The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-01

And at the conclusion OF this article Will
say, read the Topeka State journal and
the most able writer's on this subject will
aid us to reduce the high cost of living.
y. C. MAGoS, Wheaton, Kan.
Cut down meals, Americans serve too
many varieties of food at dinner and sup
per. Divide the number of dishes by two
and save money.
As q people we are extravagant; buy
less expensive cuts of meat. A leg of
lamb costs twenty-five cents per pound;
just as good A patched shoe will serve
four or five months for everyday. wear. We
are promised cheaper shoes in six months.
the family horse. A leather halter costs
S275; rope halter thfrty-five cents and
it serves the purpose Learn to labor
There's a cheaper day coming by and
by, Postpone any thing that can be
paw. pay don't mt go. Il the the weekly salary IS
only twenty dollars, spend nineteen dol
lars: never spend twenty-one dollars.
Trust in God and do the right"
H w. STEAMS, Haddam. Kan
In writing on the high eost OF nFing'
Especially, production, distribution, speeu-
lation and waste.
Itmust be remembered that consumption
II time me- In the the Writer'S life, and that not SO
many years back, when in normal year
we produced more than we consumed and
our surplus thru onr reciprocity treaties
But We no longer need of necessity to
do So for we are not now producing as
And again the cost Of production has
doubled and treebled in many M instances tan, In
the last e An 4he, aFtee net thra 5nat Sost d
lars to produce now
The laborers that then received Is cents
to 60 cents per hour for their labor are
demanding from 60 cents to SS2 an hour
for their labor today, and labor Is more
than th 7oM of the ] cost OF @ every bs product IL IN
whether 1t is n crop grown from the soil
or any manufactured article it is the pro-
duce of some ones labor.
There are but three sources Of wealth in
this world: they are the mineral as 1t lies
in the earth; the timber, as it stands in
the soil. AS soon as any of these are
touched by the hand of man they become
the produce of some ones labor; So that
labor must enterN largely into the cost OF
everything that is produced in the world.
Then again. the demands of labor today
ago. while they are receiving two or three
times as much for their work as they did
then, they are demanding shorter hours
that could be and was done in one hundred
hours labor five years ago: today they
same amount. In other words. an article
| that cost 81 in time and labor two years
ago to produce, costs So in time and labor
today.
And still the laborer today says he can
not live on their present wage and pays
such high prices for his living and must
have more for his labor and work shorter
hours and produce less so there Will be
no oyerproduction. 1t matters not whether
he Is a miner or a miller. a railroad man
ora mechanic or machinist, a weaver or
a tailor. a dock hand or sailor. HIS
labor comes in eontart-tiirectly or indi-
fectly with the cost of some article of con-
sumption. And It is an olh saying that
the hirefing must be payed before there is
anything for profit
So it amounts to something the same as
the colored woman told her boy when he
| wanted to ride on the merry -go-round.
(She very reluctantly gave him the price
Then after the ride she said: We'll.
where has youns all beenf Just round and
round and round and youns all Is just
WHARF yours all started from"
And such is the same with labor and
the cost of living, for the longer that he
demands more pay and produces less for
the time that he is employed, he is just
where he started from and things Will just