The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1910-01-28

for farm and factory and mine prod
nets have stimulated business. The
great and ever increasing volume oil
business that has been done in this
country the past ten years is unques
tionably due to the larger returns and
higher profits that capital and labor
have enjoyed. That the prosperity OF
the country is not equally distributed
is evident from the constantly growing
chorus of complaint over the cost OF
living. The rewards of labor and the
COMPENSATION of the salaried classes
have not increased in ratio CORE
spending with the increase in the
prices of the necessaries OF life.
Various causes have been assigned
and innumerable remedies have been
suggested for the prevailing high
prices. The trusts, being unpopular
and an easy target for the demagogues
and the unthinking, have had their
full share of abuse and denunclation.
Trusts are not organized for altrulstlc
or humanitarian purposes. They vlo-
late MANY of the laws of the God and
man But they can hardly be held re-
sponsible for the increase in the cost
of living. 1t may be paradoxical, but
true it is. nevertheless, that most OF
the trust controlled articles are the
very necessaries that have not IN
creased in price during the past ten
wears. The chief complaint concerns
the prices of those articles which are
in no sense fixed by the trusts.
There is no egg producers trust;
the wheat growers; the cotton rlant-
ers. the corn producers are none OF
them organized. And yet the prices
of these articles of every day con-
sumption have mounted skyward while
sugar and coffee and coal oil cost
about the same that they did ten years
ago. 1t is the old; the memorable law
of sunnlv and demand. The food sup
nlv is short; the food demand is
"long." Result: Abnormal prices.
Within the past thirty years the
of the United States has
increased at rate never before
known since time began. Europe has
poured it's millions upon our shores;
orr own people have multiplied. Had
the increased population found homes
in the country there would have Deen
plenty for all. But three-fourths OF
the million people that every year
Zach these shores from the old coun-
try find homes in the cities; they are
by other thousands VINO
leave the farms for the life OF the
urban communities. All must be fcd'
The tax on the American farmer'
thrifty as he is, has been too heavy
and the inevitable result has been an
increase in the cost of living.
Crop statistics in the single state
nf Tennessee for the past thirty years
give abundant evidence of the truth
Of these statements. From 1850 TO
1910 the population of this state III
creased from 100000 to 2,25O,OOO or
fifty per cent; the yield OF wheat IN
creased from 7,53S,0OO to $4,000
bushels, or about eight per cent; the
yield of corn from 62,459,OOO to 81
400 600 bushels, about thirty per cent
with facts like these starring us IN
the face it is not difficult matter to
find the cause for $1,40 wheat ana
eighty cent corn, or nine cent hogs
Tor the price of the latter necessarily
in proportion to the increase
in the cost of corn.
The remedy lies in bigger and bet
Ter crops; people must leave the over
cities and return to the soil;
we must have fewer consumers ana
more producers.
a T.. AgN.aI