Graham guardian., 1913-10-17
OCTOBER II, 1918
TARIFF AND HIGH LIVING


After long years of waiting and
struggling and hoping and prophecy
ing the downwardly-revised tariff
has passed both houses of Congress
and received the presidents sigma
ture, says the Commercial Appeal.
Since it is to become operative at
once, the country will not have long
to wait to test its ability to bring
about the reforms so confidently ex-
pected. AS the old woman said.
I'VE shall soon see what we shall
see,' and the vexed question OF high
prices will be set at rest; for If the
new rates cut down the price to the
consumer, the Democratic revisers
will be triumphantly upheld. Where
as if they fail, the tariff plank in
the platform and the long and gallant
fight of the leaders will both be
discredited. AS the proof of the
pudding is in the eating, SO the proof
of the revision will be in its efficiency
in actual reduction of prices.
But even if the Democratic creed
is vindicated and the consumer can
cease paying maximum prices, there
is going to be no return to the
simpler life. All along men and
women have known that it was high
living as well as high prices that
kept the family purse drained. So
ciety, every strata Of it, has in re-
cent years hit pace dizzier than
was perhaps ever known before.
We do not dine on nightingales'
tongues or dissolve pearls in acid to
put up the prize of our banquets.
We do not need to. The food and
wine and decorations. to say nothing
of the gold and silver and cut glass
of the service. make the price of
nightingales' tongues and Cleopatra's
pearl look like the small change
thrown into church collection
basket. One Mckay or Vanderbilt
ball in the height of the season costs
as much as all of the orgies of the
'sorcereness of the Nile" during
her spectacular reign of luxury.
There was not probably in the whole
world, in those days, as much wealth
as the millionaries of New York
could stack up today.
In the last few years these men
of millions having the wherewithal,
set the gait of extravagant living,
and the rest of society followed suit,
each stratum sping the stratum
above it. Women whose grand
mothers were glad to wear home
knit stockings-and to do the knit
ting--could not now dream of put
ting on anything except the finest
silk. Men, whose grandfathers
made one Sunday suit" do them
half lifetime. cram their clothes
bins with tailored garments, changed
each season for something more
stylish. People whose parents walked
or were glad to ride in the street
cars, now take their ease in the most
expensive autos and limousines.
Thus the story of comparison
might run on for pages, each time
with the modern object or method
on the big figure side Of the ledger.
Without any doubt the world is
today better fed, more sumptuously
clothed, more splendidly housed,
more luxuriously Travelled" than
ever before in its history.
And this is the high living that
has made it so burdensome to pay
the high cost ofthe smaller necessi-
ties.
That the new tariff will cut down
the price of the everyday things of
life is confidently expected. In doing
this II will be a boon to the poorer
classes. But it is not going to re-
duce in any degree the high living
mania that has spread over the
country. 1t will cut out the gor-
geous clothes, the princely high-pow-