The Carlisle independent., 1907-12-26
THE COST IF LIVING.
f9 BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SPENT ANNUALLY IN UNITED STATES.
THE CITY vS. THE COUNTRY
Gequai Distribution of Business vs1A2. Hardship Upon Many, and Retards Growth of Agri-
 cultural Towns.

Statistics as to the cost of living are ever interesting to the economist. It is estimated that only 29 per cent. of the people of the United States re- side in large cities. It is claimed about $19,0O0,00 ,000 are spent each year by the 86,000,000 people in the union for clothing, food and luxuries. If Fl per cent. reside in rural towns and farming sections, it stands to reason that the percentage of money paid for suecessaries of life is n per cent of the vast sum of nearly $19,000,00 900 annually expended. These figures open up wide field for study of economic conditions.
 For sake of illustration, let it be estimated that in the large cities the cost of living is 50 per cent. more than in the country towns and farming districts, which would still leave ap- proximately 60 per cent of all spent for food and clothes credited to the people living outside the larger cities. Then it is found that the amount rural residents spend annually is $11,S00,- 0OO,0 But do the profits on this vast amount of business remain in the rural districts? Do the merchants in those 65,O00 country towns receive the patronage of the people who are resi- dents of the districts? A conservative estimate is that one-third of all this vast trade goes to the 415 large cities, wherein reside only 20 per cent. of the population Were the profits on the trade that belongs properly to the country towns kept within them and within their districts, in the course of dozen years their wealth would be increased nearly 100 per cent But the drifting of the business to the country towns poorer and retards their advancement, but necessitates alike drifting of the population of the country toward the thickly populated cities on account of the lack of indus tries to afford employment Herein is found the cause of the complaints of students in economic conditions of the tendency of the country bred youths to drift toward the large cities, and explains the cause The country residents are the ones to be blamed for such conditions. It is 2 lack of appreciation of home enter prise, and the desire to trade in the large towns that is the cause.
 The sending away of dollars assists the great combinations to control manufacturing, financial affairs, and all lines of industry, and even the trusts are tightening their grips on the farms, controlling the prices of commodities that the farmers must have, and dictating the prices at which he shall sell all his products, as with the destruction of the business of the rural towns, the home market is made poorer, and in fact even before the small town merchant can supply the people living within the town with products that are produced in the i'm mediate neighborhood, the trusts must have their profit" out of the trans action. Reader, do you know a remedy that can be applied that will give a more equitable distribution of busi- ness and of the earnings of the peo- pie? Do you not think that the home trade and the building up of home in- dustries plan might bring about the desired results?
 D. M. CARR.