The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1912-08-22
GOVERNOR WILSON'S REMEDY
FOR THE HIGH COST OF
LIVING.

speech OF acceptance received from
the big political bosses and from the
big newspapers of Wall Street and
the big papers representing monopoly
and special interests everywhere
The New York Times, an ultra
conservative and monopoly organ,
owned by August Belmont, one of
the men whom Mr.. Bryan named in
his resolution as an unfit man to sit
in the Baltimore Convention as a
delegate, and whom he attempted to
expel from that body, is most extrav-
agant in it's praises of Governor Will
sons speech. It says that the plat
form does not count, because Gov
ernor Wilson's speech Of acceptance
is the real platform of the party, and
that the business interests" of the
country will be satisfied with Cover
nor Wilson's position.
Mr.. Hilles, the Taft national chair
man, has also given out an interview
in which he says Prof. Wilson's
speech of acceptance is an entertain
ing essay and surprisingly conserva-
tive"
This has caused US to again read
carefully Prof. Wilson's speech of ac-
ceptance, with a view to trying to
find what parts of it has most pleas
ed Wall Street and the monopoly in
terests generally. We find a number
Of academic statements, of general
theories, stated in beautiful English,
but the meaning of which no one
knows as applying to most of the
planks in the Democratic platform
Some of the planks in the platform
the Governor ignores entirely He
states, however, that the Democratic
platform is not "a program" which
the party is expected to follow, but
intimates that his speech and his own
views will be the general program of
the party.
There is, however, one definite
statement in his speech of acceptance
which certainly means something, if
it can be said that there is any one
thing definite in it.
In discussing the Democratic rem
edy for the high cost of living, Gov
ernor Wilson says:
1T is not as easy for US to live now
as it used to be. Our money will not
buy as much. Higher wages, even
when we get them, yield us no great
er comfort. We used to be better off
! with less, because a dollar could buy
us much more"
There is no one question that con-
Germs more housewives and wealth
| producers in this country today than
the problem of the high cost of liv-
ing. Governor Wilson has stated
his conception of the whole business
in the last sentence above quoted.
The trouble, as he sees it, is because
, formerly "a dollar could buy so much
more" This is clear and simple
enough for every one to understand.
If Governor Wilson knows the mean
! ing OF words, and upon this he and
e., his supporters have always prided
, themselves, then he wants to have
the dollar to become dearer and to
buy more than it does now, and the
man and his products to become
cheaper. In short, the program that
he favors as his leading and greatest
policy, if he should become President,
is to return to the Cleveland program
when the dollar was as big as a cart
wheel and bale of cotton was no
4, larger than fve-cent piece. When
cotton was selling at four and five
cents pound, times were so hard
and money was so scarce that the
man who had cotton to sell had diff
Guilty in finding some one who had
four or five cents to buy it, and when
he got his four or five cents for a
| pound, he was not able, after paying
taxes and fixed charges, to buy the
necessaries of life.
We all remember how at that time
the wealth-producers created more
| wealth than ever before in the his
tory Of the country, and yet how
| they were all reduced TO starvation
conditions and how a large number
lost their farms under mortgage and
labor could not find employment. At