Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-05-19
THE INDUSTRIAL BURDEN.

Today unrest is visible every
where. The impatient American citi-
zen, conscious of unusual difficulties
in making both ends meet, is joining
with other like-minded fellowmen in
bitterly arraigning the tariff, the
trusts, the money power, extrava-
gance, the rush to the cities, the
craze for automobiles and various
and sundry other practices or fads.
While these may be worthy of op-
probrium and opposition, yet lurking
obscurely in the background, unob-
served by many is the fact that land
-space-upon which the men, wom-
en- and children of America must
live, work and play, is rapidly be-
coming more and more valuable.
It's income-bearing power is growing
as we tear the leaves from our cal
endar.
Still further, the great and grow
ing volume of rents of various kinds
is throwing upon the shoulders of
business and ultimately upon those
of the consumer, an inert burden
which is in no small degree RESPONSE
BILE for the much-advertised high cost
of living. Land rents, rural and ur-
ban, have been swiftly rising during
Loot fxun nr fb roo 6apadac In q IL
dition to this must be mentioned a
multitude of variously classified
gains from monopoly and special priv
ileges. Every wide-awake American
must admit that monopoly is today a
potent factor in the business world;
it can no longer be neglected in any
careful study of prices or in any ade-
quate discussion of the cost of liv-
ing.
Indeed, industry in the United
States is handicapped by an enor-
nous burden of fictitious values.
Those values are created by capital
izing the large incomes derived be-
cause of the sitting of competition
The rapid trend away from the small
business unit and competition, to-
ward the large business unit and the
control of prices by means of COM
binations and agreements, furnishes
a favorable opportunity to increase
the returns from capital actually
sunk in the business and to capital
ize those extraordinary returns. The
leveling force of competition has lost
activity; and as wet we are restlessly
cropping in the dark for a substitute.
Granting, then, as many but by no
means all who read these lines will,
that competition is no longer effect
i've in fixing the prices of a multi
tude of services and articles COM
monty offered for sale and pur-
chased in the business world, the
relation of rent and monopoly re-
turns to prices and the cost of liv-
ing becomes worthy of careful in
vestigation. The existence of enor-
nous returns upon fictitious values
and unique opportunities alongside
of low wages and poverty and mis-
cry, emphasizes the need of such an
examination.
Not only is the amount of the an
nual national income or dividend
which goes to private individuals in
tho form of rent or of monopoly re.
turns increasing, but the total has
already assumed vast proportions
1t is the average Americans grear
burden.
Mr.. John Moody, a competent ant
conservative authority, not long age
estimated that about one-half of tn,
: wealth of the nation was not "cre
ated" wealth; it was fictitious o
paper wealth. But men are derivin,
incomes from this paper wealth, ant
society is quietly paying the bill
Professor Davenport AYERS that lit i
probably not going too far to asser
that two-thirds of the durable prop
erty bases of income in the countr,
are nothing else than this capitalize