The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-10-31
Highest Of all Leavening Power-Laest u Govt Report
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ABSOLUTELY PURE
ABSOLUTELY PURE

better of than they were then. Why? Because
things cost 50 mach iees than they did.
have seen bananas and oranges sell mere a.
% cents apece~-not once. but month aiter
month for years Now they can be got some
times as low As 10 cents dozen, and from thar
70 80 cents. Flour sold IN 1854 81 SO barrel;
row it sells at g. Weekly newspapers (ihere
were no dailiesl brought 8 year and % cents
copy; now bigger and better ones can be got at
81 year and cents copT. White sugar was
sol ! ut four pounds for the dollar; now sixteen
the dollar; now fifteen TO twenty
yards. Then ii cost man Sc to
go from Seattle TO Olympia; now 1t costs
81 %; then slD-5o TO go TO Victoria. now 81 Then
IL cost to ride few miles back of town from
70 TO IS; now one can go TO the same place more
quickly, com ortably and safely on the street
IS pair. or double the price OF today. Coal oil
retailed thirty years ago at 50 cents quart;
now two gallons can be bought Tor that money.
Twenty years age white newspaper cost the pub
fishers 16 cents pound az san Francisco, and
ten years before snat 80 cents: it can be got IN
Seattle today for cents. Houses built to rent
IN early days were like what We now call shacks.
Many were implanted, few plas.ered, and all
small. Yet tney brought $40. SIS and $50
month. or quite as much rs better houses at pres
eut. TIE half-ounee letter rate to British Co
lumbia was 10 eents Beef retailed at 25 cents
pound and milk at Is cents quart. Butter
seldom got as log as so cents pound, and q
good article occasionally brought 81. Eggs
rated the Same per dozen as butter per pound.
Though have referred to wages of lumber
men only, Gs strikiag stories can be told OF men
and women III osher pursuits. Carpenters got
from e TO IS a day: brick.ayers 81 more: or
binary iaborers less Farm hands got from so
to $iU month, school teachers from so 70 $50,
ana statesmen about the same. There was so
little emp oymenr for mechanics or skilled
workers that wages can hardly be quoted Men
working By the piece or job got what they could.
sometimes they got enough to pay them hand
soInely, but generally they made less money per
day than similar men do now. There was little
or nothing for printers. A cheap class OF hands
were employed tip to ten or twelve years ago.
receiving for their services from Sc to Sis q
week, or 25 or 80 cents thousand ems. Print
ers are getting now 45 ana 81 cents a thousand
ana from s2i to s35 a week. Ciergymen, physi-
clans, attorneys aud editors got all they could,
but the aggregate annual COMPENSATION o: the
best OF them would be considered starvation
wages by the poorest paid professional men of
this day.
Not only were fruits from three to ten times
as high as they are now. but during the greater
part OF the time it was imposs bic to get them at
any price. The FIST Gu tivated STRAWBERRIES in
the town In which lived were grown in 1861,
and were given cut by the gardener, one each,
to few friends Raspberri.s came two years
later. A few apples were brought from Oregon.
There were no pears, no grapes, no peaches, no
melons. The feg candies aud crackers con-
sumed were irregu Larry imported from the At
lantic states, aad were high in price and
wretched in quality.
Those who have lived on Puget sound since
$50. during the protective tariff period, have
seen not only gradual improvement in the
character OF food articles, of clothing, houses,
transportation, newspapers, etc. but they have
seen an equally striking reduction III their cost,
and, marvellous as it may seem, considerable
general advance IN the wages of those employed
in their production or operation. Coal is lower
In 1892 than ever before in the state OF Washing
ton; no newspaper sold at cents until 1852;
kilograms are now sent for 25 cents that formerly
cost Is cents; per cent. q month was common
arate OF interest as 10 per cent per annum Is now,
and per cent. can be paid easier now than it
could then: ordinary house brick have sold for
$50 and SIS thousand, such as can be got now
for Sc ana s.. The prices and wages / have
named are in gold and silver, and in case az
fected by fluctuations OF the currency. They
are not liked, but gre about the average for the
period am speaking Of, and varying, both up
and down, from time to time az the condition OF
trade demanded.
The only way people got along in those days
was by working hard and living cheap. They
did all for themselves they could DO; they stayed
at home because they could not get together
money enough to 20 abroad, and they dressed
aud ate in the plainest manner from sheer neces-
si.y. If people would work now and live and
they did then they would get rich in
double-Quick time.
What proportion of the beneficial changes /
have referred to is due to protective tar If can.
not be stated, but | am personally convinced
that great deal is. Favored by law, the in
dustrial establishments OF the East have grown
and have been enabled to sell to our people
axes aud saws, machinery, clothes, books and ten
thousand Other articles at lower and lower rates,
and We in turn, he. ped by improved appliances,
by reduced transportation rates aud by the de-
velopment OF our own strength and resources,
defended by the general government against
competition from abroad, have gone on in peace
aud prosperity unsurpassed in the world As
far Western Washington. Is concerned IL is
certain that money is more easily obtained,
that work has hem more plenty, that wages
are higher, the necessities of life lower, the
luxures mose com non, and that the comforts,
pleasures and &C rantages are UNNECESSARILY
greater since the imposition of the protective
tariff than before