The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-02-24
THEgPRESENT
COST OF LIVING

The various questions connected with
the cost of living that have come up for
| discussion combine to form a problem
whose solution is of the greatest economic
Importance.
The attempt to answer these questions
has brought into notice some most inter
esting facts, as we'll as some highly absurd
| theories.
For instance, we are brought face to
| face with the fact that there is a steady
and constantly increasing drift of popula-
/ ton from the rural districts to the cities
In view of the growth of the population
that is to be fed, both at home and abroad
this desertior of the farming districts is a
| fact to be considered.
| Then there is the theory that gold,
which is supposed to be the standard of
value in the United States, is growing so
excessively abundant that it has cores
pondingly declined in value, and, there
fore, a gold dollar will only buy, pos
sibly, half of what it recently stood for,
and is, therefore, drug on the market,
while there has been really no advance
in the price of necessaries.
1t would be difficult to start any no.
ton more false and foolish This mo-
ton might have some foundation if
there were such thing as an excess
of gold, or if its paper representative, but
the fact is, simply, that there is not money
| enough in the country to do the coun-
| try's daily business, and, therefore, in
every part of it money can be got at
high rates of interest. Money is not
being boarded when it is in general de-
mand at good prices, and too often the
demand made by great undertaking and
ply. Whenever there shall be an, ex-
cess of gold or its current representative
the fact will be made known in the eager
ness of the holders of it to get rid of it.
and to secure tangible property in its
stead.
There is another notion put forward by
revolutionary theorists, to the effect that
employers, by means of the labor of their
employees, are reaping enormous profits
while they are paying the workers only
pittance. I mis- may be true with a
few great trusts that monopolize some
particular lines of production, but it can
not be possible in any general sense, since
the entire population is as much at the
mercy of the trusts as are the workers.
While the existing conditions cannot be
properly attributed to any single cause,
but to a combination of causes, the chief
factor in the situation is the tone of ex-
travagance and the lack of economy that
characterize our American style of liv-
ing, compared with what it was a few
decades ago. The subject is set forth with
extreme clearness by Professor of Politi-
cal Economy Patten, of the University
of Pennsylvania, in a recent issue of the
New York Independent.
According to that authority, the Ameri-
can standard of living is the marvel of
the world. During the past twenty years
there has been an enormous increase in
wealth throughout the country, and in
the number of families with an income
of more than $1,000 a year Among the
groups of organized skilled labor the rise
in the standard of living has been hardly
less marked. Mary today living in .hc
piodern two-story house, with It's porch
and sanitary plumbing, enam-l batntub,
running hot and cold water, and steam
heat are enjoying luxuries denied to
kings il the Middle Ages.
Perahps in no field has there been SO
much progress in the last fifty years as
in that Of food supply. Hand in hand
with an increased quantity has gone al
increase in variety. This fact can readily
be appreciated by the comparison of the
corner store today with that of fifty years
ago. Many articles of common consump-
| tor are now there which were either
absent or rarely seen at an earlier date
All these have changed the laborers table
| from the monotony of stewed meat and
bread to one with well-balanced va
riety. The introduction of the sewing ma
chine and other labor-saving devices has
| also liberated much of the house wife's
time, and enabled the average man to
dress and care for his family in style
before impossible. Ready-made clothing,
including shoes and hats, enables all clas-
ses in this country to dress in style
approximating uniformity unknown
| elsewhere before
The evidence of our material wellbeing
is no less apparent when we consider the
vast sums of money Americans spend on
education. Today the child in the poor
est district of our large cities has pro-