Norwich bulletin., 1916-10-21
THE ERA OF HIGHEST PRICES EVER KNOWN

Trust takes toll with both hands on both sides of the fence"
 Listen yet again:-
 If the farmer could obtain 50 per cent. of the price paid by the clty man for food he could afford to pay his hired man $3 a day; but he doesn't. He doesn't obtain 30 per cent. In many cases he doesn't obtain 20 per cent"
 He gets to 3 cents quart for his milk. The city man pays to 15 cents for his. Who takes toll of the differ ence?"
 The farmer gets s1.5O net for his barrel of apples. The city man pays s6 for his barrel of apples. Who takes toll of the difference?"
 The farmer gets $40 for 1000 pounds beef COW. The city pays $110 for the salable beef from that same COW. Who takes toll of the difference 9"
 What, flour, chickens, potatoes, veg eta,bles all have the same record. Who takes toll of the difference?" This has not come about, the writer admits, as a result of any designed deviltry and greed It has grown up from the changing conditions of mod ern life; which conditions no man has devoted himself to setting right.
 Formerly the food vendor drove to market in a cart and sold direct to the retail buyer. Little mills at every stream ground the wheat and corn. The milk boy brought the milk straight from the COW to your door. Came the misunderstanding manufactures in great cities, fiour-mills in the Northwest, beef factories in the Middle West, garment factories in the East. Villages and hanlets grew up over night into cities of millions Plainly, the hucksters could not con- vey food to your door. So the huck- sters grew into rings the rings i1fto food trusts; and the food trusts today have an iron ring around city and country"
 Now, please note that all this is not from some sensation -monger writing for sensational daily paper of yellow ish urrelia biliIy, but from a seasoned writer Of long experience and wide knowledge, in one of the most con servative magazines of the country. The facts may be accepted as being as nearly right as human skill and in dustry can get them. The language is not strained and exa ggerated, but restrained and an under rather than an over statement.
 There is notring new in it. There is
  sensible men haven't seen and known for long tine. IL simply sets forth in direct and Guotahle language. some or the more obvious reasons for our present state of difficulty and unrest and suggests rather than states the danlserous era of intolerable hardship with accompanying riot and apine towards which we are tending-unIess somebody Compels a halt and a right about-face
 Starting from innocent-Iooking be g1nhinss and moving along natural mes Of least resistance. the people have slipped and slid and settled into their present state of serfage to 2 1 thousand over greedy but not over scruDuiOuS food trusts. And the gov ! ernment, which mi Sht have blocked the saS2lnE wheels and stopped the down ward course, has lacked either fore sight to comprehend the seriousness of the problem or statesmanship to con trOl it.
 Please bear in mind, right here, that when l say the government I do not mean the president and congress or i the governor and legislature They are nct inc government in this country, though we sometimes carelesslv cali them so. They are simply the rpokes- men of the government. This is q government of the people by the people and for the people" Wherein 1t fails or blunders or sins, the re sponstbility for failure or blunder or siH IS finally and unchangea b1y upon the people hemselves,-upon You HcE5rs Consumers who sqUeal like stuck pigs over your high cost of liv- lng;-upon You, my fellow producers Of the farms and gardens who sub serviently give up, year after year nan your rightful earnings to organ Tn o1<y, TOT their gracious permission to collect the other half.
 MT. Lincoln is often quoted as having i said that you can fool all the people some of the :ime, and some of the people all the time. but you can't foo all the people all the time" The real question is how long can 2 majority be fooledc For it is the majority which determines the govern. nent. And whenever a ma aJority ot | the consumers and producers,-whicf two classes include everybody wortf | reckoning from Quoddy Head tr Puget ound,-realiy find out wha1 1 they want and what they don't want | the elected delegates whom they hire l and pay to act for them at Washing | ton and the various state capitals vii | obey orders.
 Until then, the citizen, whether pro. | ducer or consumer who feels moved tc kick the executive or the legisia iative representative of popular will, should ] first hire some well-booted neighbor tc perform the same operation upon him. self where 1t will hurt worst and dc l most good!
 Who would be free themselves mus