128 NINETEENTH REPORT. 



nificance, viz., that of control of product. This lias been accomplished 

 in various ways as we all know. It may take the form of possessing the 

 raw material from which an important product is made, or may limit 

 total production as the means to the end. Today this evil expresses 

 itself in the disturbance in distribution. In insidious ways the supply of 

 products is manipulated. Cold storage, an agency for extending the 

 utility of a product, becomes the agency for control of supply and price 

 of necessary food products. In a variety of ways the retailer finds the 

 prices which he charges are not competitive prices, but are predetermined 

 by some agency whose command he can not disobey with impunity. No 

 multiplication of retailers in accordance with the economic law effects 

 relief, oftentimes because such retailers cannot obtain supplies of the 

 products. 



The appearance of this control asserts itself at a critical stage in 

 the economic and social progress of the people. Access to the land is 

 about to terminate, since free lands no longer exist. The proportion of 

 raw material producers is constantly lessening. A dependent portion 

 of population relying upon a constant supply of food and other products 

 has been constantly growing. These individuals, not only have no 

 opportunity to reach the land but have no acquaintance with methods of 

 production of food products ; furthermore they do not desire such 

 activities, have no habits of husbanding their resources effectively but 

 live from jnllar to post, thus becoming easy prey for the schemes of 

 organized controllers of wealth. They look to an economic system of 

 distribution which will bring to their stomachs the necessary food and 

 to their backs the essential clothing at prices which are the cost of pro- 

 duction and within the reach of their incomes. It is at this point that 

 our economic laws are breaking down at this moment. Today society 

 is suffering from this purposeful failure in distribution with the result 

 that society is paying excessive prices for many of the necessities of life. 

 The truth of this assertion is verified by the experiences of the nations 

 at war where dire necessity has forced the cost of living down to rock 

 bottom ])rices with the result that living is much cheaper there than here. 

 We do not contend that similar prices should exist here or are desirable 

 or possible under normal conditions, but we do believe that it will con- 

 centrate attention upon individual expenditures for the necessaries of life 

 in this country and raise the query as to unwarranted profits upon articles 

 in common use. This conclusion is inescapable. 



It is merely to call attention to commonly known facts to say that 

 government has already intervened in behalf of the suffering consumers 

 and jiroducers. No less conspicuous than the Industrial Revolution of 

 the past century is tlic political revolution of that period. Our fore- 



