The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1907-11-29

IL inc consume I'M cause Is DOrdlnat 10 te erect;
the effect is apparent-thc cause protlematical so far as he is concerned.
The cost of living has increased greatly, and the question now is-"Are
high prices a benefit to all consumersF'
There are two kinds of consumers-producers and nonproducers.
The producer gets a wage o a salary. Let us consider his financial p-
siton. If high prices are a benefit to him, after paying the increased
price: for rent, food, clothes, heat and light, he should have a large surplus
for recreation and the good things of life. Does he? Instead, he sees
the surplus vanish, and, ofkntimes, a balance on the debtor side.
But, it will be said, wages and some salaries have been increased,
and comparisons are attempted between the increases in prices and the
advances In wages and salaries. Nothing could be more falaclous as
applied to the workingman paid by the hour or day. Questions of rates
mean little. What he actually earns is the vital question.
The real condition of workingmen is not shown by comparing vicious
percentages claimed to represent increases in prices and advances in wages
and salaries. The only figures worth anything as an index of conditions
1. The number of workingmen having an increased surplus despite
the high prices.
2. The number having a less surplus.
3. The number having no surplus.
4. The number in debt.
If official figures, honestly attained on this basis and presented with
out fixing" show that high prices have benefited the wage worker and the
smallsalarnd man. then the heavens will rain mamma again, and we may
all sit down and eat and drink and be merry. Until then, the dealers
and doctors, and other creditors, will have their uncolectibe bills, and the
pawn shops and money sharks will increase in number and wax rich with
increased business.
And this brings us to the nonproducers who are not paid by wages
or salaries, but by profits. They have to pay the increased prices, too
but they have the remedy in their own hands. What they have to sell
others must pay for o go without. BY nonproducers l mean all who
transport, buy o sell what the consumer needs, including money. The
whale has its auxilaries, who lead it to its feeding grounds, and the bank
rs and money-brokers are all adherents and helpers of the great god
capital!
Restraints are being placed continually upon the manufacturer, who
often is the consumers best friend, especially when he eliminates the
middeman and gets close to the consumer. At present we have. between
the maker and the user, the wholesale dealer or commission merchant, and
the retailer The three, manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer, may each
make only a fair profit; but three fair profits make a price burdensome to
the consumer. An increased wage o salary may help the consumer; but
if it only enables him to make both ends meet, and does not restore or
increase his surplus, he is not benefited.
Probably the majority of nonproducers benefit by high prices for
they, as a rule, live on a percentage of profit,
and the larger the figures, the greater the
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gives a larger return. -