The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-24

| the crime that the senate contemplates
against all the past traditions and the
safe and wise policy of the republic
Increased Consuming power.
The annual statistical abstract for
1897, issued by the treasury depart
ment, is at hand; and, in passing, we
wish to acknowledge the obligation of
all who have occasion to study govern
ment statistics to this administration
for the retention of Mr.. Ford, the only
capable man the treasury's bureau of
statistics has ever had Prefacing the
| tables is sheet giving the various data
of the work reduced to a per capita
basis. While this is nothing more than
a generalization, and is never taken as
basis for precise calculations, still,
in large way, it serves to indicate
conditions and, for purposes of COM
parison of periods, has a sufficient ap-
Proclamation to certainty to make
study of it interesting
The advancing prosperity or poverty
OF nation is shown by precisely the
same signs that indicate like movement
in individuals When income increases
with men, its signs are increased ex-
penditure for the necessaries, the COM
forts and the elegancies of life. When
the contrary is the case, it is indicated
by retrenchment, diminished buying,
Iessened consumption. AS a nation we
are not frugal When increase of in
come eases off the strain of outgo the
latter quickly takes up the slack and
keeps the line taut. We are a nation
of spenders, distributors of earnings,
with few accumuIators who become
the envy of the others and are scorned
as plutocrats. Demagogues find stacks
of ammunition in this fact, and dwell
on the wealth of the "pIutocrats, in
the shadow of which the increased com
forts of the mass are obscured.
1t is this feature of the latest annual
of Statistician Ford to which we direct
attention. AS income increases men eat
more and clothe themselves and fami-
lies better. Later they add articles of
comfort, and supplement these with
luXuries. The table before us deals
with the necessaries of life; food and
clothing. In 1867 we find that the quar-
tity OF raw cotton retained for home
consumption was S.48 pounds for each
one of the 1921 600 bodies forming the
population of the United States. Thirty
years later the number of bodies has
doubled, and the number of pounds
each finds use for has increased to 49,
pounds, or by 140 per cent. WooIens
are necessaries over the whole coun-
try, and in spite of the policy of maxi
ing them dearer by taxation of i'm
ports inaugurated in 1867 the consump-
pounds then to 8.26 pounds in 1897, an
increase Of go per cent, although the
number needing woolens has doubled.
1t is an item that should have the at
tention of those who imagine that tax
ed imports protect the f1ockmasters
that, in 1867, the foreign wool used was
but 10 per cent of all, and in 1898, I'M
der the stiffest protection, it was IS
per cent.
In 1867 there was retained for home
consumption 1892 bushels of wheat Der
head, quantity that rose to 478 bush
els in 1896, before the short crop abroad
enabled the millers to shove up the
price of flour and make johnnycake
and corn pones more frequent visitors
on the tables of the poor, cutting the
home consumption in 1897 to 1888 bush
els. TWenty-four and one-tenth
pounds of sugar was all that
Americans could afford to use
per head in 1867, but each man
aged to use 64.5 pounds in 1897: while
part Of it went to sweeten the 9.55
pounds of coffee each drank, in decoc-
ton, against the sol pounds used thirty
years ago. We are not a nation Of
tea drinkers, else the CONSUMPTION
would have been increased more than
from the 100 pounds a head in 1867 to
the 1.55 pounds in 1897 And it should
not be overlooked that thirty years ago
we had cheaper money" than now,
the greenback in that year-the only
money" in circulation then and for ten
years later-having a purchasing pow
er of only III cents, a fact always
bearing heavily on the consuming pow
er of people. The Cheaper" money
is, the less it can buy.
The Obligation of Wealth.
Once President Harrison spoke need
ed words Of caution in his address to