Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-23

(Written Specially for The Bulletin.) )
 The Great See-Saw is at work again;-the great and universal tee ter-board of the business world Of WageS-up and PriceS-up: PrlceS-up and Wages-up.
 Wages have been tending upward for years. Don't we farmers know it :: Haven't we had to pay, of late, from two to three times as much as we paid, twenty years ago, and pay it for help not nearly so efficient and labor not nearly so effective?
 Then, two or three years ago. prices began to climb, also. The fa. mers and other employers who had to pay higher wages were, perforCe, compelled to get more money to pay them with. Now wages have got to be "histed" once more because wages at last years rate won't pay to cost of living at this years rate. At least, that's what they tell us.
 So, the newspapers are full, every day, of announcements that this, that and the other company or corpora tion has declared an increase or oi- fered bonus or agreed to share pro- fits with its worllmen.
 On account of which, we farmers are going, to catch it in the neck again. For, justS as sure as three plus three is more than two plus two, We shall
  this coming season. Equally sure is it that we shall have to charge more for our products or else stop raising any to sell. In other words, the tee ter-board which is now tilting wages up, once more will. next swing, tilt prices up to correspond. Whereupon, wages will have to, go, up another notch.
 And so on and on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Whats the end to be.
 Now, you and l both want good wages, whether we work for sorIc- body else or for ourselves. Further more, you and I would always like more wages than we're getting no matter what they are. That marches about even with David Ftarum's s 'helpin'" of Thanksgiving turkey. Of which he sagely remarked that he had always noticed "a leetle too much was jest about enough"
 I can remember when fifty cents a D day was the regular wage for a farm 1aborer, working by the day. I have, myself, worked for neighbors at that rate, except in the hurry of "nayin' and farvestin'", when wages were lifted materially. I have hired labor at that rate, good. efficient abor. which thought,-or at least, talked less of hours and wages than of sr1ount And quality of work accomplished.
 Now, I'm too old to be working out for anybody, and I have to pay $2 a day for men who won't wor. more than eight hours; who are neither able nor willing to do a full day. work In that time; and who spend mere breath grumbling over their small pay and the high cost of living than they do In trying to earn their money
 Anyone can see for himself just how it works. The more maA's liv- ing costs him, the more wages ne de- mands, and his demand seems, on the face of things, perfectly just. There upon the farmer and the manuf ac- turer, who find the cost of their pro- ducts increased by the higher cost of the labor involved in producing them, demand @ higher price for those pro- ducts, to make things even. Their demand is certainly as just as the other. The pot is no blacker ttan rt.e kettle. If one has a right to higher wages, the other has right to lign- er prices.
 If ! as farmer, can gs: fertilizer and labor at such rates as to enable me to produceSp at forty cents B bushel or less, I can afr Ird to sell them at fifty cents a bushal. But if the cost of the fertilizer-Wkich is all most wholly labor in the inal analy- sis,-and if farm help is such tEat they cost me eighty cents 8 pushei to raise, I can't afford to sell them at less than a dollar. I've got 70 have something out of them to pay inter- est and taxes, keep up fences and re- pairs, and give me ysomething to live on through the winter.
 Personally, I'd rather sell them at fifty cents, if could afford to-, than at a dollar, if make no greater per- centage of profit at one prica than the other and if mv fiftv ca,fc xv,II hire as much help, next tr,,, as the dollar. And how much better off pray tell me, is the hired man wIo gets a dollar wages and has to pay the last red cent of it for husnel of