The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1909-12-31
IT HAS CEASED TO BE A MATTER
OF FUN.


Puck, whose mission Is to make us
shoe away troubles by laughing at
them. announces that It will no long.
er picture monopoly humorously. It
he's abandoned the conception which
makes monopoly gentle pickpocket,
hlchlng spare pennies and dimes from
us. and substituted one which makes
monopoly a robber who at the level
OF gun demands all we have. "A
brute with brains" is IT'S verbal de-
scription Of trust monopoly
Well since the cost OF living has
advanced to level where the con.
sequence is, not a mere reduction Of
our savings, but a restraint on our
appetites and a curtailment Of our
pleasures. II certainly Is no longer
joke, and It is a sardonic mockery to
picture any Of the causes In a laugh
able way. OF course not all the blame
is to be heaped on the trusts Some
crops turned out bad this year, and
part of the extra cost of living goes
as tribute to the farmer whom We
don't begrudge, since be is mulcted
Of a good part Of bis extra profit when
he goes 10 buy whatever has under
gone any manufacturing process. The
manufacturers say their laborers are
to blame. but the laborers point to
the undeniable fact that their savings
have not increased while their style
Of living is rather less pretentious
than when the pay envelopesswe not
SO fat.
President Taft says the tariff Is not
to blame. but that sounds more like a
plea of ap artisan than the Judgment
of an economist; and when we re-
fleet that the avowed purpose of tariff
revision was not TO preclude a further
advance IN the cost of living, but TO
reduce a cost already lntolerably high,
we caa appreciate how lame and im-
potent is the president defense of
himself as a party to the Aldrieh-Can-
non tariff outrage.
The effort of the tariff-fostered
trusts to shift the blame onto the
shoulders OF the farmers and laborers
will hardly succeed with people who
are not hypnotized with soft words
Il may be- for example. that stockmen
are getting more for their cattle: but
when we read from an official state
ment. extorted by It's desire to float
more bonds, that one member Of the
packing house trust earned 30 per
cent on It's capital stock last year, we
don't feel that II would be just to put |
much blame on the stockmen for a
condition which makes a roast beef
Sunday luxury for people who used to |
count themselves among the fairly |
well.to-ao as to laborers. there has |
been an advance IN wages ON the |
whole but the best inquiry any one
has been able to moke shows that |
those wages buy less now than they
did when they We're smaller Il Is re.
corded somwhere that the man who
persisted in trying to elevate himself
by pulling az his bootstraps finally
broke his back the moral of which is
that II suca increase as there has
been in wages is the cause Of the pres.
snt state Of affairs, then the best thing
all wage-earners can do Is to demand
that their wages be reduced. and strike
If the demand Is not aceeded to-
Every barometer Of trade shows
prosperity but as many see Il. It is
prosperity by the people and of and
for the interests That Is the reason
why we think Puck has done we'll to
dasist Ii trying 10 keep us In amiable
good humor toward monopoly Mon
opoly In the hands Of beneyoloaoe may
be an ideal aspiration but The trouble
is We are not well enough trained IN 4
benevolenee TO risk even that. t.-Dallas
News.
90
The average rate Of taxation for ter
ritorlal purposes was s6yOs for the