Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-08-15
THE TARIFF AND THE COST OF
LIVING.

Senator Aldrich's speech on the
tariff will be used, and well deserves
to be used, as an arsenal of facts by
the defenders of Protection. The ar
ray of proofs drives opponents of Pro
lection to small but snappish carping
about details, as Senator Vest express
ed his Joy at the admission that pearl
buttons had increased in cost. Men
who are not large enough to surren-
der point when they are beaten have
to keep up pitiful show of resistance,
though they know it is of no use, just
as some Confederates threatened that
after the great armies of rebellion
were destroyed, guerilla warfare would
last for years in the woods and
swamps of the South. But the people
of that section had too much sense to
waste their lives in a pointless and
aimless struggle. Supporters of Free
Trade theories may proftably aban-
don the pretence that the Mckinley
bill has raised prices or increased the
cost of living.
Senator Aldrich reasons that the
decline of 3.4 per cent in prices, and
the rise of .75 per cent in wages,
make a change of 4.15 per cent.in the
purchasing power of wages, which,
at 5000 a family, would mean about
S25 for each of 100000 families, or
s325, 900, OOO yearly. 1t is1 fair to say
that the Is, ,OO0, 900 are not all support
ed by the manufacturing and mechan-
ica1 labor which is reported to have
advanced only three quarters of one
per cent. Nearly half the population
is supported by agriculture. The wag-
es of farm labor, according to the
elaborate report issued in April by
the Department of Agriculture, has
advanced 1.5 per cent during the last
two years and 2 per cent during the
last four years. The average advance
in wages would therefore seem to be
greater than the committee estimates.
On the other hand, the wages of near
ly half the labor of the country, being
employed in agriculture, do not av
erage $500 year; but even if colored
labor at the South be excluded, the
average would be less than $500
year. The farmers who own their
farms, or work land on shares, doubt
less average more, but even they do
not have an average of $500 family
to expend in the purchase of things
not raised on the farm. The esti-
mate of the Senator can only be re-
garded as an illustration of the gen
era1 result of the great changes ascer-
tanned
Senator Aldrich's speech does not
appear to have brought out fully one
important fact, that the prices of 9TH
er than farm products, separately
considered, have declined greatly dur
ing the last three years.. though this
may be clearly inferred from the
statements given. Thus it is shown
that the advance in wholesale prices
of farm products from June, 1889, to
September, 1891, was more than is
per cent, and yet5the retail cost of all
articles actually declined. Necessari- |
ly the decline in all other than farm |
products must have been large. When |
the detailed report of the committee |
has been published it may be possible
to separate the items, and thus to de-
termine measurably how great the |
decline has been in the cost of things |
which the farmer has to purchase.
Meanwhile it is obvious that the ad-
vance of farm products, while it has
brought great gain to the farmer,
has not involved corresponding loss
to the consumers of articles manufac |
tured from those products Thus the
farmer received for wheat at New |
York so TO 8034 cents.Ein June, 1889, /
and patent -four was selling here at |
$5-75 per barrel. Last September the
price of wheat had risen to 81 OIL,
but the same flour sold at Sc barrel,
a rise of only 25 cents barrel, against
p cents bushel for wheat. Now the
wheat sells at IS rs cents, or cents
higher than in 1889. The prices of
manufactured products generally are
about the lowest ever known, and
these measure the expenditures of the
farmers, as well as great part of the