President Wilson on Friday week addressed Congress on the question
of high prices and " profiteering." First of all, he said, the Senate should ratify the Peace Treaty and put an end to the uncertainty that must prevail until the Treaty, as signed, comes into operation. He warned workmen that strikes would only make matters worse ; the railwaymen seem already to have taken his advice to heart. In regard to prices, the President &liked Congress to pass a law under which commodities passing from one State to another—thus becoming subject to Federal jurisdiction—are to be stamped with the price at which they left the producer. He proposed to restrict monopolies by a system of Federal licences, and to discourage by legal penalties the taking of excessive profits. Probably the influence of public opinion, now that the President has given it a lead, will do much to check the manipulation of the markets by the great wholesale dealers. America, of course, has not the Government control of most foodstuffs, which prevents prices from rising to an excessive height in this country.
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