Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1907-09-07
COMMON PEOPLES
SHARE GOBBLED UP
Consumer. Tied Body and Soul
Must Pay Prices Demanded by
Great Monopoly or Starve.
Uncle Sam Preparing
to Act.

Washington, ID. c., Sept I'm It's
work of gathering figures concern
ing the increased cost of living. the
bureau of statistics of the United
states government is gradually un-
folding the responsibility for the
great increase in the cost of living
today, and why 1t is that the poor
man finds himself getting poorer"
in the midst of good times.
The department win announce
within a short time that the trusts
and the very rich are eating up the
poor mans share of the great PROS
perity. That's the simple truth.
Many people like to sdestep this
fact. But that is useless. Trusts
| are 'soulless' They are economic
entities. They are the creatures OF
law" They are endowed with all the
| intelligence of their creators, all the
shrewdness, all the craft. all the
greed; and thev lack all the rest
They lack all that makes their maxi
ers human.
Cold Storage Trust.
There is a cold storage trust Take
that as a sample. See what Ii does.
Less than 10 years ago eggs entered
into the diet of the poor. During
the summer eggs were plentiful. with
prices at 10 and IL cents dozen,
or lower. SO of chickens.
What has happened? Invention
| produced cold storage. The trust Gin
j this case the Armour and ailied
trusts saw the opportunity. Eggs
and chickens could be preserved even
for years. Hahl Then we can buy
cheap and sell high, the trust mag.
| mates said. We can absorb all that
= are offered keen than off the mar
ket until we get ready to sell, and
get our price. That's what has hap
pened. That's why you pay the en-
ormous prices you are paying today.
| BY cold storage methods the retail
| price of eggs is kept between 25 and
! 30 cents in summer and 80 to so
/ cents in winter
! Who suffers?
Answer is found in the United
states bureau of labor's studies in
! the cost of living. The poor don't
eat eggs. They eat chicken much
less often than they formerly did.
People of medium means who do eat
I eggs are paying tribute at 40 per cent
increase to the cold storage trust.
Business and Charity.
Go ask the cold storage trust IL
1t is not sorry for poor people who
no longer can eat eggs What would
be the reply? ASK Mr.. Armour. Jr.,
ask the secretary of the Armour
company, or the Armour refrigerated
car lines. What will they say?
1t Is all due to an economic law.
II Is supply and demand. We are
In business. One cannot confuse
business with charity. We have
nothing to do with the poor. They
must take care Of themselves"
And the trust goes on perfecting
its monopoly of the refrigerated rail-
road cars, storage plants in great
markets like Chicago New York,
Kansas City ETC.; goes on adding a
commission business to its storage
and carrying business absorbing the
poultry, eggs and the vegetable sup
ply from the farm country through
which its cars travel; locking them
up I'm huge cold warehouses, and
holding them there until they can
exact their enormous margin of trl-
butte.
seattle Wakes Up.
That is what one food trust is do
ing. In Seattle the people have
awakened to it, The city council has
created great free market place,
and invites the farmer TO come in
and sell direct. But Seattle is about
the only city which is alive to the
situation
The poor man can scarcely afford
beef nowadays. The price is nearly
known. The methods OF the beef
trust were exploited in the action be-
gun by Attorney General Moody two
years ago in Chicag0-and defeated
Dy lhe ruling or system made
Judge Having killed local competi-
ton the trust makes the price Of beef
and other meats what they want
And remember this-the cold stor-
age trust is only the beef trust under
another alias
There are other trusts to which
the poor man pays tribute often
without knowing H. The Lumber,
iron, glass ana building trades trusts
exact their tribute i'm the form of
rent. The poor man Is not building
houses himself: but his landlord is
And his landlord pays more for all
those building materials, owing 10
the unduly high prices forced by the
combinations which deal I'm them.
So he raises the rent. He says he
has 10.
Other MonODOliaS
The woman who goes 20 the store
% buy a spool of cotton thread now
pays six or seven cents instead Of
four or five. This raise is due u the
thread trust
There is magnificent Industry COM
ing up I'm the United states .U can
ming and preserving vegetables and
fruit; an industry protected by a high
tariff and founded on child and Wo-
men labor This industry Is doing
In mart what fine oo11 efnr4ua f~rsr