Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1910-07-16

of six or eight cents a pound. In these
United States you can't send any par
eel at all by mail if it weighs over four
pounds and YOU must pay sixteen
cents a pound at that. But we can't
be allowed a decent parcels post be-
cause If we had one the big express
onnPanies couldn't continue to pay s
and 10 and II per cent. annual divi-
dends, with semi occasional melon
cuttings of 100 per cent. to the favor
ed insiders. The eXorbitant charges
added to the consumers bills on all the
goods they handle.
Which allows you to look through
another knot-hoie into the cause of
high prices"
Our much Wanted credit system"
has now reached such a vogue that
half of US, at least, buy things on
credit and have them Charged and
pay our bills with credit in the shape
of checks on the banks. When a bank
cashier wants an automobile, or ha-
rem, or a stable of racers, or any 9TH
er little thing like that, he takes the
money you've put in to establish your
credit with and, sooner or later, you
have to make it good Moreover, when
your storekeeper finds himself unable
to collect his bills from some dozen or
two of bad customers" TO whom he
has given credit you fellows who do
pay your debts have to make good the
bills of these also.
There comes in another chance to
look into the way in which high
prices" come about.
Right down at the bottom of the real
explanation for the whole thing lies
in the desire of a tremendous lot of US
to get something for nothing; to get
ich-quick Get money" SAYS Old
1Sir1 ~ fshnnPSf-
ly if you can, but-GET MONEY" Too
many of us see in a business transact
ton only an opportunity to get the
best of some one else We scheme
and plan to get more from the other
fellow than we give him. That dimin-
ishes his store, of course; but it in
creases our surplus. We assume that
he is trying, the same way, to get the
better of us-to give us less than he
gets from us. So the affair degener-
ates into a combat of cunning in which
the Shrewder or more inscriptions
- ms at The expense Of the other IT'S
a pitiful outcome, after nineteen CEN
turtles with the Golden Rule before the
worlds eyes.
1t won't do, either, for us farmers to
adopt a "holier-t han-thou attitude,
and assume that we, as class. are
better than those we 'criticise. 1 have
known of potato barrels going off a
farm with a half bushel of little culls
in the middle of every barrel. / have
bought baled hay from fellow farm
ers. to find the heart of some bales
filled with dust and chaff and barn
floor sweepfngs. I have known a
farmer to put down eggs when they
were plenty and cheap, and sell them,
six months later, as strictly fresh"
at fancy prices. I have heard of Der
ry boxes which had all the big 'uns at
the top. 1 have known "heave-y"
horses to be doped into apparent
health to dupe a buyer, and breachy
heifers to be sold as orderly. Oh, were
own overalls are not so immaculate
that We can afford to abuseE the man
whose serge shows stains.
Furthermore, it is we'll to bear in
mind that high prices are not in them !
selves evil. If we all get high prices
for what we sell, there is no hardship
in our having to pay high prices for
what we buy. It is not high prices, I
but unequal prices that hurt. If I can,l
get ten cents a busheI more for my
potatoes, / can afford to pay ten cents |
a bushel more for my bran. The spe-
cfal phase of trouble for US farmers is /
that the high price pendulum swings
pay increases a year or so before we
can begin to collect increa ses. Our /
lack of organization in an Organiza- !
ton ridden age not only enables !
the Seller 10 charge us what he viii, I
but also enables the buyer to fix what !
prices he will pay us, for a time. at
least. This is all. wrong. IF the man
who sells ginghams and sugar has the /
right to fix the price we must pay for /
ginghams and sugar, then we who sell /
hay and corn and potatoes should |
have equal right to fix the price he |
must pay for them. What's sauce for |
the goose is sauce for the gander. The /
only practicable way to secure this /
fAa1 raf two t.
organize, as other businesses organize /
| always prefer to coax my horses /
with apples or carrots. But if 1 had 1
one too ungrateful and "ondacint" to
be amenable to these arguments I'd /
use a whip-or a bean-pole. if that I
last were handler. If our friends the /
enemy. can't understand the beauties |
Of justice and equity, they can, doubt
less, be induced TO comprehend the eff 1
fcacy of compulsion. We've got to /
combine in some way so that we can
apply the CAD, if need be.
THE FARMER.
Chief FulIer's Simple Habits.
h.