The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1910-01-20

l q 17'R'SD.A & j ANUARY 8,
dent. yet there was recently decreed q
sharp advance In the price Of shoes.
90 not claim that some OF these,
factors may not enter into the problem
as at least contributory causes to the.
increased cost Of living. only insist
that they are not the chief causes and
that tn all Of them taken together could
not produce the unusual condition by
which we are confronted. A study of
the situation forces one to the conclu-
sion that our high prices are artificial.
that they We're not produced by nat
ural causes and that some unusual fac
tor has entered in. There are many
proofs that these high prices are arti-
fetal, Of which three may be men
toned. One is that during the panic
OF 1907 the price level kept up, the
first time in history that such condi-
ton prevailed during panic. Anoth-
er fact is that the laws of supply and
demand seem to have been set aside.
However bountiful the harvests may
have. been, prices continued to climb.
The third proof is that during all this
phenomenal rise in food and farm
products the farmer has been but lit
tie benefited. Actual investigations in
the state Of Michigan disclosed the
fact that, while potatoes were selling
a 1,11ch a1 IN, sckx
the farmers receiving but % cents,
the same grades Of potatoes were re-
failing for from 20 to Is cents per
bushel in Detroit, although it was but
a few score of miles distant and the
transportation charges were not more
than Z to 9 cents bushel. Like con-
ditions were found in other lines. I
confidently predict that a like investi-
cation in any large city of the Union
when compared with the country one
or two hundred miles away would
show similar contrasts. Who gets all
this enormous margin between what
the farmer receives and what the ulti-
mate consumer pays?
The Rat In the Meal Tub.
What is the unusual factor in the
situation? There has always been
more or less tariff, there has always
been certain amount of luxury, there
have always been some lax methods
in farming, and to offset whatever in
creased production in gold is actually
found to exist it must be remembered
that silver has been demonetized as
ultimate money of redemption. These
other factors have been present and
are not radically different from what
they were before For this unusual
rise in prices there must be some I'M
usual cause. What is it? What is the
new factor?
There is but one answer possible
the trusts. Prices are no longer ruled
by the natural laws of competition
They are arbitrarily fixed by combina-
lions. There is monopoly in enough
of the chief articles of commerce to
govern the entire price level. What
ever minor causes operate to produce
high prices, and they are many, these
combinations in restraint of trade are
the chief cause. Here is quotation
from Congressman julius Kahn Of
California which is so pat that I can
not forbear quoting it, Being asked
to what he attributed this increase in
cost, MI. Kahn said:
I attribute it first Of all to the forma-
ton of trusts that control these things
Take the item of fish. In the past when
there was an abundance Of fish in the
Pacific coast markets, the price went
down. Now when the market is glutted
| the dealers simply send the surplus to a
fertilizing establishment, where it is con-
verted into fertilizer, and that amount
Of the stuff as an article of food is with
drawn from consumption. This creates a
fictitious shortage, and the price is kept
| up. The same thing is true of fruits.
Fruits ought to be cheap in California,
but the price is kept up when there Is an
unusually big crop through the practice
of destroying that which falls, putting 1t
in cold storage or otherwise keeping it
out of the local markets, so that the sup
ply is reduced. The natural law of supply
| and demand is distorted, and the people
| suffer accordingly.
Congress Wants to Know.
There is to be an investigation of
high prices, possibly two or three of
them. Senator Stephen B. Elkins of
| West Virginia has put in a resolution to
! appoint a committee of five senators
to inquire into the subject, Senator Coe
I. Crawford of South Dakota has in
troduced another resolution which en-
powers the secretary of commerce and