Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1910-02-04
Friday, Feb. a. 1870.
HIGH FOOD PRICES.

HIGH FOOD PRICES.
Newspapers are full of accounts G
boycotts on meat. Every body is t
quit eating meat and thus briug som
tyrant to his knees. Nobody seems t
know just who or what that tyrant is
yet all are fighting this bogy and al
expect to put him in his grave. Their
are many reasons assigned for the higl
prices of meat and food stuffs general
ly. Some put it on the tariff, Others
on trusts, others on the farmer wht
will not raise beeves and vegetables il
sufficient quantities, others put it Oh
the middle men who handle packing
house stufs and other necessities, anG
the local butcher. None, however
knows just what the causes are. They
do not come from one source only, they
are legion. Yet the high prices Of
meat may all be traced, we think, to
the one fountain head-the Beef trust.
The Beef trust may in turn be traced
to the tariff, and the tariff is easily
traceable to the Republican party.
When that is reached the whole ques-
ton becomes clouded, and injury to
the public becomes impossible from
such source, because no policy of that
party ever hurt the people, none was
eyer wrong, and notwithstanding ca
lamities come in mum bers and without
warning, they. are not and cannot be
traceable to that wiser than ''the
giver of all good things" himself, that
party which can do no wrong. The
leaders cry no, no, when the party is
accused. Yet we hear that cen is per
pound tariff on beef should be remov-
ed. Why it was ever put on nobody
seems to know. Some say this would
help conditions. What rot. The trusts
which now are so mighty would con-
troll any shipment of beef into this
country and the price would remain as
high or higher than now. There is no
tariff on hides, yet leather is advanc-
ing. Why? Because the trusts are
too powerful to admit a competitor,
and free hides or no free hides, tree
beef or no free beef, it will take 20
years or more to make a change in any
of these commodities, even if the tariff
is taken off. Along the Mexican or
Canadian borders little cheaper beef
might be eaten. But the vast interior
would never know whether it was on
or of. There is some absurd talk
about beef from South America being
shipped in here. How simple, how
foolish. In the first place there is no
line of steamers on which to ship it.
Persons coming from Brazil even much
less further South, 60 to Europe
and back to New York to reach the
United States.
In the second place it would have to
be shipped across the Equator, and
This would be a great undertaking,
Inc beef eaten in the United States
Will be grown in the United States
now and always, and no one with COM
mon intelligence will say else. Does
1t not seem strange that all this cry
about the high prices of living, in so
far as food is concerned, is so wide and
distressing? 1t does to some. 1t seems
strange to us. But not so very strange
when we consider how big fool the
average man is. He allows trusts and
combines to pull the wool over his
eyes on most every occasion. Why
has he Joined in this howl which must
n the end bark back upon the farmer,
when railroads, telegraphs, telephones,
'oal, coal oil, tobacco, clothes, shoes,
lats, nails, farming implements, wa
ions, indeed everything he uses, has {
'one up in price, and was before the '
'ayne-Aldrich tariff bill passed, crimi- |
ally high? Regulate some of these /
Kings if you please, you who are in
'ower, and do not put the whole in
reased cost of living on the farmer. g
them and living will be a
1uch cheaper. p