The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-08-01

the worlds work, the fruit of their
industry and appropriating 1t to
their own use and benefit
The High Cost of Living.
The high cost of living has become
a serious problem in this country.
Prices of the necessities OF life have
increased until providing them for
the average family has become a
matter of deep and general concern.
This condition demands careful in
quiry into the cause and adoption
of measures by which it may be re-
lieved. The ordinary home is pro-
vided only with what may be termed
the necessities and at most the COM
forts of life, broadly speaking, food:
clothing and shelter. The price or
these have become so high that 1T
is difficult to understand how the
average wage Garner or one OF an
ordinary salary can provide them
for the average family.
It is claimed by our republican
friends that the high cost OF living
is world wide, and the fact that sim
liar conditions maintain in other
countries and that the prices have
increased in this country yhile the
tariff has remained unchanged or
been reduced proves that it is not
due to the protective system. II the
cost of living elsewhere is as high
as it is in this country then that we
need any protection against the for
eigner that produces these articles
is self contradictory. If the prices
of the necessities of life are as high
abroad as at home, the manufacturer
and producer of them at home needs
no protection from the importer, Tor
he cannot pay the cost of transporta-
ton, much less the tariff, If any, ana
compete in our market.
1t is probably true that the aggre-
gate cost of living is higher the
world over than it has been hereto
fore, but it is also true that the scale
here is far above the level OF the
worlds prices. The fact that people
live different than formerly, that
their actual necessities demand dit
ferent quality and kind of flood, cloth
ing and shelter has on the whole
increased the cost of living.
The increased cost of living in this
country aside from natural causes
has been produced by a combination
can party is responsible. Trusts
and combinations projected by the
tariff where there might be foreign
competition by natural laws, where
there could be no competition oper-
ating in violation of the law pro-
tiD1ting sucn are responsible 70: the
increased cost of living, except as
affected by The law of supply and
demand.
Sheltered " the tariff, combining
for monopoly and control, secure
from prosecution for their violation
of law, they have limited the output,
determined the quality of their prod
uct and fixed the price to the consum-
"r without limit or interference en-
tent the protection furnished and !he
extent of their greed.
The democratic party takes issue
on this question and aftirms that
these excessive prices are the result
in a large measure of the high tariff
laws enacted and maintained by the
republican party, and trusts and
commercial conspiracies fostered by
them and encouraged by them, and
asserts that no substantial relief can
be secured for the people until i'm
port duties on the necessities OF life
are materially reduced and these
criminal conspiracies broken up:
The primary cause OF the hlgh
cost of living, the swollen fortunes
of the vastly rich and the unequal
distribution of wealth has been the
protective system aided by comblna-
tions in violation of law. If the
tariff was reduced to revenue bas-
is, trusts and combinations restrain
ed from organizing and operating,
prevented from issuing Watered
stock, confined to capital of actual
value, and prohibited from fixing the
price of labor and their product at
their will, all of the causes of the
high cost of living would be removed
and the American people permitted
to buy that which they are compelled
to consume in fair market, lnt1u-
enced only by the natural law OF
supply and demand.
The only relief from such con-
ditions can come from an overturn-
ing of the entire system that has
made them possible and the enact
ment and enforcement of such avs
as would prevent their continuance.
Departments of Government.
The democratic party declares
in favor of the preservation and
maintenance in their full strength
of the three coordinate branches
of federal government:-th Execu-
tive, Legislative and Judicial, each
keeping within it's bounds and not
encroaching upon the just powers
of either of the others.
In recent years there has been a
strong tendency of one department
of government to infringe upon the
rights of the other. The executive
has tried to control the legislative
and influence the judicial, and the
judicial in turn has invaded, the
powers of the legislative and execu,
tive. The executive has attempted
to c ntrol the legislative, not by
recommending to their consideration
such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient, but by die
tating the matters upon which legis
lation should be enacted and the
measures to be passed. Such inter.
ference by the executive department
with the affairs and duties of. the
legislative is dangerous in the ex
+romo Tho oyecutiVe ic DreSllme &c