Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-12-16

d re-
incidentals.. ..,5 U
Clothes .......... ~
Pleasure Observation-Disclosures y
car rare ...,.,....,..... ~ y
Total .224 8 .
or $1.090.74. thus leaving II margin
OF about 500 for insurance. invest
ment. or emergency.
BY these figures, this writer claims
to show that the actual cost of liv-
ing is less In. England than here, and
that prices are low enough and wages
high enough there "to enable n large
percentage of the population to live
in greater comfor, than they possibly
could In America" Thus, she says of
this annual income of $1,000, that 1t
will command anGeight-room house.
with all modern conveniences. in
most desirable residential part Of the
city, twenty minutes by electric car
to the center OF the business district.
She declares that 1t means a good serv-
ant who does the baking (and good
baking at thaD. washing and IRON
ing. cooking and general housework,
. DcSlutS Il WoIbhi " Ni'hi' '''N s.'''
each week, and also 1t means good
clothes, good food. and the ability to
associate with whatsoever you please
If you happen to interest them
This writer, as a concession to tho
tighter wage-levcl in America, adds
only. the word Perhaps" to the well
known argument that II prices were
corresTondingly lower in the United
states then the same men might not
be getting this hundred, or, converse
~ IL this man were in the United
States, he might be clearing much
more than this hundred dollars per
year.
This writer has no doubt given us the
facts about prices; the facts about
wages are yet to be brought out. since
we have little reliable Information at
hand on that subject.
There was d time, however, and prior
10 the last fifteen years it was nearly
always so, that the cost Of living--thc
total resultant cost of the items specified
abovc--was lower in the United states
willie tho differences between wages
here and there were relatively greater
than now. What has caused this
change? Why are roodstriffs higher
priced in this country, which produces
u vast surplus of them, than IN Britain.
which must import five sixths of all the
food consumed by her people?
Manufactured articles, with Il few cx-
ccptlons, have always been higher
priced in America than in Europe, be-
cause older countries nearly always
posscss more accumulated capital and
can get cheaper and more diversified
labor with which to engage IN their
production. But with food products,
ana with farm produce in general. the
reverse has almost uniformly been the
ruling ana noteworthy fact,
The present condition is therefore
anomalous. Have VIC no financlers.
statesmen, economists. who can demon
s,rAtc the cause and indicate the rene
DIX for our cvcr-incrcasng burdens,
which we term, collectively, the cost of
living?
As II turns out, however. this Is but
one side of this curious condition. An
other aspect OF tho case is that invest
ments of capital receive higher returns,
on the average, in America than In
Europe.
In the Statist, a weekly financial
paper OF liigl, standing. published In
London. regularly appears page of
--latest prices Two headings are:
"Homc Rails" ana american Rail-
ways" Then there are listed fifteen
typical British railway stocks and M
teen typical American, taken from that
page of November D.. Both lists are
made up OF well-known, wcll-consd-
cred items that are bought ana sold on
the London Exchange. An eXamina-
ton of tho contrasting lists will show
one thing clearly: the English investor
receives a much lower return than the
American who buys similar railroad Sc
curitics, On the selected list, tho re-
turn is S6-l00tns of one per cent lower.
There is a strong inclination on the
part of English investors to purchase
American stocks. What tends mostly
to prevent more British money from.
coming here, however, Is the rapid luc-
tuations In the prices Of many Of the