The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-03-15

to the war demand and the immense supply of gold at reduced cost oi production, is that the wages are cut.
 If a man gets dollar a day, he has no intention of trying to swal- low that silver coin to live upon il. Why he values the dollar is because of the fact that he can exchange it more he can buy with it the higher the standard of wages which he re ceives and vice versa.
 Roughly let us contrast the change in prices from the official lists prepared up to November of 1916 and see what one could get with dollar in 1890 and in 1916: Round steak in pounds in 1890 for a dollar S.1 in 1916 Az, Pork Chops in 1890 9.3. lbs, 1916 A; bacon 1890 so lbs, in 1916 3.3; Ham 1890 6.6 lbs. 1916 3.3; lard I1O.S lbs. in 1890, in 1916 A lbs Eggs in 1890 AS dozen for dollar, in 1916 2.3 doz Butter 3.9 pounds in 1890. 2.3 pounds in 1916. Milk quarts in 1890 for a dollar 14.7 in 1916 10.1. Wheat flour in 1890 for dollar IS barrel bags 1,41, in 1916 OPP. Corn meal 526 lbs. in 1890. in 1916 27.S lbs. Potatoes in 1890 for a dollar 40 pecks in 1916 1 20 pecks. Sugar 14.51 lbs, dollar in 1890, in 1916 11.6. ~s~~ -~s~
 Those are prices for the United States, an average for five divisions being higher in some and lower i'll others within a slight margin ot variance.
 It reveals the astonishing fact that the dollar today as far as its purchasing power in food stuffs is concerned is worth from 40 to so cents less. and in some instances it even worth less.
 So that when a person is paid a dollar d day is actually getting less than if he was getting fifty cents in .1S90. He cannot in many instances live up to any sort of well fed standard and he lives on grub that the workers of a past day would not think of considering.
 Much of the increase in price is fictitiously due to the heavy and cumbersome artificial costs of hand ling the goods. It is notorious that goods in large quantities are ac- quired more cheaply than ii bought in job lots. While it is wrong for railroads to grant rebates to large shippers, commercial interests have never seen the injustice of pilirg it on to the little fellow while giving very much reduced rates to the bllI buyers. Yet if rebates are wrong for steamship and railroad compa- nies why are they not wrong accord ing to the same plain of reasoning in buying and selling in the stores? ! However that is another question which will later on be considered.
 But consider what Uncle sam pays to feed the units of his arm 7. The soldiers grub costs 27 cents a dav-today, right now, in this era of high living costs. Fresh beef costs 11.41. beans 105 cents a pound bacon two grades eighteen to twenty or twenty-two. Flour $4.02 per hundred Rice four and half cents a pound and so on.
 That is because he buys by the wholesale. But why should not the community also get their goods by the wholesale and every person get their fill?
 AS we see it, the element of pro- fit and the element of costly waste which has to be paid for in misdi- rected labor, useless work, extrava- gant up-keep. and generally speak ing inefficient systems of distribu- ton is what we are up against. This cannot be properly remedied under capitalism of course, but by the workers organizing they can improve matters and they can prepare to get more and more and still more un- til finally they get all of the pro- duct of their labor. Organization is the secret of the mystery to the workers. It will solve the problem for them-that, and no other.