The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-15
ENGLISH VIEW OF THE HIGH COST OF LIVING The Power of the Penny Has
 Weakened
INCREASE OF. PRICES
Laundry Soaps, Tobacco, Boots, Cloth ing, Tea, Cocoa Do Not Increase in England, But the
 Luxuries of Life
F,rom the London standard.

| From the London Standard.
 Money is scarce,' sighs the regretful housewife as she looks through her
 tradesmen's books ''it does not go so far
 as it used to go. We do not buy more,
 but we pay more"
 There is no money about" says the
 company director. Profits have fallen
 We do not sell less. but we make less" You cannot get so much profit as you used to get" says the manufacturer. we
 do not manufacture less: but our expenses are higher"
 All these complaints express one current grievance. Trying to sum up the sltua-
 ton in phrase, people say that money
 is scarce. But this is not what is wrong.
 Money is not scarce. Money is over plen-
 tiful. The power of the penny has weak ened. Money is the cheapest thing on
 the market, To say that commodities are
 dear because money is cheap does not ex-
 plain anything. The because" is only
 another way of expressing the why | In any sale one man buys goods with
 money and the other buys money with goods; so that if either is dear" the other
 IS bound to be cheap"
 Dissatisfaction All Round
 These elementary facts are more en- 1 Tightening than comforting. No one is satisfied with present conditions. The | consumer pays more, the trader makes less profit, the manufacturer has to put up with higher expenses; no one has enough money to satisfy him. And yet all this arises. not from money being toe scarce, but from money being too plenti- fn1f CarfninIxF tbic ie
 The only way to find an explanation of 1t is to consider what the price of anything which we buy is made up of. As soon as we do this we shall find that
 the real value of anything which can be bought or sold is imparted to it in one way, namely by having work done upon it. The only thing except work which has to be paid for in any commodity is, in the last resort, rent in one form or another. The price of any commodity as 1t comes to market Is composed of three elements-the cost of the raw material, the cost of manufacture, and the cost of selling. But the raw material of one trade is often the finished product of another; and if it is not. the whole value of it has been imparted by work done upon it. Coal in the mine has no value
 and no price. except the royalty Ga form of renD paid to the owner. But the
 work done upon coal, by hewing, haunng and marketing it, gives 1t a price; and this price-eXcept the royalty--ls all rep- resented by work, counting management and marketing as work, which they are.
 The reason that coal is dearer now than | it was 20 years ago is that coal miners and other men in the coal trade receive larger wages. The royalties are no high
 CT. and except temporarily when a few | thousand tons in the yards fetch more
 money during a strike the middlemen's s profits are no higher But wages are 1 higher ,and consequently coal has in- creased, is increasing, and will continue to increase in price, unless by some feat
 raising and marketing coal should be
 made easier.
 The Immediate Outlook Savings of this kind in all industries will be effected from rsme to time But | it is safe to believe that the tendency of wages to increase will go far to deprive
 the consumer of any benefit from them. Labor is organized. The standard of | comfort demanded by the wage earner goes on rising-and a good thing, too No one wants the toilers-the real producers 1 of all wealth-to live in squalor. We must all sacrifice something for their benefit, and the practical thing to do is to inquire how the whole community may make the best of things.
 Ii will make for clear sightedness in this matter If we bear in mind that all the
 money in the world is constantly on the
 move. The millions of money paid ont
 every week as wages do not disappear into hoard of specie in the workmen's S homes. The money is spent almost as soon
 as it is earned. If it were not, prices
 would fall instead of rising. The demand of the working classes for new comforts and better supplies of old necessaries 1 helps to maintain the market.
 | But there is one class of commodities wherein the tendency of prices to rise Is
 not nearly so noticeable as 1t is every :
 where else-namely, in commodities sold
 with a trade mark or advertised brand.
 Nnd, curiously enough. commodities of
 his order which are bought most freely
 " the working classes are the steadiest
 n price. Laundry soaps. tobacco, cigar cites, beef extracts, condensed mill.. breakfast oats, tea. margarine, cocoa, boots, clothing. are cheaper now than they have ever been before in the hls- | tory of trade, so that, in respect of a | large part of his comforts and needs, the working man pays no toll to the changed | economic conditions. The capitalist suf- fers, but the working man-tertius gau- | dens-does not suffer at all, or does not
 suffer in anything like the same propor- ton.