tend to more than double. The I. W. W. and other radicals will put their own interpretation on such prosperity of "Wall Street," the figures of which they are always watching. They will be right in thinking that the high profits represent social injustice. What they do not realize is that the injustice is chiefly against the bondholders, and that the transfer between these two classes of investors is an effect of raised prices, not their cause.
14. Adjustments Most Needed, the Most Unpopular
One of the most interesting and curious by-products of the maladjustments we have seen and of the misunderstandings of the nature of the process is that the public is most angry at those latest to seek relief by higher prices, the very ones who need relief most.
It was this mental attitude on the part of the public which so long prevented a rise in railway rates. The Interstate Commerce Commission, consciously or unconsciously, reflected public opinion when, prior to the war, it refused repeated requests for relief through a rise of rates. The public, instead of seeing in the general rise of prices a depreciation of the dollar and the consequent need of a prompt and corresponding rise in such prices as had remained unadjusted to the cheaper dollar, demanded indignantly, "Haven't we suffered enough already from the high cost of living? While we are protesting against the other conspirators who are raising prices and while we are trying to force them to reduce prices, we certainly won't permit this further addition to the high cost of living." In thus thinking of their own grievances they overlooked the
