The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1910-04-01
HIGH COST OF LIVING
The Facts About the Food Problem
as Discussed by Allan l.. Benz
son i'm PearSOn'S

another big industry. During the
great coal strike, Mr. Baer put the
Creator into coal. Now Mr.. Armour
puts Him into meat. The old admo-
milton to Put trust in the Lord" is
turned about. Now it's Put the Lord
in trust" Big business is taking on
higher moral tone. In the old days,
the wicked partner was blamed for
everything that went wrong. Now, the
Lord is gently but fmly held respon-
sible if things do not go right, and
feelingly praised if even the falling
snow gives promise that things will
eventually become right. In fact, the
name of the Lord is being used so fire.
quently, and in so many places where
it was once not used at all, that we are
in danger of becoming as muddled as
was certain Englishman, during the
campaign over the budget. The Eng
lishman and his pastor were specializing
with regard to the probable outcome of
the election. The pastor, being un-
certain, concluded his observations
with the remark:
The Lords will be DONE"
you bet the Lords will be done"
assented the parishioner-who didn't
hear the apostrophe-"d done to a turn. -
But we are wandering little from
the point. The point is: Are the
people being robbed in the prices they
are compelled to pay for food?" II
they are not, there is no use talking
about it. Pay the prices-that's all. If
they are being robbed, Mr.. Hill, Presi-
dent Taft, and Mr.. Armour ought to
stop denying it. Whatever the facts,
the people ought to know them.
Mr.. Armour's denial that he is rob-
bling anybody convinces nobody. In
the face of such national accusation,
he could hardly expect that his plea Of
Not guilty. would carry much weight.
Accused men usually plead not guilty,
whether they are eminently respectable
like Mr.. Armour or not. The burglar
who has ransacked a house and stolen
a piano pleads not guilty. But fin
the case of burglar-the village pres
ident should suggest that the piano
might have been blown out the window;
if the village preacher should declare,
upon his oath, that at the precise hour
when the piano was stolen at Medicine
Lodge, Kansas, he and the prisoner
were fishing from dock at Hoboken;
and, if the leading merchant should
testify that, to his certain knowledge,
the accuser never owned a musical in
strument larger than a mouth organ
then the prisoners case would take on
a different appearance. The first fact
for the intelligent jury to get in its
mind would then not be: Did the
defendant steal this gentleman's
piano?" but, did this onery cuss ever
own piano at all2"
The present case has not yet pro
crossed quite so far as that-the public
still has some standing in court-but
the fact cannot be ignored that Ogden
Armour and the other food purveyors
have some pretty prominent testimony
already in.
President Taft, for instance, in his
annual message to congress, couldn't
put his finger on much Of anything, so
far as the cost of living was concerned.
Prices were high, of course, but they
were high all over the world, and any
way, high prices were good for the
farmers. Why were prices high2 Oh,
he didn't know. The increased pro-
duction of gold probably. had something
to do with it. He was sure the new
tariff law was not to blame. Then he
added:
The increase in population, and
the more expensive mode OF living of
the people, which have not been ac-
companied by proportionate increase
in acreage production, may furnish
another reason"
And that was all. Not word about
trusts. Not word about robbery. All
the blame put on the energetic gold
miners who increased the supply of
gold, the foolish farmers who failed to
increase acreage production, the par
ents who bring children into the world