The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-25
SOMETH|NG ABOUT
 COST OF LIVING
Essayist Attempts to Solve the
 Difficult Problem
THEORIES
EXPLAINED
other Bobs Up Equally We'll Bol- stered With Facts and
 Statistics
From the Louisville Herald.

From the Louisville Herald.
 The arguments of the professional econ omists, who just now are all comment ing on the high cost of living, would carry much more weight if they did not always contradict one another. Unfor- tunately, however, we have no sooner read one theory in a magazine when a newspaper brings forth just the oppo- site. equally well supported and deduced. Is this because political economy today is much more politics than economy, and because each writer in the best faith tries to support the doctrines of his own political party? I am inclined to think
 so. But even outside this unconscious partiality there is too much confusion among the economists; their statistics are loo uncertain; their arguments and conclusions are too vague to give us the same faith in them that we have iE the opponents of exact science. The best therefore, that we can do is to use common sense, and without using any fig- ures or commonplace phrases l shall try to show how any man or woman of to- day may accommodate himself to the high cost of living with the least suffering.
 First of all, we must feel quite con vinced that living will probably grow even higner than it is now. It is not
 wonderful how certain people or certain
 parties will continue to believe in the efficacy of an act of legislature or gov
 ernment to stop the effects of an un- changeable law that Is inscribed on every page of history? continuous (slow or
 rapid) increase In the cost of living is
 the lesson that the annals of human his
 otry teach when we look back for
 considerable length of time.
 When this increase is slow and gradual
 people accept it without growing, but
 when it is sudden and violent, as at pres
 ent, they cry out. Would it not be far
 better for them to try to change their
 way of living as they change their heavy
 underwear for lighter when the ther-
 riometer goes up? The increase in the
 cost of living in d civilized and prosper
 ous country is an inevitable as rise of temperature in summer. AZ An increase in the cost of living fol- lows prosperity; no matter what the economists say. Observation shows that living is expensive in the prosperous countries and cheap in the so-called poor countries. HN VI In Italy. you can get an excellent meal for ? francs and 50 centimes (about 50 cents), while in palatial Paris restau- rant you have to pay Is francs (s2) for
 embaimed beef. gelatine and adulterated foodstuffs. In the palatial restaurant, however. you find all the improvements, all the | conyeniences of modern life, and this, Is why the proprietors of such places make more money than the proprietor of plain hotel at Huelgoat or uzerche. In the prosperous places 1t is possible to get | every comfort, every convenience, with | out any other trouble than that of paying | for it. and 1t is no more than right that | this advantage must be paid for It fol- | lows, then, that if you enlist among those who help the prosperous to get rid of
 their money. you will be able to gain at | their expense.
 It may seem superhuous to bring for ward truism like thiss but it seems thal the majority of people overlook 1t. 4 small employe or government official ir Paris makes annually a sum that would enable farmer in Gascogne to live like | a lord. yet the Parisian is barely able tc exist, because out of his income he has | to pay for the beauty, the comfort, tlit 1 luxury and intensity of Paris. and be- cause in Paris he spends money for ex- pensive amusements which do not bur l den the budget of a rural landowner.
 l Undoubtedly he has the right to do so but then he should not complain of thu