Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-11-13
THE PROBE THAT PINcHEs.

Politicians still endeavoring to make the
proetarat believe that the cost of living problem,
which today is every whit pressing and as
pinching as it was year ago, can be solved by
drastic revision of the tariff Within the next
ten twelve months the democrats hope to con-
vince the country that in tariff for revenue only,
in free trade they can solve this problem
and provide general relief On the other hand,
the protectonsts will firmly maintain. and pro-
duce convincing statistics Of bitter experience to
prove it, that radical and general cutting of du-
ties will cause widespread depression of business
and industry and that lower prices of hitherto
protected manufacturers will not improve the
consumers lot
Meanwhile, the country in its need-the
sumner who is hard pressed to meet the grOcers
and the butchers bills each month-can look for
no relief from political discussion of the tariff
That discussion, and the inevitable depression of
industry dependent upon it, is calculated only to
make times harder while not mitigating the con-
sumner s lot
Some day the politicians will weary of the
played-ou tariff game for politics only, and some
statesman will come forward with rational and
practical plan for bridging the gulf between the
producer and the consumer, either by regulating
the inordinate profits of the commission men or
eliminating the middlenan The government has
regulated the common carrier as far as manage
mrnt without ownership can CO. the fraction that
the railroads today receive for freight food
products is comparatively insignificant with the
profits of the middleman Why not turn the
light of craftsmanship upon this hitherto neglect
ed subject?
Meanwhile municipal governments already are
making start. In Kansas City, Indianapolis
and other places efforts have been made to bring
the farmers. with their products into direct
touch with the housekeepers and Mayor Gaynor,
IN recent address in New York advocated
the establishment Of market places in various
parts of the greater city looking to this elimil-
alton Of commission and other classes of
mlddlemcn so that the people could be freed
from the profits accruing to the Intermediates
In Germany the cost of living problem says
the San Francisco Post has become so acute that
the government has taken off the duties on bread
stutfs and reduced to the minimum freight rates
on food products Moreover, through the agency
OF the government, the interior towns and cities
being supplied with quantities Of fish direct
from the ocean, sold to the people at a low price
Only recently in the Philippines the governor has
arranged to smash the rice combine by importing
cargoes from various Asastic ports to be sold
directly to the people at prices far below those
which the specializing rice trust had expected
to realize
The political part in the United States which
will tackle the problem of regulating or elimin-
ating the middeman will have little difficulty
in commencing itself to public favor, and will
find it much srrer and saner way Of gaining
the confidence OF the country than by prolonged
and futile tariff discussion. Throughout the
country there is of discomfort. Every
day men and are voting the socialist
ticket, not from conviction that socialism is
cure-a that its theories are practical but
because they dissatisfied with the results of
their endeavors and convinced that they are
not getting their shares of this worlds goods. So
cialsm with all it's menace. and destruction of
the very elements which made for individual eff
fort. individual responsibility and individual hap
piness and prosperity, will continue to gain adj
herents and disciples until the problem that
pinches is tackled boldly and solved by states
men of the old and responsible parties