do would be to appoint one more investigating committee to add another shelf to the library of reports of similar committees. Why not bring together the men and women who know about this question? Ask the employ- ers’ associations and chambers of commerce to send their best representatives. Let us have the friends of the open and the closed shop, the suc- cessful and the unsuccessful experimenters with “shop committees” and different forms of labor representation in industry. Call in the best men from the unions, Get the help of the investiga- tors of the universities and students of labor prob- lems everywhere. Invite representatives from state and national governmental departments of \ labor. Such a body, called by the president, given full liberty of discussiorf, with as carefully prepared a : program as such liberty permits, would, at the : very least, focus a flood of illuminating publicity ‘upon these most puzzling problems. It would be a gathering of experts to meet a “special situation. The clash of minds upon these ‘most vital issues would form the center of a vast a conflict that threatened a general stoppage of in- dustry. Such a conference has been suggested by Basil M. Manly, former joint chairman of the U. S. War Labor Board, and has met with popular ap- proval the country over. The Manly plan called for representatives from labor and capital—the biggest and best of both sides—to come together round the table and talk it over. This suggestion was incorporated in the joint resolution introduced in congress by Senator Poindexter of Washington, and Representative Kelly of Pennsylvania, Congress should wake up. Congress should do something. Too much time already has been frit- tered away, and congress has moved not an inch in a solution of labor problems, not the smallest of which is labor’s inability to stretch its present wage income to meet its cost of living outgo. Congress shows a disposition to keep the Poin- dexter-Kelly bill in the pigeon hole until there is a popular demand for some action on it. Let us see that congress gets the demand— NOW. Uneasy lies the head that has been taking too much profit. Once the country got its styles from Paris. Now it gets them from movie heroines. At last we have found a way to keep Mexicans quiet along the border. Merely pay them tribute. Future presidents will feel free to tour the world and harvest salutes whenever things get dull at home. There is no Bolshevism in Mexico, but they have a native drink down there that makes a fair substitute. If the covenant is a “rope of sand,” as the ob- jectors declare, why should they object to being tied by it? And another first class argument for peace is the fact that we must keep troops along the Rhine for fifteen years. No doubt China has moments when she won- ders just what we had in mind when we asked her to enter the war. America is singularly blessed in the ab- sence of cooties, but she has her. profes- sional agitators. When the salaried man starts in to buy school shoes, he wonders why Providence didn’t give all the children to railroad men. The supreme council will make no reply to Archduke Joseph’s request for recognition. . Let him first go get a reputation. The religion that doesn’t make a man abso- lutely square with his fellows contains something less than 2.75 percent virtue. Representative Good declares that punishment of profiteers will not get very far. As far as the nearest jail will be far enough. ee re It appears that we must either break the heart of Europe or bring down Borah’s head in sorrow to the grave. Which is better, to use great force and settle that Mexican trouble for all time, or use small force at intervals in perpetuity? Huh. If Article X doesn’t grant congress th right to declare for or against war, it’s a safe bet that congress would take the right anyway. Other meats are on sale, but government did not offer its surplus stock of canned bull. ‘All of that is needed for the Congressional Record. In these glad days the profiteers remind us of the coon that asked one of our early patriots not to shoot because he was coming down anyway. For once in history, all Americans are agreed concerning an important matter. They are agreed that the other fellow is responsible for high prices. Wilson says that Article X will leave to each nation “complete freedom of choice as to the appli- cation of force.” Germany had that under the old system. We must remember that any treaty that would satisfy the senate would be rejected by Europe. Europe has not yet admitted that America is the official arbiter of the world’s destiny. The Germans and Poles started something in southern Silesia, and Hoover “ordered” American army officers in the district to help stop it. Just what is Hoover’s rank in the military scheme? If one branch of labor can get what it wants by demanding it, it is only a question of time until other branches, from physicians to farmers, or- ganize to assault congress for a privilege. When street railways were coining money, they were tightly held by private capital. Now that ducation of the nub ned. from. their busi- Stn ownership. Better Way Out of High Cost of Finance at Harvard Unive BY 0. M..W. SPRAGUE, Professor of \Banking and Finance, Harvard University. (In.an Taterview for.'The Newspaper Enterprise Association.) factor affecting the present high-level of prices. It is vitally important that the public generally ‘realize the signi- ficance of this infldtion and, demand the adoption of a rational, definite pol- icy, to cope. with it. If America’ fails {o, adopt such a policy, and continues'to joyride blind- ly along the present path, I can fore- see the possibility ofa bad shash-up, bringing industrial ‘collapse and’ hard times for the wage earuers. The situation is ‘briefly that the government, having» marketed great issues of ‘bonds at a low rate of in- terest, and wanting to market furtl issues: of certificates at a sim low rate, is very unwilling that the interest rate should ibe advanced, Yet those who recognize the evils of pre: ent inflation and see the future perils of further inflation, perceive that the raising of the interest rate