Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-02-01
HIGH COST Of LIVING
By Sheldon s. Cline.
No. %.
The Food Supply and Commercial
Warfare.

! If we can find no better solution Of
the high-cost- problem than
TO increase wages-at the same time
reducing the hours of labor-how Is
America ever to compete with other ma
tons in the great game of CONNER
cial warfare?
/ Gold is spoken of as the worlds
standard of values. but gold is merely
the worlds standard medium of ex-
change. Demonetize gold and make 1t
questionable as an ornament and 1t
would have little or no value at all, for
industrially gold is not a useful metal
No act of legislature or decree of fash
ion could take the value away from
! bread and meat and clothing. The
worlds real standard of values is made
up of the necessary things of life, and
the worlds commerce is based on nee
| essary things. There is commerce in
| luxuries, of course. but always in the
last analysis, the barter Is a case OF
those who have more of the necessary
| things than they require. trading them
| for Injuries to those whose supplies of
necessary things are not equal to their
requirements. And always the value Of
| the necessary things determines the
conditions of the trade
| The price of luxuries being regulated
by the price of necessities. the man who
gets So for his days work is no better
off than the man who gets only 81 If
his IS will buy no more than the other
mans 81. If conditions were the same
the world over it would make no diff
ference how wages and the prices OF
I, necessities were expressed in terms Of
! gold coinage. But If in one country it
| is necessary to pay the laborer SO in
gold that he may live and in another
! country a wage of 81 in gold is suf-
| ficient, the country with the 81 wage
has just that much advantage when 1t
| comes to competing for the trade of
| a third country.
| The American workingman long has
been the best paid, the best fed and
the best clothed among the worlds
| workers, and he has earned this bet
ter condition by his superior efficiency.
But the rest of the world today is I'M
| dergoing a revolution, and the eff
cheney of its workers is being increased.
| These changed conditions have not yet
/ been felt seriously in America, but they
I will be felt when the rest of the world
| turns from war production to peace
| production. The question then of how
much gold 1t requires to feed the fam
| lily of a millworker in Pittsburgh, as
| compared with the cost of feeding mill
workers families in Birmingham and
Essen. Will become of paramount i'm
portance. If the British or German
millworker can live for 81 gold a day
less the British or German mill owner
! can lay down the product OF that days
work in Buenos Ayres for that much
| less gold, and the Argentine purchaser
| is going to save 81 in gold by buying
| the British or German product instead
of the American.
| Industries throughout the country
| Just now are increasing wages in order
that their employees may meet the in
| creased cost of living. AS an emer-
gency measure it is a highly praise
worthy thing to do, but it isn't finding
cure for the economic i'll health which
makes the applying of emergency rem
1 edies necessary.
! Next-where Socialism Would Fail.