The committee appointed by Congress to ascertain the causes of the depression is at present in Chicago. Witnesses are being summoned, so that an insight into our economic condition may be obtained. The leading members of the committee are fully agreed on the methods to be employed as soon as a proper diagnosis of the ailment has been made. Of course, there are difficulties. The committee comes at a time when big business is on the upgrade, and enjoys an income such as it has not had for years, when bank clearings are nearly twice as large as during the corresponding period last year, when more profitable employment is available than at any time in the history of Chicago (excepting, perhaps the reconstruction period in 1872, after the Great Fire), when labor does not complain about wages and is interested only in shorter hours.

To find the cause of the depression under such conditions is a very difficult problem. The gentlemen from Washington might find themselves in the same 2predicament as that erudite assembly of whom King James, some three hundred and fifty years ago, asked the question, "If a pail is filled to the brim with water and a fish is put in, why does the weight not increase, and why does the water not spill over the edge of the pail?" The scientists were dumfounded and, after seriously thinking and applying complicated mathematical formulae, propounded various theories, which were eventually submitted to the king. He asked, "Has any of the gentlemen gone to the trouble of first ascertaining whether that is true, by trying it?" No, the learned men never thought of that! They all looked for reasons to explain a fact which, after all, was not a fact! And so the depression committee looks for the causes of a depression which is nonexistent.

This is no depression affecting our national economy. The only people feeling the pinch are those fools who bought subdivided acreage and then also found numskulls who lent three times as much on the property as it was worth! We never would have good times except for the greedy nincompoops who risk all on a chance--and these fellows will be with us, always. The people who invest 3their money in soap bubbles, during the boom days of an inflation, will never see the time when that burst bubble regains its former splendor. And so the day will never come when these people will admit that times are better, since better times (according to the view of the soap bubble buyers) are simply unattainable.

If the depression committee really wants to ascertain just where the shoe pinches, it must not ask the bankers, nor the bankrupt town lot speculators; nor those people who have more or less crazy notions about money circulation, division of property, etc.; nor the gentry who make their living by agitating, creating dissatisfaction, and fomenting trouble. The Congressional investigating committee must see the little businessmen.

That is where the depression is still apparent. As the sun, in early spring, melts ice and snow only in exposed places, one finds many a spot unaffected by the advancing season. And so it is today. It would be foolish, or malicious, to declare that big business is still in the icy grip of winter--metaphorically 4speaking--but, on the other hand we find retail business still in the throes of the depression, just as at the time of the crash.

And why? Because retail business, during the last six years, was crushed by the large retail stores.

There is a concern in Chicago which, ten years ago, was satisfied to be the largest dry goods store in the city. During the hard times following the crash of 1873, this concern became the dominant figure in the entire retail field. Excepting agricultural implements, stoves, sewer pipes, and building material, this concern sells nearly everything in the retail line and, in selling, tries to force everyone else to the wall. Goods were sold below cost to stifle competition. Shoes, toys, ivory ware, ornaments, furs, leather goods, baskets and what not--anything one might think of is sold at such a low profit that no small businessman can compete; articles are even sold at a loss, since the house can cover one deficit by the sale of articles in another department.

The turnover is tremendous. The customers, and particularly the women, don't care how many businessmen become bankrupt thereby, and continue to patronize the large house for the sake of saving a few cents. And, in this manner, the house has a stupendous income--hundreds of thousands of dollars a year--an amount which represents a proportionate loss to the small dealer. Now, if this large amount were prorated among several hundred small merchants, the money, in turn, would circulate again in the community, but, as things are, the money just forms idle capital. With the profits derived from its business, the firm buys up valuable property in the center of the city, and so acquires gigantic real-estate holdings, substantially as we find it in England; there, palatial residences and country homes are built, and not a cent is spent that benefits the community. How much could be accomplished with such sums! The slums could be abolished, public bathing places might be maintained, or libraries and schools could be built. But nothing like that is even considered; the mere accumulation of wealth--acquired through the suppression of the small retail merchant--appears to be the only aim.

That would be one of the phases that the depression committee might investigate. To obtain some information on this subject, the committee should interview several dozen of our retail businessmen. That would show where the shoe pinches--and would probably reveal, in large measure, why the Socialist candidate received such support during the last municipal election. These large retail merchants who used the seven lean years to eradicate small competitors were, without knowing it, the best propagandists the communists ever had.