The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-01-25
WHY THE COST OF LIVING
HIGH.

EVERY nome 1eCl1 49,
high prices. There i 10 De q ooh-
pressional inquiry as TO the reason y
the increased cost Of living. IL -
;e honest and goes to the very roots OF
tho matter the result will be interest
ing and instructive. If 1t Is 20 De Q
Cannon and Aldrich affair, started 70
nrove an abb for the trusts and the
high tariff. as Is generally supposed, II
will be useful only to help Republican
spell-binders to mystify people VINO
listen 10 their special pleading.
The trusts. enriched by the tariff, set
the pace. They keep down wages 10
old levels or as near 1t as possloie'
and put up the price to the consumer
Of everything they have TO sell. Every
thing else follows. Destroy the trusts,
withdraw the artificial support OF the
of favoritism, and normal con-
dit.ons will prevail where there Will
be a natural and necessary adjustment
of income with the cost of living. Too
many people have left the country
and moved to town, thus reducing the
number Of people, who produce What
men eat and increasing the lumber OF
of what is made on the
farm. Tha IS one cause. The higher
prices Of meat and bread should in
duCe a return to the farm by many
who are merely existing in the towns.
NV - rraI on9 q y ~ 6F many
more producers on the farms, and the
higher prices must have the result of
making the cry Back to the Farms"
needed by thousands nov herded in
the o~ver-crowded cities. But this is
not the only reason, for the price
charged the town man and the price
received by the farmer do not justify
the high prices which prevail. The
milk, the laborer the SKINNED milk
under present conditions.
Senator Bristow. Republican, Of
Kansas, elected against the reaction
lists of the Republican party in his
State, discusses this vital matter inter
e~stingly. He says railroads and the
beef trust make meat high, and high
tariff helps along the high prices. He
the railroads and the beef trusts which
run the prices of good juicy beef
steaks up to 80 and IS mi pei
pound and roll up the immoral profits
of Tho ArIo1.Ir haaf onno h NATHAN 10
IS per cent during the asst year on
some - 100000 Of watered stock
He added:
Take beef raised in western Kan
sas. It is shipped from Il gras coun.
try to be tattened on corn; then the
cattle go to Kansas City for slaughter
and the c~arcaSseS come back to ives
tern Kansas dressed for consumption
This makes four trips by rAl, two
eastward and two westward. All OF
these railroad trips go int the cost
of the retail beef.
Il lived some years at Lawrence
Kas., before the beef trust had spied
out and conquered the land, when the
Armour people used to send theil
agents into Kansas to solicit business
in dressed meats and the local butcher
l1l1iS GU 1!lS pSe1 dt l1clIte III ON
petition with Armou and others
Prices We're kept down. But since
then the local butchers have beer
squeezed out by the big meat combi-
nations, and now all our dressed meat
must come from the big meat trusr
plants at Kansas City, Chicago OIL
Omaha. The railroads get a lot OF
transportation pack and forward, the
combine stores meat to meet the time
when there IS big demand. All OF
these services, as we'll as profits. are
added TO the cost Of the poor mans
meat.
The tariff is a great factor In high
prices.
IF the tariff on sugar had beer
reduced g would now be cheaper
If the tariff on cotton had beer
reduced, instead of raised in sDots oil
calicoes. cotton cloths and cIothine
would now be cheaper.
II the tariff on wool had been low
pa ~ al inC5n03