The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 1, 1919, Page 5

. Living Cost Protests Awaken Congress Agitation as Presidential Year Approaches May Wring Beneficial Action— Flagrant Cases of Food Hoarding and Destruction Uncovered parts of the country against the high cost of living have "brought federal and state offi- cials to the realization that there is an actual menace in the profiteering ventures of food purveyors. So great has been the cry against the oypressive prices that it is even possible that the big profiteers, like the packers, may come under the proposed prosecutions. Both parties today, the Republicans as well as the Democrats, recognize the necessity af making some attempt to halt the rising costs of necessi- ties. With a presidential election approaching next fall and the probability of a real third party in the field, it is even possible that some real remedial legislation will come out of the investigations that are now under way. In Chicago last week there was held a convention of dele- gates from 10 labor parties in various states. It is the plan of these labor men to put a national labor ticket into the field in 1920 and possibly nom- inate a presidential candidate. The new party will have as one of its planks the govern- ment railroad ownership plan, and probably will have some- thing to say about the high cost of living. : Because of the strength of this new movement, therefore, both old parties are bending their efforts to making a rec- ord in the cost of living inves- tigation and to pass legislation that will benefit the people. Of course, there is little likeli- hood that congress will do any- thing that will be of really permanent benefit. The agi- tation, however, has given the Kenyon-Anderson packing measure an undoubted addition of strength and there is every prospect that this bill to li- cense the great packing indus- tries will pass both houses. “TREASONABLE PROFITS” CHARGED IN SENATE In connection with this, charges are now being made in congress which have long been made by the Nonpartisan league—that the profiteer is as disloyal as the man who supported Germany - in the * war. Senator Kenyon, in the senate last week, in urging his licensing bill, said: ./ “The people will stand for reasonable profits, but they are not going to stand for treasonable " profits. The profits be- ing made by the pack- ing monopoly come near being treasonable profits. “We are not trying to in- jure the packers or ruin business. It is true that the bill does lodge tremendous powers in the hands of one man. These are radical bills. It is useless to pretend they are not. They have teeth in them. They propose a mew method of corporate control. “But in view of the facts disclosed in the fed- eral trade commission’s investigation and in' the condition of unrest in this country, we feel con- gress. can not sit idly by doing nothing. “A monopoly of necessities of life is indefen- sible and intolerable, When a monopoly reaches that stage we can’t’say it is a private business.: It is a public utility.” 3 Senator Gronna of North Dakota made a simila ' plea and warned the profiteers that unless they act quickly another “Boston tea party” is likely to result. He said: NCREASING protests from all A —Drawn expressly for the Leader by W. C. Morris. When Aesop, the Greek slave, told about the monkey that induced the cat to pull the hot chestnuts out of the fire for him, he was drawing a picture of human schemers. has come down to us, and the special interests know the game as well as Aesop’s monkey. They are using the little business men to fight the League, and then going into the little busi- ness man’s own field, underselling him on his own products and driving him out of business. “We despise anarchy and violence, riots and brute force, but we know of revolutions that have been justifiable. Those who are in possession of great and powerful corporations should carefully view the present situation and help us solve the knotty problems before us. “They should hasten to do so before it is too late, because it has been suggested by conservative men that another Boston tea party is needed, with the trusts playing the part of King George.” Such a temper in the senate, once the stronghold of utter conservatism and reaction, reflects the bitter feeling throughout the country. Arrests already have been made, hoarding of food products has been discovered in nearly every section of the country, and much of this hoarded food has been A seized and will be distributed for sale through government agencies. The first move in this direction was in the an- nouncement that meats and canned vegetables, purchased for the army and which were held for months by the war department at the behest of the packers, would be sold at cost by the govern- ment. - This move, it will be remembered, -came, however, only after the food had been held for months ‘and public-agitation for its sale began to be felt in Washington. Some of this food had spoiled, more of it would have been wasted were it not for the demand. The supplies thus held had been sold to the government by the packers, and its existence first became generally known when the war department, in a bulletin, made the naive ad- PAGE FIVE R B P AT R B2 BN P T e mission that the packers had made represen- tations to the department that unless the food was held or was sent to Europe to be sold there, the market in this country might be broken. The department actually entertained this idea for a long time until the position, under the fire of public protest, became un- tenable, and its sale through the postoffice de- partment direct to the consumer began. There was another and a worse angle to the in- vestigation that came to light. The condition has been charged many times before, only to be smoth- ered under a flood of denials from the food monop- oly. That charge is that food was deliberately per- mitted to spoil in order to create an artificial shortage and thus force up prices. l ‘ THE OLD, OLD GAME l Under this system, not only was the con- sumer cheated, but the pro- ducer of the food as well. On the one hand, the middleman urged a shortage of the prod- uct as an excuse for high ‘prices, on the other an over- supply to force down prices at which he bought. The most flagrant case of the kind occurred last week in Louisville, where the local agent of Swift & Co. was ar- rested. A few hours before his arrest, he had spoken to a group of Louisville business men, explaining how the Big Five packers were working to keep down the cost of living. He painted the food monopoly as a beneficent giant. His ar- rest came on a charge of hav- ing permitted several carloads of food to spoil in the yards of his plant. - FOOD WASTED TO CREATE SHORTAGE Nor is this condition excep- tional. Fruit growers of the Northwest know that the com- mission men limit their buy- ing. Bushels of apples spoil or are fed to the hogs, while in the East there is an actual scarcity of fruit. In Califor- nia tons of cantaloupes are slashed and thrown into the sea. In Wisconsin carloads of potatoes are dumped on the railroad rights of way and per- mitted to rot. Year after year this condition exists, and nei- ther the producer nor the con- sumer gains thereby. The fruit grower of the Northwest is paid a pitiful sum when his harvest of apples is large, but the price is”scarcely if ever changed to the consumer. Buyers have been known to contract for the prod- ucts in the field and have never taken their pur- chases. The potatoes rot- ted. in the ground. This fact has often been sub- stantiated, but always de- nied by those responsible i for the abuse. Hoarding of food by wholesale dealers and branches of the packing houses have been discov- ered to be common in large cities. Stocks of food held in the big cities are declared in some cases to be double the amount held a year ago. In St. Paul the amount of butter held is 50 per cent greater than last year. Of other commodities, there is double and treble last year’s holdings be- ing kept back from the regular channels of trade. Ohio state investigators have found that 2,000,000 pounds of food stored in Cleveland have been hauled back and forth between Cleveland and Chicago several times. And the price of this “handling” is tacked onto the price of the food when the consumer gets it! They have found that three big packers have (Continued on page 14) The trait IR AT TN S rasor T T pe=y T