Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1910 — HIGH AND LOW PRICES [ARTICLE]

HIGH AND LOW PRICES

Tremendous Advance In the Cost of Living. RESULT OF HIGH TARIFFS* A Thanksgiving Dinner That Could Bo Bought Ten Years Ago For $1.95 Now Costa $4-25—Monopoly Flourishes Through Lack of Competition. There will always be a conflict of •pinion between different classes in the community as to the effect of high prices of commodities. To the merchant and the farmer they seem to mean good times; to the laborer, the clerk, the professional man and most women, whether self supporting or not, they mean bad times. Indeed, it has been argued that the exclusion of women from voting in the great majority of the states has been one of the prime factors in committing us to a high price policy, which our tariff policy essentially and avowedly is. Most men think of themselves as producers rather than as consumers. They sell labor, and when they get an apparently high nominal wage they assume that they are prosperous. They do not spend the money directly. This function Is left to their wives and other female relatives, so that it is within the truth to say that 85 per cent of all the money expended in the United States for articles for final consumption Is spent by women. When the pressure of an advance in prices comes, the women, who are not economists, are apt to think of it as an inevitable result of natural forces rather than as the product of artificial cause. They can only register their discontent through the male relatives, who usually have a poor opluion of women’s business ability. Hence our whole policy has been to raise nominal wages even though commodities were everywhere rising faster. Bradstreet’s figures show that we have now the highest price level of general commodities in twenty-seven months. Nearly 2 per cent of an advance was scored in October. Compared with November, 1904, there is an advance of 11.4 per cent. Compared wlth J une, 1908, the figures show an increase of 10.2 per cent. Taking the lowest point in our history since the tables began to be made up, July, 1890, there has been an advance of 56.7 per cent. Of the thirteen groups of commodities on which these tables are based, eight advanced in October, four receded, and one was stationary. While other causes besides the tariff' enter Into the increased cost of living. It is probably the main factor. In Great Britain, while the cost of living advanced during the same period, it made no such astonishing gains, it cannot be too often repeated that by shutting off foreign competition we have made easy the path of those who wanted to monopolize the supply of all articles to the consumer until today all competition has been practically strangled. This operates in two ways to raise prices. It diminishes supply because the original producer—farmers. etc.—having only one ■ customer, the trust, must take what price he can get and hence is discouraged from further production. The meat trust has not only arbitrarily raised the price of food all over the United States, but by killing competition it lias created an artificial scarcity of meat by discouraging fanners from engaging in the cattle raising business. As a consequence, in spite of tlie fact that hides were placed on the free list, shoe prices will probably advance. Until we abolish the ‘mother of trusts,” and hence the parent of artificially high prices, we shall not make much headway toward reducing the cost of living. Under proper economic conditions we might have high wages and low price* The existence of both conditions simultaneously is not impossible, howe v er it may seem to the superficial observer. The high prices now go not to the laborer In higher nominal wages, but to pay our ransom to monopoly. A fair Illustration is afforded by the following: THANKSGIVING TEN YEARS AGO. Dinner That Coat $1.95 In Chicago Would Now Come to $4J25. Chicago, Nov. 24. - The price of the Thanksgiving day turkey In Chicago has been advanced again, in 1907 It could be bought for 25 cents a pound. In 1908 it climbed to 86 and 27 cents. This year It will cost from 28 to 30 cents a pound. Ten years ago a Chicago department •tore advertised the following bUI of faro for 81.95: Nine pound turkey. Enough plum pudding for four. Mincemeat enough for three plea Bunch of celery. Turkey seasoning. Pound of parsley. Quart of cranberries. Pound of mixed nuts. Three pounds of sweet potatoes. same bill of fare this year will coot JOHN J. MURPHY.