Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/124

70 to newspaper reports, that in his opinion 80% of the labor discontent of Europe is due to this cause. The labor discontent following the war is worldwide because the rise of prices is worldwide. This discontent is not confined to the countries which were actually engaged in the war, but is found in out-of-the-way places like Portugal and even in far-away New Zealand, once called "the land without strikes" but now afflicted with strikes because strikes seemed necessary to enable wages to overtake the high cost of living.

If I am not greatly mistaken, further trouble is now brewing over high prices. While the war lasted it served, and properly, as an excuse and explanation. But now that the war is over, the high prices seem, to many, inexcusable. If, as I anticipate, prices remain at high levels and the public fails to see why, they will wish to wreak vengeance, some on one luckless object of their wrath, some on others—profiteers, landlords, employers, speculators, middlemen, retailers, trusts, railways, labor unions, etc. If the price level stays high, profiteering will increase—as an effect not a cause.

One result which will probably occur will both surprise and anger the public. This is a further great increase of earnings of industrial companies and a great increase in the value of their common stocks. For, if prices are to stay double what they were before the war, gross earnings will tend to double and, after deducting the "fixed" interest, rent, and dividends on preferred stock, the net earnings accruing to common stock will