Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-31
The Cost of Living.

To the Editor OF The Star:
/ have read with much satisfaction
your editorial on living COST which APP
peared in your issue of the Goth. You are
indeed right when you state that Sec
rotary Wilson should give specifications,
together with his criticism Of the Dis
trict Commissioners for their failure to
do something to reduce the cost of living
in this community. 1t is easy to say that
the middleman is responsible for the high
cost of living and that he should be
abolished but let us. get right at the bot
tom of the question and see whether it
can be done to the advantage of the con-
sumner.
To begin with ] am going to take some
Of the staple articles and we will see
where we get our supply from and then
we will soon ascertain whether 1t Is pos
sible for the consumer to get them from
the producer at a lower cost.
Every one will agree that we must
have bread. meat. tea, coffee, sugar.
butter, rice, dried fruit, fresh and salt
fish and a variety of canned fruit and
vegetables. Now, let us see how easy 1t
Washington or any other city to procure
these necessary articles without the mid
dleman. Theory is all right but IT will
not bring wheat from the fields OF Kan
sas or Minnesota and make it into bread
and deliver it into the home of the con-
more than it will bring the steer or the
hog from the plains of the west,
or the tea from China, or the cof-
fee from Brazil, or the sugar from
Cuba or the Philippines. or butter
from Wisconsin and Illinois, or rice
from the carolinas or Louisiana. or
dried and canned fruit from Cali
fornia. or fish from Norway and Ire
land, or canned vegetables from any one
of number of states where they are
n,,I lx<1 NJ e. No1- Ill
to do all of this and. as the day has ar
rived when the laboring man has be-
come intelligent enough to know that his
services are necessary and Is putting q
price on them accordingly. 1 cannot con-
ceive how either a departmental secre-
other officials are going to do much
toward bringing about the desired result.
Secretary Wilson may continue to criti-
else the District Commissioners or the
middleman or whomsoever he chooses.
but " he will tell me how the District
Commissioners can reduce the cost of
any one of the staples I have mentioned
or how II would be possible for the pro-
ducer Of any one of them to supply the
consumer IL We eliminate the middleman.
/ shall have nothing more TO say.
have understood that Secretary Will
son Is an advocate OF cooperation as a
means OF bringing down the cost OF liv-
ing: so am ]. but the kind OF coopera ton
] faNOf requires AMOR, ana such labor
as cannot be performed by the average
consumer at that, except TO the extent
OF assisting In reducing the cost Of
what he purchases BY going "a little out
~ his way In some cases To procure H.
II secretary Wilson. the District Com.
misHioners or any one else in the Dis
trici Of Columbia desires To make AN
honest enort to do something that will
place tho necssssriss of NE into the
homss of the consumers az tower cost
! am with them at any time withou,
compensation. wtth view to doink
something besides theorising ! bsV- ha..
ever thirty rearH ~ practical experience
o. the production ana distribution uf fooa
supplies snd bsIists know shat I anl
lalkins abou, when ! saY that the mid
alsWah tsnnat hs eliminated entirely.
thaush the pien I sdtessts Nould reduce
ihfif Nutshsf tsFK materially
- ahaft ! sm ~ fsseF ~ . plan shish
has Zee We ahtssi the fealstlon ~ Ht
ins sasf ~ legitimate means ard au,
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Aeee Hat Rfttslnee fssaits bot aa ths soa
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