Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-02-16
THE COST OF living;
CITY vs.. country
(By Geo. Hobbard Maxwell.)

Did you ever stake calf out with
a rope In patch of nice succulent
grass and watch him wind his rope
around the stake until it gets its nose
up to within less than foot from the
stake, where he could not reach a
blade of grass, and then watch him
pull and plunge to try and get loose
SO he could get something to eat?
That calf illustrates about all there
is to the great modern problem Of
the enormously increased cost of liv-
ing, which is today so seriously agi-
tating the minds of millions of people
with long appetites and short purses.
They have so wound themselves up
in the artificial complications of con-
gested city life, that like the calf
they can no longer reach the food
that must be got from the Mother
Earth.
No way has yet been discovered
for producing beef except by feeding
cattle something that grows out of
the ground. You could not very well
raise cattle in Central Park in New
York City. You have got to go to
some place where the keep off the
grass signs are not necessary, either
for cattle or children. So you must
raise cattle in the country. But ap-
parently there are a great many mil
lion of people who don't want to live
in the country. They prefer to live
where they can't get any beef except
from the Beef Trust.
rbo,, oonno+ no bon,1, ,yithout tho
glare and confusion of the congested
city. SO they live in flats or tena-
ments for which they have to pay so
much rent that they don't have
enough left to buy food, and what
they do buy is transported SO far, and
handled so many times by so many
who must each make a profit out of it
before it finally gets to the consumer,
that the dwellers in cities have to
pinch and squeeze their slim purses
to get enough to appease their hun
ger They are forced to get along
without meat in order to save the
money to pay the rent.
AS congestion increased in New
York, first they had to have elevated
then subways, then bridges
across the East river, and tunnels
under the Hudson river, and a lady,
rinth' Of sewers and conduits and pipes
under every street, and waterworks,
and parks galore. Tammany had to
be supported, and that cost many mil
lions. Now new sub-ways must be
built and the great AsOkan Dam is
just being finished. It was estimated
last fall that In addition to all the
billions already spent, New York
would need 1927, O00, 900 for new pub
lie improvements Immediately. The
people that live in New York must
pay for it all.
And the fool that lives in the east
side tenament or west side fiat, or
a Morningside apartment and hangs
onto strap for an hour, back and
forth every day to earn a few dollars
to cover rent, food and clothing, i'm
AGNES that all he pays for the priv
ilege OF being strap hanger. is the
five cents he pays for fare. He does
not see that when the elevated road
had to be built he was one of those
who had to pay for it. He couldn't
pay for it in any other way so he paid
4 little more rent. That left little
less food. So he took slice of his
beefsteak and handed it back to the
Beef Trust because he couldn't afford
to eat that much meat. He had to
have the money for rent. When the
subways were built, the Beef Trust
got back another slice of his beef.
steak. Every new great expenditure
made necessary by the growth Of the
population makes rent higher and the
oeefsteak thinner. Soon the strap
hangers will not be able to afford
neat at all, and will turn for relief
% the canned life" That will last
awhile, as the Irishman succeeded in
his mule to live on saw dust.