The national forum., 1910-09-17
The High Cost of Living and the
Tariff.

Tariff.
Everybody is talking about the
high cost of living. There is good
reason for the talk, for, as the
grocer-poet say:
"Times is hard and moneys scarce,
How to live is something fierce"
Among the many causes ascribed
to the high cost of living is our
present system of tariff. Making
a casual investigation, | find that
the articles which show the great.
est increase in cost are meat, eggs,
butter, fish, fruit, vegetables, wood
fueI-all products of nature and
the soil. They are all much dearer
than before the passage of the first
great purely protective tariff act of
1883. There were protective tar
if acts before that, but the act of
1883 was the first to embody the
principle of protection for Ameri'
can industries, as opposed posi-
lively to the doctrine of tariff for
revenue only.
Since the passage of that act
clothing, silk, cotton and wool fab
rics, hats, shoes, teas, coifees, sugar,
canned goods, drugs, furniture,
paints, household utensils, tools,
machinery, books and paper have
become much cheaper. All manu-
factured articles have been cheap
ened AS a direct as well as indirect
result of that protective principle.
Among the other necessities which
have been cheapened indirectly by
the tariff are transportation, illu-
minating oils and gas.
All foodstuffs which come to the
market in a natural state are high
er in price. Those which are pre-
pared by some process of manu-
facture are cheaper. This shows
how the tariff has affected food
prices. For instance, peaches and
apples in the natural state have
been rising steadily in price every
year, while peaches and apples pre-
served, canned or manufactured in
any form are becoming cheaper.
Wheat and corn are dearer, but
-four and meal cheaper. The rise
in prices of the products of nature
is not caused by the tariff, the lack
of supply and the increase in de-
mand, except in the case of wood
fuel, but by one of the fundamental
principles of economical finance,
and that is, creating an artificial
demand by restraining the natural
supply. There are meats, grain
and fruit a-plenty, but through the
operation of the commission mer-
chant system they are put on the
market at an arbitrary price, and
if unsold at that price are sent to
the canneries or they are stored in
granaries and refrigerators for
purpose of forcing the prices. This
practice is old as trade, and the
story of Joseph and his operations
with the wheat of Pharaoh is not
so much a miracle or fable as the
account of a successful enhance
ment of the price of foodstuff by a
clever financier of that age.
So / am inclined to think that
the high cost of living is mainly
caused by the producers and mer-
chants of foodstuffs forming trusts
and operating in restraint of trade.
What remedy the law can give has
vet to be seen. AS to the tariff, /
am of the opinion also that many
articles of manufacture are rated
too high, and allow opportunity
for an Overprotit to the manufac-
turer. Our factories can make
goods and ship them abroad for
sale at a lower price than they are
sold at home, which shows that an
arbitrary high price is charged in
the home market and that there is
an artificial overprotit sufficient to
allow exploiting and attempts to
corner the foreign market,
For an entire century the tariff