The Progressive West Virginian. [volume] (Williamson, W. Va.) 1911-1913, 1912-06-27
DECLARES NATION
SHOULD BUY FOOD
Eminent French Philosopher Would
Solve Living Cost by Organ
ization.
Charges Agriculture Abandoned For
Industrial Pursuits.


Burns of Paris but with the literary
polish Of a Morley or Balfour, was
asked to give the International News
Service his views on that great eco
nomic problem Of the day-the high
cost of living. In reply and speak
ing in corridor of the French house
OF deputies, he made this statement:
You ask me to describe the
causes of the high cost of living and
to present remedy Let me begin by
asking you this:
What can be the organic crime of
a country whose natural resources
are the richest, but whose bread is
the dearest?
France should have a national
organization to buy up her wheat
and similar food products. Then the
cost of living could not be raised as
it is now. Such nationtl organiza-
ton would give us efficacious sta
bility of the prices of foodstuffs. If
we can organize the country for ma
tional defense, why cannot the nation
6INC us oil III 6oHindIlOIl WDiCA WILL
end starvation prices forever?
Already the more farseefng ma
tions are organizing certain branches
of production on national basis
Sweden is organizing her state mines
so as to preserve their coveted min
erals; Germany is creating nation
al potash industry.
saThe high cost of living has made
life intoerable. The state must step
in and save the citizens The capt.
talists have brought about disorder.
have upset the equilibrium Of life,
have starved the producer, have pre-
cipitated a crisis in society.
"a high tariff does not explain the
high cost OF living; it aggravates It,
but does not account for it,
1--WE find life dear, even in free
trade countries. The organic crime
which is the unholy cause of the
high cost of living is deeper than the
tariff Indeed, there are many
causes for the high cost Of living.
First, capitalism has developed
out Of all proportion the Industrial
products which are not Immediately
necessary to the needs of life. Cap
{ italism has done this to almost the
entire abandonment of agricultural
production which has been allowed
to languish and die
1.-THE thing most striking in the
present condition Of the economic
world is the sharp disproportion
which exists between agricultural
products on this planet
Why Isl this? Because capitalism
searching huge dividends, turns more
and more toward Industrial products,
Here it got rapid returns.
s9On the other hand agriculture
does not admit of such rand financial
movements and bewildering financial
surprises.
thine halts in the world of agri
culture, but not in that of industry.
In the latter man can communicate
the impetus of his own Impotence to
the wheel of productions -but in ag-
ricultural production man must
work in league with the movement
of the seasons and their inevitable
cycle
$50 the capitalist disposes of the
surplus accumulations in ove1devel-
oping Industrial production to the
4 neglect Of it's necessary basis and
foundation. namely, agricultural
production.
This subversion Of agricultural
and commercial equilibrium is ac-
centuated by the fact that the great
er part of the public fortune is held
by a small majority of privileged
people.
What difference does the high
cost Of living make to those aristo-
Gratis of riches, who determine the
application Of our economic forces
TO these people the cost of the nee
essaries Of life is as nothing.
80 a frenzy of luxury exists side
by side with the most aggravated
evils of poverty.
Another cause Of the high cost
of living is the concentration of the
once rural population in our cities
but this follows necessarily from the
E cause nave just meHllOHtut
'fBut the third and most crushing
cause of the high cost of living il
the tremendous outlay Of resources
to maintain an armed peace.
This strikes directly at agricul'
tural production. In France, mil
lions Of young men are withdraw
from production labor; $1.600, 900,
900 are taken yearly by armed peace
from agricultural and industrial de
velOpment
The more a nation prepares fol
war the more energy and capita
does it take from agriculture.
II repeat that to discuss the ques
ton OF tariff VS. freea trade is onl,
tinkering at the question of the higl
cost Of living. The nations mus
take their bread stuffs in hand. j
the crisis in the high cost of livint
continues in France, such a nationa
organization as / propose must b
formed and France will blaze thu
worlds way as usual.
Here it is vastly important to mil
lions Of peasant proprietors that tn
price Of what remains normal ant
remunerative. Here millions o
working men have a vital interes
that prices should be reasonable.
1.-The republic, democracy arme'
against all spectators, will arbi