The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-04
Mr.. Wilson'S Administration Causes
the High Cost OF Living.

ME-. wilson's Administration Causes
the High Cost OF Living.
No economic truth Is simpler than
the truth as to the basis of this terri
BILE cost Of living crisis. 1t is wheat
and-because of wheat--corn and
other fodder. No intellectual light Is
clearer than, the light on the respon-
sibility for this false and cruel food
cost. It rests solidly upon the Wheat
Administration of the United States
Government. "a
Let us see how that Administration
compels mere grains of wheat and
corn to come out to the American con.
sumer in cost through oil he eats, all
he wears, all he otherwise consumes,
as grains Of gold. Let US see how
!, that Administration forces the Amer
lean dollar, while the American
worker strives frantically to pump
his wages higher. to shrink in its
capacity to, pay for his bread and
his meat.
Take. as an instance. the raising
Of poultry. To begin with, the hatch
ing chick Is worth no more than the
trifing value of the egg. 1t may be a
/ nickel, 1t may be dime. The differ
ence, at the moment, Is of no conse-
! quence. What happens afterward Is
what counts.
Put into the chicken third OF II
bushel Of corn at 90 cents a bushel
70 raise, feed and fatten him all the
way from the Matching to the pluck
fng when he Is slaughtered This
gives. with the original egg value,
/, some 25 cents of cost.
Z Put into the chicken some 10 cents
of wages to handle and care for him
all the way from the poultry farm to
the butcher shop. This gives, with
: what has gone before. some 35 cents
. OF cost.
Put into the chicken only a single
!. 10 per cent. of profit on the prolonged
Investment all the way from the barn.
yard to the dinner table. Put into
the chicken only per cent. for eco
:, nomic wastage - chickens that die,
chickens that spoil. chickens that get
lost, chickens that disappear in bad
credits land for other expenses like
transportation and delivery. All those
items put together from start to fin
ish give only about 40 cents.
( But instead of the old costs, put
into the chicken one-third Of bushel
of corn at 81 to $2.25 a bushel. This,
with the original egg value Of five
cents, gives about rs cents. Instead
of 10 cents of wages put into the
chicken 20 to 25 cents. This gives
about dollar. Put into the chicken,
as before, 10 per cent. profit and 8
per cent. economic wastage. This
gives all told uncomfortably close to
a dollar and quarter.
That is exactly the way grain and
labor have trebled the cost of chicken
living, whether there is pronteering
guilt or pro6teering innocence.
Now consider the steer. Put not u
third of bushel, as for the chicken
but many bushels Of corn into the
steer all the way from the range to
the slaughter pen. Put that corn into
him at so cents q bushel-twenty
bushels or ten bushels COR what you
will. II it is ten bushels the cost Is
Sc. Put into him not pennies OF
wages, as into the chicken, but dol
lars OF wages all the time from the
day Of calving to the day of carving
Put an average, say, Of Ave full days
OF labor into that steer Mt 81 day
or $40. This gives, say, SO Of grain
cost and $40 Of labor cost, or SIC
Add the 10 per cent. for transporta.
ton. storage. profit, wastage. &c
This gives all told $3.50.
But put the ten bushels of grain
into the steer at ~ to $2.25 bushel
or $40 to $3.50. Put the five days
of labor into him at an average Of 81
a day. or $40. These together make
$40 to $3.50. Add the Is per cent
as before and this gives all told sac
% $50.
That is exactly the way feed ant
labor, without proiteering or anything
else, make the difference between
steers at $17.eo and steers at $40. I,
v exactly what makes the difference
without profiteering, between 20 cent
steak and 30 cent steak. 1t is ex
actly what makes the difference, with
ont pronteering, between 20 cent han
and 90 cent ham, between 30 cent
butter and rs cent butter; between
the old reasonable food costs which
fhs American people could meet OF