Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1914-09-11
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING
FROM FARMERS STANDPOINT
An Address Delivered by William It.
Greasy, Master of the Pennsyl-
vania State Grange
Continued from last week }

Our present distribution costs are
divided among many middlemen
Some are useful, in fact, indispens.
able. But we have too many. Put
in tabulated form IL would look
something like this:
Railroad or other transportation
agent.
Wholesale merchant.
Retail merchant
Banker or credit broker.
Manufacturer.
Landlord.
The evidence / think is conclusive
that every one Of these groups of
middlemen have got excessive profits
in the past, and the advance in cost
of living is proof that some of them
are getting even bigger profits now.
You will find millionaires and multi
millionaires among them all. They
have been able to exact enormous
profits by forming combinations
which were only possible by the adj
vantages and privileges that bad laws
had given them.
The consumer can not blame all
on the middlemen, trusts and mo-
nopolies. The modern system of hav-
ing everything put up in cartons,
ready cooked, roasted and prepared,
and then requiring the merchant to
deliver everything from needle to
a piano, entails extra cost. Then
again the small purchases. Years
ago it was the rule for a family to
buy the winters supply of potatoes,
ETC., at one time at wholesale prices,
but now they are bought by the
quart and quarter peck, all of which
means additional cost Expensive
cuts of meat, hurriedly cooked, while
the cheaper cuts, slowly cooked, cost
much less, and yet yield much more
nutrition. One redeeming feature,
however, that mitigates the higher
cost of living and that is in greater
economy in dress by the women, who
instead of requiring, as in past peri
DDS, 20 yards of material for a sim
gle dress new manage to shift along
with yard or two, apparently need
ing less and less, which affects the
dry goods trade 50 seriously that one
of the greatest house in the country
is in receivers hands, so that event
thtN4a he AId fxy1o Nf To-
becomes fashionable again all the
cotton and silk factories must sus-
pend, and this, too, regardless of the
tariff.
The remedy must fit the cause,
and as the high cost of living results
from many causes, each requires it's
special remedy The remedy for the
high cost OF living due to advantages
given to manufacturers by the tariff
is to reduce the tariff. No better
proof of this is required than the
platforms of all the political parties
for the asst % years, promising the
people reduction of the tariff, and
these promises we're regularly
broken until it resulted in the ele,.
ton of a president aai cuns.'4ss THAT
hive ept their pledges 1uG reGu. e,l
l..
The reciedy for tie III 81 Of
living one to money monopo,J AMI
excessive interest charges due to
control of credit, is the reform OF
our banking and currency and the
Improvement OF the machinery of
credit, so that the producer can
secure more capital for production
and for moving crops on reasonable
terms. Consequently the city con-
sumer is as vitality concerned in the
correct solution of the rural credit
problem as the former.
The remedy for the high cost OF
living due to the transportation mo-
nopoly is to abolish the monopoly, or
a. least make it ineffective. Whether
taat can best be done by government
regulations. or by government own
ership of the railroads, and the tele-
graph and telephone, is something
which producers and consumers must
determine, If the cost of living is to
be reduced to its proper level.
The high cost of living due to the
cumbersome methods of merchandis.
ing can be reduced by direct trading
between producers and consumers by
the development of cooperation. Co
operation manufacturing in the same
way will still further reduce cost.
The remedy for the meat shortage
is to break up the monopoly of mea
Strengthening and distribution by tn,
central packers. Every city should
have its municipal market anC
slaughter house. This would fire.,
the local butcher at one stroke from
trust control and give the farme
a free local market. Unless the cit,
consumers will see to this they cal
rest absolutely assured that the da,