Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-11-26
THE CONSUMERS REAL TROUBLES.


Who's paying the cost of the
great coal strike? The consumer
Who viii pay the Increased wages
of the miners. when granted? The
consumer. Who will pay the in
creased wages which the railroads
are promising? The consumer. Who
gets 1t in the neck both coming and
going? The consumer. Pity the sor-
rows of the consumer.-Sioux City
Journal.
Which is. all true but the story is
not half told. The consumer who pays
the cost of the great coal strike is the
which have been Inconvenience by the
shortage of coal or the advanced price
of fuel for their furnaces. However.
these same enterprises are engaged in
the manufacture of goods that the
miners would otherwise have bought,
hence. While the first consumer gets a
double .'jolt," the miner consumer of
goods shares in the loss. The strike
stopped the production of wealth which
was all cost to society at large, and no
gain, except as better conditions may
follow.
But when it comes to the consumer
paying the increased wages of the
miner, there is another situation If
those increased wages are all to come
out of an increased price of coal. the
consumer of coal pays ii, and in thou
sands of cases gets his money back in
the increased sales of goods and food
products made possible by the greater
purchasing power of 100000 coal min
suspicion that the margin of profit in
the production of anthracite coal has
heretofore been sufficiently large to
permit of increased wages to miners
without disturbing the price of coal to
the consumer: that the mine owners
and coal carrying railroads could afford
to give the fellow who digs little lar
ger share of the same pile of profits. In
s this case the consumer of goods and
gamer because of increased wages with
which to buy, and the consumers of
coal engaged in the manufacture of
those goods would get the coal at for
mel' prices phile they would sell more
goods.
In all this wage question there enters
~
mans share of the whole for his part in
the labor of production. Jim" Hill of
the Great Northern railway has been
quoted as saying to a company of rail-
way magnates: Boys, we have been
making too much money. Our road has
earned per cent dividends, when per
cent is enough" Thus two alternatives
were open, either to give the employees
a larger share of the earnings or re-
duce the freight rates and not earn SC
much. &C these flush conditions do pre-
vail. and the indications are that they
d., the Increase of wages to a mullen
or more railway employees will ~: in
crease costs to the consumer who buys
goods hauled over the railways, altho
ne may be loser by a possible reduction
in freights that never came.
On the other hand all consumers as a
class are always producers, or should
be, else they have no right to the pleas
ures of consuming, and if 1T is the fac
tory employe who must pay the freight
cost of transporting butter, flour and
meats from the west, he gets his money
back in the greater volume of woollens,
shoes and hardware that million rail-
way employees will buy with their high
wages. Likewise does the consumer of
coal recover in the increased demand
for the goods he produces. This is the