Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-10-18
A LETTER TO THE HOUSE
KEEPER.
(By Mabel Potter Daggert.l

Year by year you have seen prices
going up. Have you ever found them
coming down? You paid $50 this
fall for a suit that once you could
have bought for $40. Or If it was
only a Bingham apron, you paid 10
cents a yeard for what used to be 6
cents. Breakfast bacon that once
cost 10 cents a pound is now "a to
% cents and even 80 cents. Beef
is higher than at any other time in
As years. Even a kitchen broom,
once % cents now costs 40 cents.
And it is the h~ousekeeper who has
to stretch that weekly pay envelope
or the monthly salary to cover the
high price mark. The price mark
goes up out of all proportion to the
pay envelope. Between the years of
1896 and 1910 the average price of
commodities rose 81 per cen and the
average price of wages no more than
20 per cent. President Taft's din
ner table represents an increase in
price over President McKinley's of
from % to 800 per cen for the
separate articles of food. To meet it
the president got his salary raised
from $4,000 to $4,000 a year, to
say nothing of the starry 5000, 900
allowed for incidental White House
expenses.
1t is the high tariff that enables
the trusts to force up price, because
the tariff keeps foreign producers
from bringing goods to the American
market. Now you. as housekeepers,
perhaps have thought that the tariff
was wholly a political question that
concerned only politicians and the
government at Washington.
But you are mistaken. The tariff
is your question more than any
one else. 1t Is charged up in the
price you pay for nearly every COM
modify. There is even a tariff on
your sugar bowl. The Sugar Trust
is enabled, by reason Of the high pro-
tective tariff, to charge a little over
2 cents a pound more for sugar than
if there were no tariff on it. This
amounts in the course of a year to
an average Of So for each American
family. Perhaps you can stand this
tax. But there are workingmen's
families to whom it means a weeks
wages. From these families and
yours and everybody's family in the
United States there is taken annual
ly an average of 1925 each in extra
prices caused by high tariff on the
various commodities they purchase.
The democratic party wants to do
something about this tariff question.
They are eager and anxious to do it.
And you can help them.
During the past year when the
democratic members of congress got
bills passed lowering the tariff the
republican president, Mr.. Taft,
vetoed the bills. That is the repub-
lican way. During all the years that
the republican party has been in
power the cost of living has on
tinued to increase. Col. Roosevelt
did nothing to lower the tariff dur
ing his two administrations when
he head the chance, and the cost of
living continued to increase.
Woodrow Wilson, the democratic
nominee, is 0 only pledged to a re-
duction Of the tariff, but this is a
fundamental principle of the party
that he represents.
Remember that the tariff is costing
you 1925 a year. You, as house
keeper, need to have elected the pres
ident who will lift your burden.
Then will you not use your in
nuence toward his election? We
want your name for enrolment with
the Woman's National Wilson and
Marshall organization. Will you not
send ii to us? We want as long a list
as possible of the women who stand
for Woodrow Wilson for the next
president of the United States. If
you do. send whether you are a
housekeeper or a business woman or
a college girl. send your name at
once to the Woman's National Wilson
and Marshall Organization, Room
1858, Fifth Aevnue Building, New
York City.