The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-04-04
as we'll as at all others, Tipping Zion
will be plenty good enough for us.
JOHN DUTToN's FINANCEs.'

|
ton was in his fathers family, making
shoes: the family income was about
| $500 a year Up to the year 1897,
Dutton was doing very we'll. He had
quit shoemaking, had married, and was
conductor on railway train in the
year named, at salary of $l075 year.
He gets $3.50 now, but is worse OFF
than he was thirteen years ago. He
now pays $3.50 for his yearly food sup
ply, compared with $3.50 then; his rent
has advanced from $l6s to $240; his
clothing from $50 TO $50, and his
fuel from $50 TO s62 These four main
necessities now cost $l032. compared
with $3.50 before Then he had bal
ance for general expenses, aside from
those specifically named, Of 1916. while
now he has but s24S. His increase of
twenty per cent in wages has failed TO
keep up with the increase in prices.
1t is, of course, Il typical rather than
a personal illustration; and there is no
reason to dispute its correctness.
Very naturally, John Dutton is dis
posed to blame the combines and trusts
for the raise in the cost of living. "Not
so. = says Mr. Swift. 1T would be quite
unjust TO hold them responsiblc; the
growth of the trusts and combinations
was natural; if they have sought TO
produce, or to buy at low cost and sell
at good prices, 'they have done only
what every merchant and producer has
done from time immemorial." And
John Dutton IN arguing for free com
petition is Quite behind the times, for,
Mr.. Swift says:
Beyond question he overestimates the
influence OF corporate control upon
prices; for the growing wealth OF our
people. and their increasing consumption
OF all the leading commodities have Ger
tainly played a large part in raising
prices. Since 1897, our per capita con-
sumption of cotton has Increased from
nineteen 10 twenty-nine pounds; OF
sugar, from sxty-five to seventy-five
pounds. and Of other commodities in like
proportion. These arguments. however.
arc not only unconv!ncIng, but they are
other men of his class: for these men
have no means Of verifying data, and
only know that so far as they themselves
arc concerned, there has been neither
any such increase in the consumption OF
the necessities OF life. nor any possibility
of IT,
Mr.. Swift argues that while the data
for Dutton S position care indeed cor
rect his conclusions arc wrong; he
cause "tbe increased demand for com
modities has come mostly from the
well-to-do and wealthy classes, and not
from the laboring classes,' which is
equivalent TO saying that in the fixing
the laboring classes and their needs and
ability to pay are a negligible guam
tity. But. if so, how are they to live7
Il seems to lis that in running into
4 dilemma like this. Mr.. Swift defeats
his own argument. For, after all, 'fthe
laboring classes arc the great body
of consumers, and the fixing of prices
on basis of living beyond their means
must be impractical, or else the labor
ing classes must starve. Mr.. Dutton
ter of the argument.
Getting back TO a practical basis, Mr..
Swift refers briefly to the Improvement
IN the condition of the laboring classes,
Impossible under his theory that prices
are fixed not by their ability to pay,
but by the well-to-do and the rich,) the
steadier employment, and The falling
cost of many manufactured products
which tend TO make homes more com
Portable and attractive. ani states, as
at the first, that ''the pinch lies in the
fact that wages do not rise as fast
as prices, and continues:
On this and other accounts the great
prosperity OF the past decade has been
shared very unequally' John Dutton
down by the excessive influx OF foreign
laborcrs into this country; and certain
II Is that the increase in immigration
from 2S0.S72 souls in 1897, to 1885 349 in
1907, must have had a very material ef-
feet in retarding the rise OF wages The
demand for labor during this period un-
doubtedly kept pace with the great ex-
pansion OF general business. But so long
as this demand could be be'supplicd by i'm
ported labor, il could have no very strong
tendency to raise wages. John Dutton
maintains that a tariff system which
protects the products Of capitalists. man
ufacturers and producers OF commodities
and fails TO protect labor. Is entirely un-
fair; and that justice to the working
high tariff on merchandise. there shall
be high tariff on labor. The average
import duty on merchandise is about
twenty-four per cent; an admission tax
equal TO twenty-four per cent Of the
yearly earning capacity OF the ayerape
male immigrant would be about one hun
dred and forty dollars; and whether bv
this or by other means Dutton main
tains that immigration should be checked
in order TO give the laborer a fair
chance. To the argument that American
labor is paid better than foreign labor
he retorts that American capital also is
paid better; and TO the contention that
the tariff on merchandise protects labor
as well as capital. he replies that wha
the tariff gives In higher wages. II more
than takes away in the higher cost OF
living.
Here is a direct allegation that it is
the trust favored tariff that is the cause
of this trouble. But how it is the cause
is rather inferred than directly shown
The fact is, that the tariffs influence
in this direction is rather indirect than
direct. 1t strengthens the trusts and
combines for their work of robbing the
people rather than being the prime
cause of that robbery trust fat