The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-11-08
Britain Feels the Pinch.

For long time the British govern.
mcnt kept bold front against the pre-.
dietion of economists that the war would
seriously decrease the supplies and in
crease the prices of food in the United
| Kingdom. But the prices have risen
steadily, month by month and now an
official investigation shows that for many
nccessares of life the rise is enormous
and that il is really due to the falling
| off in the quantities available, not TO
any systematic manipulation or exploi.
taton of foodstuifs. What is the most
direct cause of the comparative search
| ty! Almost the last thing that the
British when the war began would have
admitted to be possibility; that is,
shortage of their own shipping Neutral
nations still have found animals and
foodstuffs to sell Much as the United
States has supplied, it yet has more for
the market, and does not contemplate
the placing OF an embargo on exports,
though the unprecedented extent OF these
has so diminished our store that our own
people are suffering from the eXtraordi-
narily high prices.
How is it that the British merchant
ships are not numerous enough to fetch
the commodities that only wait for over
seas transportation German figures of
submarine successes may partly answer
the question, but it is answered more
largely by the extensive employment of
mercantile vessels for war purposes, More
than 2000 ships designed for peaceful
commerce are employed by the British
government in naval and military work.
Replying to criticism in Parliament, the
president OF the board of trade has said
that every effort is being made to in
crease available tonnage for imports OF
meat and wheat, and that the admiralty
has agreed in may instances to get along
with a smaller number of vessels. But
il will take a considerable time, even
with all the building that is going on, to
make up the shortage in shipping which |
is chiefly blamed for the shortage in
food.
Let us glance at few of the percent
age increases of retail food prices from I
July, 1914, to September, 1915 British T
beef has risen by 60 to so per cent I
frozen beef by 80 to o., British mutton /
by IS to so, frozen mutton by 81 to HI i
eggs by 81, fish by 81, -four by g. sugar /
by l63, with 35 per cent. more for milk /
IS the smallest increase on any impor
tant articles Of food The Germans have
their meatle>s days, and now the British
committee recommends that
he people Of the United Kingdom shall
nave one such day week. Who * it
hat is pinchei by the prices? Not the
working classes engaged in war work.
lust at this time Drawn earns more than
brain. The work OF muscle is rated high
r than the work of mind. Many earners
# wages live almost in luxury; earner-
# salaries must sontrive to exist The
worker in a government controlled ship
ard may be paid more than the pro-
essor in a university, the mixer Of ex-
,losives more than the minister Of a
hurch the she'll moulder more than the
chool teacher, and. necessarily, all who
epend on the fixed salaries in the civil
ervice are made TO feel that these are
hard times Indeed, they are topsy
urvy times, and the growing burden of
axation in bellgeront countries, with
he cutting of labor's remuneration when
he war is over, will make the coming
ines vet harder-Boston Herald.