Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1894 — The Reduced Cost of Living. [ARTICLE]

The Reduced Cost of Living.

Chicago Inter-Ocean. Mr. Frank MacVeagh is trying to make the workingmen bf the State think that under Republican rule the cost of living went up faster than the rate of wages. He does not deny that the laborer got more money, but he insists it cost him so much more to live that he was really worse off. Before us is the twenty-fifth anniversary number of the American Grocer, a trade paper with which Mr. MacVeagh is supposed to be familiar. It devotes attention to the changes wrought during the last quarter of a century, and had the object of the editor been to furnish hard facts pertinent to this discussion he could hardly have hit it better. The Chicago grocer is abundantly refuted by the American Grocer. The prices.given are wholesale prices. The table is as follows: ' . 1869. 1891. 'Flour, per br1...,..5-6 62’ $ 3 30 Su'rar, per 1b.... 13% 04% Coffee, p rib........ 15% 18% Tea, per lb. 59 20% Rice, per lb 06% 014 Mess beef , per brl 11 41 8 19 Mess pork, perbr1...,31 01 13 80 Lant. per tb.... b. -484 07%Butter. per lb 254 254 Cheese, per lb 14 10% Canned tomatoes. No. 3, doz 2 10 95 Canned corn No. 2 per doz.. 275 8) Canned pea-lies No. 3 per do 3 50 1 30 Canned salmon No. 1 per do 3 75 1 5> It will be observed that the only increase is in the price of coffee, a staple for which we are wholly dependent upon importation and on which there is no duty. Free trade is enjoyed in coffee, also in tea. The duty was taken off both soon after the war. Butter is the only article in the list which shows no fluctuation. The greatest reduction is in sugar, with lard and mess pork next and flour and canned goods not far behind. The truth is that the necessities of life cost about twice as much twenty-five years ago, and this holds true in wearing apparel as in food. The only sense in which the cost of living Mias increased lies in the fact that between the increase of wages and the decrease of prices the workingmen have come to live much better than formerly. The jewsharp and acbo rdcon have given

place to the piano, and instead ol mess pork for his heaviest meal the wage-worker has come to look upon roast beef as an every-day dish. But if the free trade policy should be carried out and made periiianent, the homes and tables of the laboring men would again be barren of luxuries, and even the necessaries of life wonld severely tax the resources of the average wageworker,