The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-06-10
THE COST OF LIVING.

THE COST OF LIVING.
Several weeks ago we printed letter
from a workingman, in the Boston
Journal, regarding the cost of living and
the improved condition of wage earners
under protection. 1t dealt in facts in
very practical way, and its statements
have been widely commented on. 1t
appears that a number of free traders
have thought it worth while to attack
the writer with inquiries and plausible
statements of approved free trade
theories. We give his reply to some of
these inquiries, and we commend his
pungent and interesting letter to our
readers. There is more hard-headed
common sense in it than in bali dozen
free trade treatises. The two letters,
printed together would not make bad
tract for circulation among workingmen,
as follows:
My note concerning cost of living has
aroused quite large number of people,
and to answer each one separately is too
great tax on my time.
Replying to H. G. l did not intend to
give a bill of fare or to say if others live
better or worse than do, but to show
that it costs less to live better than at
any other time since can remember.
Nor did l lose sight of the fact that
new methods of manufacture, improving
means of transportation and other
modern improvements, all help to make
living cheaper. And call my friends
attention to the fact that nearly all of
this wonderful development and i'm
provement has taken place in the last
thirty years under the 'blighting' effect
of our protective tariff"
Another good brother says: you are
being robbed every day and don't know
it."
When / can and do buy articles of
every day use-of American production
for less than the tariff on imported
goods, and for less money than at any
time in the worlds history, how am l
robbed? Will some one kindly explainp
If my friend will show me that have
to pay more for necessaries of life, that
nv wages are reduced or that have to
lose time or work on account of the
Mckinley bill, will join the noble order
of kickers and move in the front rank.
"a farmer" calls my attentian to the
fact that he got so cents pound for
butter just after the war and can't get
half that now.
In 1867 l bought of a farmer in New
Hampshire SO pounds of butter, paying
him AZ cents pound, or $500 for the
lou. w lJu ILlS IlOuGJ uO q
barrel of flour for $40, 20 pounds granu-
lated sugar at IS cents per pound, and 10
gallons kerosene at As cents a gallon,
leaving 81. K6 cash. To-day he will get
25 cents pound for his butter, or $14.
A barrel of best flour will cost him $3.50,
20 pounds of sugar 81 and 10 gallons
kerosene S1,20, leaving $3.50 cash, or
enough to buy another barrel of pastry
flour and 20 pounds more sugar.
AS the farmer bought of was good
Democrat" he will probably put this
$3.50 in his pocket, and then go home
and darn Mckinley"
No, my farmer friends, the mechanics
are no ''better off proportionately than
you are. You can get more of every
thing you buy in exchange for a given
quantity of your products than at any
time in the history of the country
A Clergyman" asks: Do you as a
workingman favor a protective tariff,
and if so, why?
1 answer most emphatically, do, be-
cause as workingman 1 earn more
money and live better every way than
men of my calling did in my boyhood.
/ have seen the country from nearly
bankrupt condition under the low tariff
or quasi free trade Walker tariff to its
present proud condition as one OF the
richest nations on the globe.
1 have seen ''pauperism decrease
more than 800 per cent. right here in
New England, and in the great State of |
New York there is but one pauper in 90,
where there were 25 in 1858. have in |
mind two towns in New Hampshire,
where 1 went for my health at the close |
Of the war, where there were two large /
poor farms with 50 'boarders." To-
day there are nine "boarders" from
these two towns at the County Farm"
and there are two abandoned farms"
The combined population of the two
towns is greater than when l first knew
them in '65. favor protection, because
from my own experience l know that |
men can live better, and because under
its influence all the necessaries of life are
cheaper and most of them better in
quality. And the man who tells you
that the "tariff enhances the cost to the |
consumer by so much as the tariff may
be- don't know what he is talking about |
or he is ''monkeying with the truth
No, my clerical friend, while respect
you highly as religious teacher do
not need your advice in marketing.
When l have bought and paid for my
groceries and counted the change am
compelled to believe that the evidence
of my pocket book is better than any
other mans theory.
G. N. CROCKETT.