The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-02-16
.STRANGLE-HOLD
OF PROSPERITY
(By Scott Nearing)

pie by the stomach!
AS the grip of prosperity tightens
people cry out in anguish, lest they
die. "Help!" they cry. "Help! we
are starving!"
That seems most extraordinary,
that people in the grip of prosperity,
should imagine that they are starv-
ing! During the month of Deem
Der, 1916, the United States export
ed-shipped out of the country
wheat, blankets, shoes and other
things valued at half a billion dol
lars. During the same month the fac
tories, mines, mills, railroads, ware
houses and stores were buster than
they had been in years. They were
fairly rushing to get wheat, blank
cts, shoes and other things, to
place where people might use them.
They succeeded too. The total num-
Der of things turned out by the fac
tories and carried by the railroad,
was unusually great in December,
l1916.
When the wheat, blankets, shoes
and other things were offered for
sale, an interesting thing happened.
The statesmen placed them on shelf
far out of reach of many of the Gag
low, 49,. Il - IL
high prices. 1t is a movable shelf,
and just now it is moving up.
| The Monthly Review, for December,
1915, of the United States Bureau
Iof Labor Statistics notes that leach
PARTICLE for which prices are shown
from 1912 to 1916 was higher on
October Is, 1916 than on the same
ldate of the four years preceding.
For all articles combined the increase
in price from October Is, 1912 to
October Is, 1916 was 81 per cent.
From October Is, 1915 to October
Is, 1916, the price of tea and coffee
Twas the same, and all other articles
advanced from a fraction of / per
cent for rice to rs per cent for pota-
Itoes and IS per cent for beans. The
increase in the price of all articles
combined from October Is, 1915 to
October Is, 1916 was 16 per cent"
"We cannot reach the high-price
shelf" protest the customers.
"And why not, ladies and gentle
lmen?" question the accommodating
statesmen.
eve can reach only the length of
our incomes" sigh the eager custom
ers, 1--WE are kept from the high shelf
by our small wages"
The customers are right. At least
some of them are, and the story of
their plight is very we'll told in Bull
letin 76 of the United States Health
Bureau, in which an estimate appears
of the number of people in the United
States who live in poverty-that is,
who have less family income than
will provide for physical health and
social decency. There are, according
to this estimate, some six million
families-thirty million people in the
United States-living in poverty.
These are the people who cannot
reach the shelf called high prices.
| Prosperity-the stupid, blind, I'M
Intelligent, balance-sheet variety of
prosperity-is throttling millions of
people in the United States. They
lcannot buy butter, eggs, milk, flour,
meat, because prices have advanced
more rapidly than their wages. The
necessities of life are on the high
shelf and the would be customers are
far below.
Some people contend that a nation
is prosperous when prices are high.
ISUCH PEOPLE USUALLY HAVE
SOMETHING TO SELL. They are
in control now, and ION account of
the war" they are gouging the
American people as they have not
been gouged for years. And the peo-
pie, simple minded and confiding,
have been told that when the rush of
business will permit, the high shelf
will be vanished and decorated with
border of filigree paper. They
have faith in the efficacy of these
remedies, and are waiting with the
pathetic patience of the ignorant or
the blind.