The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-04-03

ION, D. c., SUNDAY, APRI
they will go higher in the future. There
is no mystery In the upward movement
of values In the first place, there has
been an enormous increase in the world
stock of gold. Money becomes cheap, like
oats and pork, as the volume increases.
A cheap dollar will not buy so much of
anything as a dollar that Is dear. An
other cause for the high prices of food
and household necessities is the increased
cost of distribution. When I was boy
merchants bought their goods by CORE
spondence. Then came the commercial
traveller, who was paid a salary and his
daily expenses. He called on his custom
ers once a month. Now, If he is a gro
Gerry drummer, he visits them every week.
Multiply all the hundreds of thousands
of commercial travellers by their salaries
and expenses. and the figures thus OBJ
tanned will show what has been added TO
the first cost Of doing business, and the
cost of business comes out of the pockets
of the consumers.
eff my mother sent me TO the store
for a dozen of eggs, I carried them home
in a basket; If / went for -four, 1 took
1t away on my back. To-day, one will
see fifty automobiles drawn up before
q big city store. each to be loaded with
merchandise for customers. a single spool
of thread for a woman in the suburbs, a
yard OF cotton for some one else, and so
on, truck after truck. day In and day out.
We used TO say that eggs We're too costly
to eat unless we could buy three dozen
for a quarter Some times wa could get
four dozen. Farmers wives traded them
for coffee, sugar. and other merchandise.
Last summer. in lola, eggs were % cents
a dozen. cash, and women from the eoun-
try, so I was told. often confessed that
they were almost ashamed to take the
money. Cold storage establishments
equallze the supply and distribution OF
certain kinds of food. so that there are as
many eggs in zero weather. when hens
don't lay. as in the heat OF summer.
when hens do lay And for the luxury OF
modern distribution and equalization the
man VINO eats must pay.
Lean Years, Now Fat.
Persons who think the American farm
er is getting an undue share Of the profits
Of industry should remember the lean
years through which ne has struggled 10
his present state Of prosperity. the grass
hoppers and hot winds that destroyed his
crops. and the epidemlcs that annihilated
his herds. Even then. with all Of his
other troubles. the farmer sold his har-
vests for a pittance. Corn was burned
as fuel. Sometimes wheat scarcely paid
for thrashing Yet all the time rates on
money were high. frequently 10 per cent
Many battling man, broken by hard
labor. dead at heart, has been turned into
the public road. after breasting the ele-
ments and fighting fate. because the in
terests on his mortgage could not be
met
rs there any danger Of groups of capt.
talists getting possession Of the best lands
in the country"
''No. The primal desire OF man is to
own land. and monopoly can make no
Roadway against universal human ma
ture. Ultimately. this will be a nation Of
small farms. intensely cultivated-that is
II we are to feed ourselves. In the Kan
sas wheat country and elsewhere a man
with two or three sons will farm a sec.
ton of land or more. stirring HIS fields
with a disk plow and getting twelve
bushels OF grain 10 the acre, but hardly
any more. Swift farming. scratching the
soil at the rate Of ten acres a day, plant
ing 1t on trot, and harvesting II in a
hurry, is an economical way of operation
just now. Yet the land is being robbed
and when the yield Of wheat drops 10 ten
bushels and then to eight bushels an
acre. science and necessity will reverse
present methods. The section of land will
be divided among the boys, and intensive
farming will bring them a better living
than before and keep the country from
starving. Profits and the premise of In
dependence will soon check the growth Of
cities. and the country of the future will
be a green and blooming succession OF
small and highly cultivated farms"
Would End Speculation.
AS chairman Of the Committee on Ag-
riculture in the House of Representatives.
you are attempting to stop speculation
In agricultural products at the boards
of trade and exchanges in large cities?'
said.
Yes, because speculation in wheat,
cotton, corn. and oats Is Injurious
ethically and economically. When mon
ey is loaned to spectators. 1t is
withdrawn from the needs of legiti-
mate business. from merchants and man.
ufacturers. Speculation, therefore. is a
constant menace to honest and useful
business. In 1907. spectators paid Ioe
per cent for funds with which to gam
bic. Meanwhile. the manufacturer had TO
go without bank accommodations. Spec
uiation is the direct cause of panics and
panics shut mills, mines, and factories
So there is constant danger Of distress
and idleness, which argues the case eco
nomically. Gambling is an insidious and
destructive vice. whether with cards or
bales of cotton, and so the case is argued
morally"
Copyright, 1870 By James B Morrow.)