The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-12-03
CRAWFORD ON
HIGH PRICES.
South Dakota Senator Gives
News on Cause of Pres
ent Prices.
he EADEAYoR5 TO LOCATE RESPONSIBILITY
Gold Production Has Increased the
Circulation Medium and Lessened
Purchasing Power of Dollar.

Purchasing Power of Dollar.
Senator Coe ]. Crawford in New
York independently
There is good deal of complaint
nowadays about high prices and the
increased cost Of living. 1t is fact
which none can deny that the prices
of the necessaries of life have, as a
rule, steadily increased during the
past ten years, and that from 30 to so
per cent more money is required in
the support and maintenance of a
family than was necessary ten or
twelve years ago.
A laborer getting salary of from
sixty to seventy-five dollars per month
in 1896 could support his family in
simple comfort and have something
besides; but in 1908 he found it i'm
possible with the same wages, to pay
his rent and keep even with his gro
Ger, try he ever so hard.
This increase in the cost of living.
where no corresponding increase in
wages and fixed salaries has occurred,
has caused a bitter protest. People
are inquiring into the cause. Is it a
bad thing for the country to have an
area of high and generally advancing
prices?
That depends entirely upon the an
gle from which you view it. If you
are poor man or woman, dependent
entirely upon daily wage or a
monthly, or yearly salary, which has
not increased with, the same ratio,
the period of high prices is not a
good thing for you, and you have a
right to insist on better pay or lower
cost of living.
If, on the other hand, you are en-
gagged in the production of articles Of
food and raiment, or other. materials
of general use and necessity farm
er, for instance, or banker, buyer
or seller, investor manufacturer, car
rier of commodities, or a member Of
a labor union in a furnishing plant
where, through the union, you have
compelled a corresponding increase in
wages-the advance in prices and the
the resulting activity in business has
been and is a. good thing for you. 1t
has been good thing for the farm
er in the great middle west, be-
cause, in addition to the enormous in
crease in the value Of his farm, the
prices of products have increased along
with the general prices Of things he
has to buy, and the steady increase in
prices during the past ten years has
made him rich. But Notwithstanding
the fact that the country has pros
pered .marvelously during the past
twelve years, and notwithstan ling the
fact that the shop. the store, the
factory, the mine and the farms have
brought rich returns, we must not
overlook the burden which these high
prices have placed upon the family of
the poor man whose wages have not
increased equally as much. These more
unfortunate ones are making yigor-
Gus protest, and one of the live ques-
tions just now is: Why have prices
gone up? Why is the cost of living
so much more than it was ten years
ago?
Some answer at once that the trusts
and combinations in restraint of trade,
crushing out competition, have arbi-
trarily increased prices to the point Of
extortion; others charge that the pro-
tective tariff is to blame; others again
tell us that these prices are fixed by
the law of supply and demand, anc
result from the increase in the vol
ume Of our currency, and from Other
natural causes
What is the correct answer to this
serious inquiry? Can we attribute
the general advance Of prices to com
binations in restraint Of trade? If thu
price of crude and refined petroleum
or the price of steel rails had advanc
ed very materially during the pas
ten years, and the price of other stapl
articles had remained stationary, o
fallen, it would be a fair inference t.
say that the increase in the price o
crude and refined petroleum and tn
price Of steel rails was because tn
Standard Oil Company and the Unit
ed Steel Corporation have a monopol.
in the production Of these articles.
But when we discover that tn
prices of ten thousand articles whicl
neither the Standard Oil Company
the United States Steel Corporation
nor any other trust controls hay
steadily advanced more rapidly tina
petroleum and that the price OF stee
rails has not advanced at all, this el
PLANTATION does not explain.
I am decidedly in favor Of the mos
rigid federal supervision of the grea
monopolies like the Standard Oil an
the United States Steel. Such comb
nations should not be allowed to TO
low their.own sweet will in fixing I'll
price Of any article Of necessity. BIZ
ii is manifest that their power to Il
the price Of oil, or Of steel rails, hi
no connection with the high prit
Maid for wheat, barley, fax, porl
l-<pv y 8 "a.