Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1910-01-20
SOME DANGERS FROM HIGH
PRICES

An article in the current issue of
the American Magazine. from the pen
of Elizabeth Hewes, and headed as
above. has not only much of merit,
but much knowledge dressed in such
convincing robes of strange truth
that 1t at once strikes the popular
fancy.
In speaking of the dangers to the
trunk class of the nation, she
says:
The present high prices are affect
ing this class in two ways: First.
they are tending to force them down
rather than up in the social scale:
second, they are putting them to such
stress that they are tending to be-
come an under-fed class, under
nourished, and certainly the danger
Of having the great trunk class of
nation under-nourished cannot be
over-rated
A social worker told me
that she last autumn noticed two
tendencies that distressed her very
much One was that a better class
of people than heretofore were try
ing to evade the age limit of the
child labor law, were lying about
the ages of their Children; the other
was that several boys that were in
tending to go to the high school were
being withdrawn and put to work.
The fact is, that a class of families
that several years ago had every in
tention of giving their children an
education are slowly relinquishing
this idea. They can no longer
afford it,
Let me give you an illustra-
ton of this:
Five and six years ago | used to go
to restaurant which fed about
three hundred shop girls day. What
they paid averaged day in and out
was 8 cents a lunch, rarely 20 cents.
l used to write down what they could
get for 1 3 cents. Here are three
dishes. each of which then cost Is
cents: Two eggs on toast. with bread:
a nice little meat pie, hot and an
petizing; chicken on toast with a rice
border. The chicken was all dark
meat, to be sure, but it was meat
and the rice border was generous.
In short. in that restaurant six wears
ago that was for / 3 cents honest
nourishment fitted to build up an
honest constitution. such as the
trunk class of America ought to
have. Two years ago a change came.
The little meat pie had moved up to
20 cents. the chicken on toast to
30 cents. Potato salad, one of the
girls told me. was the only interest
ing thing left for I 8 cents.
Truly these tendencies are
nothing sort of the canker at the
heart of our prosperity. If we allow
it to go on we shall kill the trunk
of our very verdant tree. A dealer
in milk told me that in his case his
rich patrons were still buying the
same amount of milk. despite the rise
in prices, but the shop girl class had
simply curtailed its amount From
that class he was getting very little
more than when milk was five cents;
they are simply going without. and
il had been his observation that when
you took the staples away from a
butter, meat and eggs
the women of the family took to
slops and the men TO drink. He was
a simple business man. but he told
me last May that. to his mind. the
one great problem of this country
was to get the estaples back to a
place where the clerk class could
have their fill of them. And. indeed.
Il is all too true. DO you realize
that IN this country today nourishing
food is becoming a luxury? Think
what this meansl This country grew
great on a trunk class into which the
staples cannot be poured early and
late, for the reason that they have
becomes luxuries.
IL seems to me that it behooves
America to arouse herself to the find
ing out of the reasons of the high
price of things, and the cures thereof. /
If there is no cure. we are lost.
or course, one hears all sorts of
explanations. The tariff. for ex-
ample, and the price of grain. We
are told that the grain can never
again be cheap. If that is so. then
the government viii Just have to
take over the grain fields and our
great need will have to raise up for
us incorruptible citizens who will
manage that most sacred of trusts.
the wheat that makes possible the
life. the health. the heart and brain
of 5000, 600 people. There is. also.
another possible reason for these
ruinous prices. A reason not quite
enough dwelt on. l think. To ex-
was the era of business:
now that has given place to the era
Of finance and combination It may
be that business is paying too high
for organization. When you think of
$4,000 that are paid to the officials
OF company. and that the lawyers
want 100000. and several smaller
men must take out $4,000 to $780,
oO0-well it counts up. Perhaps