Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1910-04-14
HIGH PRICES
ARE THEY A DETRIMENT OR AID.
VANTAGE. McCUMBER'S
VIEWS

VIE NS
Low prices mean hard times. In all
countries having low prices, the vast
majority of the people living in those
countries are down in the depths of
poverty. China, Japan and Russia
are countries that illustrate this
point,
The United States of America, the
grandest country on which the sun
ever shone, is a country of high
wages and high prices. If high prices
are to be condemned on general prin-
ciples, why do so many millions of
people leave their homes where low
prices prevail and take up their home
in this country of high prices.
Mayor Gaynor of New York recent
ly delivered an address before the
Chamber of Commerce in Syracuse,
speaking of this country, he said:
But no one correctly informed of
the past can take a morose view of
this present time nor of the future.
The general run of the people were
never better fed, clothed and
housed than today. The subject of
high prices seems to be .engrossing'
the mind of the very able man who is
now president of the United States.
If the causes of present high prices
be natural and normal, nothing is to
be feared therefrom. High prices
are by no means always an evil while
low prices often are." Mr.. Gaynor
thinks that perhaps some of the high
prices are due to illegal combina-
tions, but that in the main they are
normal and the great rise in prices
is due in large part to the enormous
output of gold in the world. The
gold production for the world is now
$500, 100000 annually, most of this
is added to the money supply and
therefore prices advance by reason
of the stimulus given. Expanding
currency means higher prices.
Senator McCumber speaking of
high prices and the, cause therefor,
said:..:I deny that the tariff is re-
'sponsible for the present level of
prices. Prices in China and Japan
have doubled in the past ten years,
did the Payne tariff law in any way
bring that about? While there may
be a few illegal combinations that
have unduly pushed up prices, the
tariff is in no way responsible there
for. AS a matter of fact every cor
poration engaged in unnaturally ad-
vancing prices will be driven out of
business by the administration. For
the first time in the history Of the
world, the farmer is receiving price
more nearly equal to the services he
performs. The large increase of the
money supply of the world, due to
the enormous production of gold, is
in the main the reason for the ad-
vance in prices"
An examination of economic condi-
tions in the world during the past
400 years will convince, even the
most obdurate that low prices are
not the best thing for humanity. The
farmer in the past received almost
nothing for produce. Was the condi-
ton of the people in the cities i'm
proved thereby?
At the beginning of the reforma-
ton, prices were very low and the
condition of the people is described
by the eminent scientist, Draper "In
Paris and London the houses were
of wood daubed with clay. They had
no windows or chimneys. No at
tempt was made at drainage. Per-
sonal cleanliness was unknown. The.
citizen clothed himself in leather.
He was considered to be in circilm-
stances Of ease, If he could procure
meat once week for his dinner"
(Drapers conflict, ed. 1886, Page
265). The market price for sheep
was SO cents, yet a man could only
get meat once a week for his dinner.
Shall we return to the good old days
of cheap prices and other things?
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