The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-09-29
REVISION WARNING
In LlYING'S COST
Standpatters Fail to See Need for
Tariff Changes While Peo-
pie Prosper.
AMERICA DISCUSSING
COMFORTS HIGH COST
Secretary Wilson Predicts Drop
in Price of Foods the Com
ing Winter.
New York Sun Special Service.

New 4ork sun special service.
Chicago, Sept. 29.-Walter Wellman,
in a Washington special to the Record
Herald, says:
Senators, representatives and gov
eminent officials who have been out of
the capital during a part of the sum-
mer, say there is no other SUI ject the
people everywhere are discussing more
cost of living. So far, these observ-
ers say, there is not much discomfort
among the people over the increased
price of most articles that are needed
to keep family going. Everywhere IN
the country there is great prosperity.
The people are earning and making
money at a rapid rate and spending it
just as fast.
The meaning of this is that the coun-
try, industrially, is pitched to a high
key. There is no overproductlon. 1t Is
almost impossible to overproduce for
people who have the consuming power
which the people of this country have
displayed during the last few years.
e. Everyone at Work. -.
Almost every man and woman who
wants employment has it at good
wages. And the way in which the
American people spend their money, the
rate at which they live, the high stand
ard Of comfort which they, enlo the
i
and amusements and pay out their good
cash in doing so. are facts which great
ly amaze visitors from foreign lands.
At the Portsmouth peace conference
this was the subject Of frequent con-
versation among the distinguished Wis,
they had never seen anything like the
righteousness of the American people,
and if they had not witnessed it with
their own eyes they would not have be-
lieved it. One acute foreign observer
said:
s'In your country the masses Of the
people live in style which only t ne
European standards, half your people
must be well-to-do. The luxurious way
in which you Americans dress, eat,
travel, house and amuse yourselves
beats everything recorded in the his
tory of civilization go, -,
{ Prosperity and Revision.
AS long as everything moves along
nicely the people are not likely to be-
come very much disconnected over the
high prices. AS long as they have the
money to buy what they need or want
it is improbable. there will be much
>grumbling over the cost. Some of our
most acute political observers say it
will be impossible to get up a genuine
popular demand for revision of the
tariff as long as prosperity continues to
run at hoodtide. But the moment the
reaction sets in, work drops off, wages
droop, incomes are cut ana me ptsop .o
trenchment which inevitably follows 9
season of wide-open expenditure, is al
last upon them, there is likely to arise
such an cutlery against the high cost
of living as the country never before
When Discomfort Comes.
When discomfort comes it will be un
reasonable and unreasoning: It will de
mand an offering in sacrifice One Well
'sThe republican party will be might
lucky if the people do not only ascrib
the high prices largely to the tariff an
demand Immediate revision, but go fa1
Their and insist that the work Of redl
cling duties shall be placed in the hand
of the opposition party. That is VIII
I am in favor Of revision.
eff the standpatters have their wa.
and we wait till the storm comes,
clone like that of 1890. If the republica
party will revise the tariff while it
\ vet in power, do it voluntarily, and d
\ it rightly-that is, by reducing duties
when the season of discomfort arrive
the people will have no excuse to blan
! the high cost Of the necessaries Of LII
upon the tariff and perhaps also upo
the republican party. But you can
! make the standpatters see that.'
The fact that the people are alread
doing much talking about high price
! is significant. They are now. in an L
| curing mood. They are curious as
causes. They are too prosperous to
very critical. But their present sta
of mind surely foreshadows what Wi
happen when the tide turns.