The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1907-04-05
CHANGING VALUES,


During the financial depression of
1895 commerce became so stag
nant and prices so low that the
purchasing power of a dollar was
increased to an astonishing degree.
The result was that those who lived
on salaries fixed some years before
found their purchasing power Won
derfully increased, and the producers,
margin of profit was corresponding
ly reduced. Today the tables have
been reversed, except in the case OF
the farmer, who has not yet succeed
ed in raising prices. Trace it to
what cause we may, values have
been pushed up SO fast by wholesale
producers that it is unsafe for the re-
taller to quote prices unless his stock
is actually on hand; and it is not
possible for him to advance his prices
at corresponding rates.
Taking an illustration near at
hand, there is no branch of our bust
ness, including wages and raw ma
terial of every sort used in its con-
duct where the cost during the past
two years has not increased from
ten to fifty per cent, yet there has
not been an increased charge to Gus
toners in any department.
AS before indicated, farmers are a
notable exception: fertilizer, labor,
machiHery, food and clothing have
become dear, while their farm pro-
ducts have hardly maintained old
prices. An intelligent farmer in Har-
ford forcefully illustrated the situa-
ton to us a short time since. He re-
called how thirty years ago his
neighbor paid forty cents per day,
with board, for stout farm labor
while he was paying nine dollars a
month with board; and at the same
time sold his wheat at one dollar
and forty cents per bushel. Today
he pays fully twice as much for labor
and gets barely one half as much for
wheat.
Even this comparison is intensified
when we remember that then labor
was plentiful and generally good,
while now it is extremely scarce and
frequently inferior.
The explanation of this condition
is found in the fact that the small
manufacturer of a generation ago
has been crushed out of existence
while the large manufactures by the
Community of interest" plan have
gotten together and arbitrarily fixed
prices. No one pretends to say that
yellow pine timber is scarce; but it is
a well-known fact that the most of
the Virginia forests are now held by
a comparatively few lumber mer-
chants and prices for building ma
terial are practically prohibitive for
investment purposes; it is no longer
a question of supply and demand,
but a question of how much the con-
sumner will stand.
No one can doubt that if in such
cases, the import duties were not so
high as to prohibit Importation
when an unfair price for the home
product has been reached, foreign
goods would create a healthy compe
tition by their importation, and fair
prices be again established. There
is no section where existing condi
tions bear more heavily than in Har
ford, because all of our industries are
agricultural or issuing directly there
from, as canning; and the time
does seem to have fully arrived when
we should bend our best energies to-
wards selling higher and buying
cheaper. Certainly the best we can
do is to strengthen our county and
state in the democratic ranks in
order that at no distant day demo-
cratic administration may give us
that reasonable relief from artificial
conditions and unreasonable burdens
which have been so persistently
nurtured under Republican rule.
BUSINESS NOTICES.