The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-01-08
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING.

THE HIGH COST OF LIVING.
This journal has never complained
of high prices of the necessaries of
lie when the people are employed and
have the wherewith to buy them.
Rather, in our opinion, to have high
prices Of commodities with money to
purchase than low prices with no
money to spend. We'believe, however,
that the producer should not charge
too much at the expense of the con-
sumner, but should be satisfied with
fair, reasonable profit.
It was because of high prices that
the people demanded a reduction in
the tariff.
The Republican party, in it's plat
form, "unequivocably" declared it
would revise the tariff if victorious at
the polls, but the standpatters in the
party, with the aid of pseudo-Demo-
Gratis of the East and South, revised
1t upward instead of downward and
made things worse than ever. When
the people asked for bread they were
given stone and told it was the best
tariff bill that ever was passed by the
Republican party. Honest Republic
cans vehemently protested against
such injustice and the violation of
party promises, and they are now
chastised for their insurgency by be.
ing excluded from chairmanships of
important committees. f<1ey are be-
ing punished for trying to perform tho
promise solemnly made in the party
platform.
Had President Taft attended to his
executive duties and left the legisla-
tive branch Of the government free to
act without his interference, things
might have PANIED out differently, but
he Is laEoring under the erroneous i'm
precision that his chief duty consists
IN 1nstructing the lawmakers and in
trying to pass measures suggested by
the interests that placed him where
ne is. Mr. Taft not only approved of
the tariff bill, but praised it highly
in his speech at Winona by declaring
it was the best that ever emanated
from the Republican party. No doubt,
he thought so, and he also thinks that
the father of the bill, as it passed the
senate, Is one of the greatest finan-
clers OF the country. But Mr.. Taft is
no expert on the tariff and he is not
sharp enough to fathom the shrewd
schcming of Aldrich and his Yankee
followers. Mr.. Taft is now the head
of disrupted party and has himself
only to blame. He has now so many
irons in the fire, and hopes to accom-
piish SO much during his first term,
which is likely to be his last, that he
thinks the tariff should rest for Years
until q commission could report on
the matter. But the tariff, like Ban
quo's ghost, will not down. It Is
blamed for the high prices prevailing
!! and is again bobbing up in Congress
to the annoyance of Speaker Cannon
and the representatives of Eastern
manufacturers.
4 hot debate on the high cost of
living was precipitated in Congress
the other day by Republican men,
Der. Mr.. Douglas. He confined him.
self to the high prices of farming
products and said that cattle of the
best grade are selling in the Chicago
market at 1926 per 100 pounds on the
hoof, a price unknown within the
memory Of most members of the
house. What the tariff had to do with
it he Gid not really know, but AID
rich's bill works in a mysterious way
its wonders to perform. Farmers
have no kick coming or the tariff so
long as they get high prices for their
products. 1T is not in behalf of the
farmers plead" exclaimed Mr.. Doug
las, "but in behalf of the man who
works for wages, the man who makes
from IS to $12 a week and has a fam
lily to support, the man who buys less
corn meal today for 20 cents than lie
bought Ave years ago for 10 cents; the
man who has to pay Is cents a pound
today for bacon for his breakfast or
beef for his dinner or generally has
to do without. What are we going to
do about it? Nothing radical. But
that there are things we may do and
ought to do seems apparent"
The increased demand for foodstuffs
from the farm. owing to the rapid
growth of population, has tendency
to raise the prices. Besides, farmers
pay higher wages to laborers than
formerly and pay more for agricul-
tural implements and everything they
buy in the cities. Nobody grudges
the farmers prosperity. The men