Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-09-13
By J. E. Jones

According Ito the President "every element of normal life amongst us de- 'pends upon and awaits the ratification of the treaty of peace" These were the words he used in his opening ad dress to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the White House con- ference. He said that the copper mines of Montana, Arizona and Alas ka, are being operated at loss; and that the zinc mines of Missouri, Ten nessee and Wisconsin are being oper- ated at one-haf of their capacity, while the lead mines of Idaho, Illinois and Missouri reach only part If their former markets. The demand for cotton belting and lubricating oiS the President stated, cannot be met. After citing these examples, he ob- served that "there is hardly a single raw material, a single important food stuff, ora single class of manufactur- ed goods which is not in the same case" All this, he finds is true "be- cause the channels of trade are barred by war when there is no war;" As a result our full, normal, profitable production waits on peace"
 WHEN WILL WAR BE OVER? 4 Bureau of Labor statistics show that the price of clothing in Seattle, increased from December, 1914, to June 30 of the present year, 11O per cent; while it went up to 139 per cent in Jacksonville, Florida, with the bal ance of the country soaring in be- tween these price attitudes. Housing, fuel, light, furniture, furnishing and miscellaneous items are lowest in the Pacific States, and have increased in those regions 65 per cent; while far ther east they rise to 84 per cent in Buffalo and 87 per cent in Norfolk.
 A study of union wage scales in the District of Columbia, including 58 trades and occupations, shows an in- crease of n per cent from May 15, 1913, to August g, 1919. Just how representative this condition is of other cities is problematical. It is certain that in many Industrial cen ters that even conceding the increased , cost of living, as shown by the Bur eau of Labor figures, the increased wage scales mounted above the added burden on living costs, with the result that a good many "laborers" have tasted considerable real prosperity. At the same time the increase in the cost of living has hit the so-called middle class" or "salaried people" so hard that their affairs are in far worse shape than those of the wage earners" This applies particularly to those who are in the trade unions, and the soldiers who served their country for a pitance have had their struggles in getting back into life's industrial channels. Jumping the rich and the poor, the large and the small, the capitalists and the small business men, it is very conservative toI estimate that from one-fourth> to une-half of the people of the country have not increased their earnings, sui fieient to keep pace with the increased cost of living. ! In the beginning of the processes of war the Government recognized "col- lective bargaining" and no less per- son than ex-Presiden Taft was placed at the head of the War Labor Board. Organized labor played for every ad- vantage in the game. [ In, the one single instance where Gpvernmept control has been in force to the limit we find that railroad em- ployes have received wage increases in advance of the added high cost of living. This has been done at the ex- !pense of the industry itself, which is piling up huge deficits that are being cared for out of the public treasury. Industrial institutions that have had to work out their own salvation have usually increased the costs to the pub lie. In some instances this has re- suited in profiteering-and the Gov ernment is now hunting out instances of this kind.
 But there has been no constructive and systematic process of equallzlng matters since the beginning of the war. AS SllOWh ouoNS, OAAS sAA f ~~-> people of the country have experienc- ed an era of prosperity while the other half have been unable to keep up with the increased demands made upon them. This half-and you find them everywhere, are the ones most anxious to know when the war will be over.
 THE RIGHT AND WRONG OF OR
 \ GANIZING
 The question of the right to organ ize cannot be lost sight of in the con sideration of the questions involved in the high cost of living. That right of organization, when adopted by big business, is likely to result in prose- cutions; since trusts and combinations have been held to be inimical to the public welfare. But labor can organ ize, and so can the farmers; and what is lawful for them is against the law and is a monopoly among the "bie