is the one immediate and practical step toward deflation which shoull be taken. Evils Will Increase That. the evils. of inflation are al- ready with us is obvious. There have been issued some twenty Dillions of war bonds that can ‘be’ used to se- cure loans at federal reserve banks at. an interest not exceeding four and one-half percent. Hence, inthe pres- ent speculative era, the jtemptation is to make use of the bonds for such Joans, and to devote the proceeds to a great variety of new undertakings. EVERETT TRUE WOULD CIkS AND —- Credit inflation is the fundamental} THE RAY OF HOPE INCREASE INTEREST RATES AND CUT VOLUME OF EXPORTS OR INFLATION MEANS TROUBLE, DECLARES EXPERT Living Muddle Than Attempt to Control: Food Prices. Isto: Take Blue Air Out of American Financing, Says 0. M. W. Sprague, Professor of- Banking and it is expanding and will » to expand in the form of loans and bank depesits, until some- thing precipitates a panic, or else un- {il the government has the courage to adopt a high rate of interest for all | loans, regardless of the effect of this policy upon. government ‘bods and regardless ofits effect in increasing the cost of future government borrow- ings. Partly ‘because this truth ds not clearly ‘perceived by the public, no such action is taken. And as a re- sult of continued inaction, inflation will go on until either contraction is forced when thé leading power of the federal reserve banks is largely util- ized, cr until business get into such an unsound ‘condition from over-ex- pansion that numerous failures in- volve us in a had crisis. We have then the. alternatives of securing deflation through a -reason- able federal policy. or of waiting for it to come disastrously in the ordin- ary course of unguided events, But the real difficulty is to make it clear that credit expansion in fact is responsibla for the high prices of which everybody is complaining. This is undoubtedly the view generally ac- cepted by leading economists. Most people supopse that when a bank makes a loan it makes a loan of money. As a matter of fact is does not loan money, but merely writes down a new credit on.its deposit books, and this new credit involves an increase in the purchasing power of the ‘country. Trouble May Be Staved Off Such an increase in the volume of - BY CONDO To GST THS JOB For | ¢ Tore EG REASONS — THE FIRST _ONE 18 THAT I AM A RETURNED SOLDIER, = — NEVER MIND THE OTHER TWO =, REASONS We - hbelieve we: will stay’ at«thig purchasing power is inflation, and the result of it is that the dollar, or stand- ard unit of purchasing power, dimin- ishes in value as measured by the un- expanded volume of other goods. The man with a fixed income therefore finds his salary less and less ade- quate to procure the commodities he requires. What are the dangers of inflation of this kind? A panic is certainly one of the possibilities. But I hope that it may be staved off through a gradual decline in our export busi- ness—a decline not so rapid as to make it difficult to readjust business to the change. This question of our export trade throws an interesting light on the situation. We exported last June $900,000,000 worth of goods. In return we receiv- ed only $390,009,000 worth, * The bal- ance of $600,000,000 was not paid either in goods or in cash, but in promises—promises to-pay later on. The exporters of the goods, who have received-from them tiese prom- ises to pay, must, however, at once pay the producer of the goods-in this country. To do this, the exporters have to borrow from the banks. This they do by discounting the notes or promises to pay given them by the European buyers of the goods, And ‘the banks do not give cash, byt mere- \ly credit. The exporters pay the pro- ducers by checks drawn against these new credits, which are not represent- ed by actual money but merely by fig- ; ures in ink on paper. Thus inflation goes on in ever widening circles. ‘Now we can not go on indefinitely selling so much more than we buy. To do this will only increase the vol- me of credit or purchasing power, | but also will reduce the stock of | goods available for American consam- lers to. purchase. ~Thus at the very , time that the value of the dollar. is j decreasing, the volume of goods avail- able for purchase is diminishing. |'Hence the increase of prices is made more precipitate; the high cost of living keeps soaring higher. ‘Control Food Price Now how can we hammer down the high cost of living? It is possible, perhaps, in time of peace to control the prices of certain articles, just as we did.in time of war. But this is ex- tremely difficult now because the gov- ernment is no longer the principal buyer. It, for instance, we attempt now to control the price of foods, the only result is that we make farming less profitable than other enterprises. The result is that productive power is diverted from farming to other things and the production of food- stuffs falls off. So if you control one branch of production and leave freedom of ac- tion to others, you are only pulling down on one end of a see-saw, while the other end flies up. And the government now, not be- ing the largest buyer of the majority of commodities, cannot hold down prices all along the line, Suppose, by controliine the price, the government reduced the cost of food fifty percent. The result would be that people, saving on food, would have more money to spend for other things, say manufactured products. The money being available, the ef- fective demand for these manufactur- ed goods would increase, and so the prices would increase. Rents again would increase, and thus the reaction would run all along the line. The savings effected by the con- trolled food price would be eaten up by the increase of other prices. And when productive energy turned from farming to these other more profit- able enteruprises, by the time the increased output of the latter had be- run to bring about a reduction of prices, the diminished production of s would perforce bring about ‘a toward the old high price level. y like pressing on: an inflated rubber ball. You can dent it in ene place, only to see it bulge in another. Bnt if we ean