The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-06-09
HIGH PRICES.

A man can write learnedly if he has information enough to hand concerning high prices but who can write instructivcly ana in g. matter to provoke in.- rest upon such subject unless he completely feels the pinch of those higher costs ot living?
 And that's the trouble with mere Iy academic discussions on the higher costs of living with reams of theories unfolded to discover where the real trouble lies and in explaining not at all.
 But the man or woman who faces at the week end the fact that the wages will not meet the necessities of living is not likely to be con- cerned very much as to what is the cause of the higher costs, but how that higher costs of living is to be met.
 There is for the rea3on only one solution and that is thSt wages must go up to make it possible for the workers to acquire a reason able amount of food, clothing and shelter.
 You just turn to any paper and note the continuous struggle in the form of strikes, increased wages demands and so forth that disturb industry and you discover there and then this problem not in the academic but in it's most practical form, and although one were to grow black in the fcce theor'zin5 on the cause of thece high prices, the main question would still pc for those who are seriously affect ed by the higher costs of living: How are we going to meet it? And then too and there it is equally oo. vious that there can be only one response to this most urgent ques- ton and that is: By getting higher wages to mako the increased remu- ncration cover the inc ceased cost living.
 That's the elemental and the very simple side of the labor question that is always with us. It is the philosophy of life that the capital ist system has reduced human be- ings to realize, and it i5 for one that lives for the day, and then half exists, only.
 High prices is the really serious question that confronts the public today It is not as some imagine, national or industrial preparedness It may be we'll to sheer at men ana women making a god out of their bellies, but there is only one thing certain and that is to live human beings must be adequately fed. Ar mics may bring peace; but armies will never bring peace to an indus trial system that in the nature Of things develops .. large class of poorly nourished and semi-3tarved employees.
 It is important that this serious question be realized in all its seri- ousness, and the constant efforts to drag red herrings across it's trail to divert the workers from following out the facts are demoralizing in the extreme. The food that is nov raised in this country is more than sufficient to meet all American needs. American labor applied to the farms raises enough food to supply every American resident with a more than sufficiency. with q superabundance that were it appli- ed to the relief of American neces- sites would justify the great paens of praise that are uttered from time to time in the papers about the great production of the farms ana so forth
 American labor applied to the looms in the textile mills produces a more than ample supply of silk and linen and cotton and woolen goods for the proper clothing or every man, woman and child in tho American nation. The productive capacity of the textile mills far transcends the national need. Am erican energy and labor applied to brick and stone and cement ana mortar to wood and glass and metal is more than able to give every