The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-05-17
COST OF LIVING
ON THE COAST
Prices Forty Per Gent Higher in
San Francisco Than
They We're.

| SAN FRANCISCO, May 3-lf this is
a period of prosperity in San Francisco,
aud the evidences that d, is are plentiful
and convincing, 1t is also n time when
| everything costs a pretty penny. The
| increase in the cost of living is keeping
pace with the general Improvement in
| trade conditions. 1t extends TO small, as
well as to more important items of eX-
penditure, and has now got down to the
cost of having ones shoes polished
Keepers of bootblack STANDS have decid-
ed to form a union and to raise the price
of Shine" from five to ten cents.
| The bootblacks say that theirs is as
much a skilled calling the business of
driving hacks and waiting in restaur-
| ants, and that they are as much entitled
| to fix prices as are a dozen other classes
| of labor. For a grievance they have the
| fact that they are now required to pay
| a license o. SO a quarter for backing the
| boots of the populace in the stands
which they maintain on the streets and
| in other public places about town. 1t
seems a small sum to men in most lines
| of business, but when receipts are swell
| ed by the slow measure of nickel at
a time it is felt by the artists of the box
and brush to be quite tax on their in
| dustry. So there is every prospect that
| 1t will soon cost as much to get a
'SnlHe on as oH ounudy, Oh
a working-day as on a holiday. They
are going to keep pace with the upward
| trend of prices, and with them will be
BARRIERS who now charge ten cents for
shave. Petty soon, 1t is said, there will
be no ten-cent barber shops in the city.
The day of small things is coming.
The cost of living in San Francisco has
become a general cause for complaint.
Househoders declare that it is, at least,
40 per cent greater than it was year
ago, and the reasons are interesting. In
quiry develops the fact that it is only
the old story of supply and demand
Ask your butcher why it Is that he
charges you 40 per cent more for meat
than it cost year ago, and he Will tell
you that meat Is scarce and the city full
of people who have to be fed. Every
hotel in the city is full, and the lodging
houses which supply the restaurants
with customers have rarely a room ito
spare. Eighteen months ago the house
renters defaced hundreds of win
dows ana the real estate man lived
languid existence Now the person who
finds 1t necessary to go a house-huntins
has wearying task before him.
1t is almost impossible to find house
If one is at all particular and even good
rooms are scarce. This Is not only
matter of observation, but it is the testi-
ness of renting and selling houses. Man
ager Bowes of Shanwald, Buckbee &
Co. said today that a very satisfactory
condition prevailed at present. You can
rent anything that you have in the way
of Il house or store,' he said today.
Places of business are especially in de-
mand. / suppose that there are several
causes that have led to this state of
things, but there is no doubt that the
hi lttN.Nf r,a httGf Int,
deal for San Francisco. Low rates of
fare out to the Coast have brought out
many people, and no doubt a good many
have come to stay. / would not conclude
that there was a boom or anything of
that kind. 1t seems to be steady and
general improvement in business and l
believe that it will last" That is the
way most business men talk.
Perhaps the meat bill is the item that
causes the heads of families more con-
Germ than almost any other. George
Loewenberg ascribes the high prices to
several conspiring causes. First, he
says, the enormous shipments of meat
TO the Philippines have made heavy in
roads on the supply. The transports
have carried off great quantities of beef
and other meats to the new possessions
of the United States in the South Pa
cific. Then, too, cattle are scarce. Sew
$500
was scarce and high. caused ranchers to
get rid of stock. Thousands of head of
cattle were shipped East, where cheap
corn made the demand brisk. The past
two seasons in California have been
good and ranchers have plenty of grass
and comparatively few cattle. In these
conditions they do not want to sell. 1t
is very hard to get good beef cattle now
at almost any price. Miller & Lux, Hag-
gin, Hearst, Spreckels and other large
landowners are keeping all their cattle.
The demand in the city has increased
and therefore the prices are way up.
The prices Tor all qualities of beef are
say 40 per cent higher than they were
before the bad seasons, and the Philip
pine trade came to change the situation.
So If the bootblacks and the BARRIERS
want more money, along with the
butcher, the baker and the candlestick-
maker there are sound reasons at the
back of their demands. for they all have
TO live and the cost of living, as re-
marked at the outset, rs now very high.
~