The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1884-07-10
HI COST or LIvI1rCa.

Cost Or LIvIHa
Present Prices Of Nome Articles Of Food
Compared y It'll Those Of Eighty Of N1ns-5
II Years Ago. ss i, - NJ. u.
In view of some current efforts to in-#
crease the emoluments of government
officers on the ground that it costs two
or three times as much to live now as it
did when these offices were created, it
may be we'll to recall sundry statistics
given by Senator George Of Mississippi
in recent speech.
Having repeatedly found his objec-
tions to the modern increase of official
salaries met by the broad assertion
that it costs three times as much to live
now as it did when the Government
was founded, he determined to be no
longer put down by this statement
without finding out exactly how far it
was true. He delved among the books
of the Congressional Library, and the
conclusion he reached was that "in all
the substantials of life, all the necessa-
ries and comforts of life, the prices
| were higher during Washington's and
the elder Adams administrations than
they are now. allude especially to
| provisions, things consumed by men.
OF course we all know as to clothing
| that the improvements in labor saving
machinery, the invention of the sewing
machine, have greatly reduced the
prices of those necessary articles. AS
to fuel, I have looked into that, and
the price of coal is now less than it was
during the administration of Washing
| ton"
Rents, of course, are enormously
greater now in the large cities than
they were at the beginning of the CEN
fury, but while this fact must be kept
in mind for those places. Mr.. George
insists that even rents "in the rural dis
triots In the non manufacturing and
non-commercial states are as low now
as they ever were, and are lower than
ever before in the SOUTH" Here are some
of the statistical comparisons of Senator
George:
"Beef per barrel was worth in 1895,
$13, in 1896 it was worth $14 in 1884 it
was worth $3.50, and the average price
of beef for the forty years commencing
in 1795 and ending in 1884 was $1O.25
per barrel. In the last ten years the
price of beef has been less than $1O.25
per barrel.
''Take the article of corn, very nee
essary article. In 1895, 1896 and 1897
it was worth 81 per bushel and over.
The average price for the forty years
from 1895 to 1884 was BIZ cents per
bushel. In the last ten years it has
never been as high as this average,
except in 1882, when there was q
drought, and corn was exceptionally
high:
'*Take the article of coffee. In I795,
1896 and 1897 it was worth respectively
q, 25 and 26 cents per pound, and the
average price for the forty years up to
1884 was 20 cents. For the last ten
years it has not been up to that aver
age.
"Take the article of sugar. In 1879
it was worth ID cents per pound. 1t
went as high as II cents in 1916, and
never got so low as 10 cents till 1920.
Now the price is from to 8 cents. So
there has been a fall in the price of SUI
gar"
Mr.. George at that point noted that
it was shown year ago in Congress
that sugar was a leading item of ex-
pense in a boarding house for factory
operatives. He then added these
figures:
"Take pork, sir. In 1895 it was $18
a barrel; in 1901 it was $26. In 1903 it
fell to SIS, and was never as low as SIS
again until 1920, and then it was $14-.
80. The average price for the forty
years from 1895 to 1884 was 1862 per
barrel. It is less than that now.
Take flour, a very essential article of
support" The average price of a bar
rel of -four from 1895 to1834 was 1851.
In 1895 1t was $12; in 1896 it was $16;
in 1901 it was $13; in 1917 it was $1475,
the average being, as have stated,
1851. It is now and has been for long
time much lower than that.
"Take wheat. My statistics of wheat
do not go beyond the year 1906; I can
not find them beyond that time. In
that year the average price of wheat
was 81. IS; in 1907, 1903 and 1909 it was
$1.55 per bushel; in 1910 it was $3.50
perbushel; in 1911 it was $1.75 per
bushel; whereas the price to-day in
Chicago is about SO cents"
Since that time wheat has fallen low
er, but the fluctuations through specu-
lations do not affect the general COM
parison.
"Take rice, another article of con-
sumption. In 1895 it was worth cents
per pound in 1896 it was worth Scents
per pound, and the average for the
fourty years from 1895 to 1884 was
$4.61 per hundred, or 4.61 cents per
pound, and this average was caused by
the low price from 1920 down. Before
that time it was higher. The average for
the last ten years would be but very lit
tie more.
"Take the article of fuel. In 1926
anthracite coal was from So to Sill per
ton. It never got lower than Sc until
1888. Then it rose again, and it is now
regularly under IS per ton"
These figures may in some particular
be attacked, and there are other con-
siderations that should, unquestionably,
be taken into account. It is no doubt
true that the number of things classed
as necessaries and comforts, OF, in other
words, the number of things deemed
ordinary requisites for given condi-
ton or calling on life, has been multi
piled of late years. Doubtless food is
not relatively so great an item of the
total expense in many households as it
was in former generations. Neverthe-
less, Mr.. Georges Investigations are in
teresting, and perhaps may lead to some
caution hereafter in accepting assertions
hitherto so little challenged as to have
almost become axioms.
Current Notes.
I There is a prejudice in most newspa-
per Offices against college men, and if
they undertake to furnish specimens Of
their style Of writing, ont q
l20, thsE Il u I. g prs &,
Many ssrn, ! IN ca, salpps 4 q