stabilize prices at something like the present level, in the ccurse of time all the necessary adjustments will have been made. And if a uniform advance is realized; I price is,)10rk by a similar process. SEES BIG CHANGE IN HIS SOLDIER SON Prominent Police - Officia! Says Im- provement Is Due To Tanlac Nearly everybody in Kansas City either knows or has heard of Captain J. J. Ennis, who lives at 532 Jackson avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. Cap- tain Ennis has been a member of the Kansas City police force for thirty years and is not only one of the old- est in point of servicé, but one of the most popular officers in the depart- nient. . In a recent statement regarding the benefits his son, Wilfred, has derived from the use of Tanlac, Captain En- nis. said: “The change I have seen take place in my son’s health during the past few weeks certainly speaks well for ‘Tanlac. Wilfred served with company A 12th Engineers in Franeq for near- ly two years and on returning was suffering from rheumatism and stom- ach trouble and was in a very badly run down condition. He tells me he had been suffering from aching joints in his shoulders, arms and legs for almost ‘a year. He had no appetite aud his stomach was so weak and up- set that he could not retain much of anything he would eat. He complains of headache most of the time, often had dizy spells, and was so weak he could just barely, drag around. “I had been reading so many state- ments from Kansas City people about Tanlac that I decided there must be sumething to it, and after inquiring ahout it of some parties, whom I have known for years, at the drug store, T bought a bottle for Wilfred. Well, he had not finished the first bottle until nis appetite was better and the pains in-his knees and shoulders were not so bad. He has taken three bottles up to this time and can eat and digest anything he wants, He was very nerv- cus and restless before taking Tanlac and could not sleep much, but now he sleeps eight to nine huurs every» night, He'now has a goog position as yard clerk for the Kansas City Termi- nal Railway and 1s able to walk around and do his work with ease, as the rheumatism pains have left him entirely. He has recommended Tanlac to several of his friends who have used it with fine results. I consider Tanlac the best medicine out for such troubles and I will gladly verify this statement for anyone Who may call to see me or write me.” Tanlac is sold in Bismarck by Jos Breslow. In Driscoll by N. D.°and J. H. Barrette and in Wing by F. P. Homan. —Ady. =——————— level, I look for a level higher than before the war, but not so high as it is now. I can foresee the possibility of some decline in prices through con- traction of credit, and also through a decline in the volume. of our export business. What is likely to check the rate of export? Insolvencies abroad would accomplish this, since with Europe going bankrupt, nobody here would care to send her future ‘goods on credit. But it is more desirable that the decline in exports should come slow- ly, in advance of actual widespread insolvency abroad. This decline is perhaps already coming, as a result of growing caution on the part of people in this country who are less willing to assume a large burden of European obligations. But I see the other hope in the sit- uation, and that is that the federal reserve board will exercise the power which it undoubtedly has, and prevent further expansion of credit. If the board does not exercise that power, a serious crisis sooner or later seems to be inevitable. This will be defia- tion coming upon us with a disastrous rush instead of gradually. What will precipitate the crisis? Well, suppose that, for any reason whatever. merchants or manufactur- ers should experience difficulty in marketing the goods which they had produced at increasing prices. Then many business failures would follow, and the smash would be upon us. For example, it is said that the price of a good grade of shoes will advance $5 more shortly. It may still be possible at this advanced price to sell all the shoes produced. But at some time, sooner or later, the mer- chant will find it impossible to sell all the shoes produced at continually rising cost. Then will come wide- spread failures -of the less efficient firms, and a general‘collapse in credit. The consequences will be rapidly fall- ing prices, a panic, hard times and un- employment. Increase Interest Rates Our salvation from this crisis de- pends upon the adoption of a con- scious policy on the part of the Amer- ican people. This policy, I can only insist again, must consist in an increase of interest rates and a reduction of the volume of our exports. We must of course continue to ex- port the goods which Burope actually is in desperate need of for consump- tion of for the re-establishment of her own productive power. But for Europe to. buy from us luxuries, at present, is nothing short of folly. And yet the figures on American exports for the year ending June 30, 1918, show a much greater total for manu- factures than for foodstuffs. Manu- factured goods exported totalled three. and a quarter billions of dollars, food- stuffs.two and a quarter billions, and manufacturing materials only one and a quarter billions. In so far as we exported manufac- tured goods which were not necessi- ties we were only paving the way toward financial collapse. ‘And if Bu- rope will not restrict. the importation of luxuries. and semi-luxuries, we must restrict the export of them. It is of course wise and humane to es- tablish credits to facilitate the export of necessitiés to. Europe. But to stimulate the purchase of our other Products in Turope by advancing credit wauld be as foolish as increa3- ing the sales of furs and jewels and automobiles on the East Side of New These credits would ibe the worst of invest: ments. The solution of thepresent problem of inflation all simmers down, then, finally, to such an increase of the in- terest and discount rate, by reasoned government policy, as will stop ex- vansion of credit at home and check the export to Europe of: vast quanti- ties of non-essential products, aif | |