Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-07-30

Again will be noticed the decreased
per cent. of rise In March as compared
with last November. 1t is held to be
ttoo early yet to decide how far this
Shows a definite and permanent turn
In the tide of high prices.
There is an obvious and important
inference suggested by these tabula-
lions. The. biggest percentages of in
Icrease are In clothing and food. They
relatively far outrun the percentage of
increase in housing, coal, etc. Obvi-
ously they are more basic and i'm
portant. and every effort should ap-
parently be made to secure notable re-
auctions in these factors. If they are
reduced rents will cease to rise as
wages n cost of material In the
building trades subside. and the rise
IN coal prices will be stayed. IN fact,
reductions In both these factors will
take place with increased. outputs OF
product. 1t is the factors of food.
clothing and shoes that the miners
especially note as the causes requiring
increases in wages and rise in price OF
coal.
from another quarter we get cor
r~oporating testimony on this point. J.
ogden Armour of the meat packing
nrm declares that the high prices of
meat and livestock are largely due to
the high cost Of feed and that only a
Worldwide increase in food products
OF all kinds. especially in the wheat
crop, can change the situation. Wheat
Is the fundamental, its price governing
that of corn and affecting the general
food situation more than anything else.
he declares that the government guar
fantee OF S2.25 per bushel to be respon-
sible for the high cost of wheat.
Factors in Figures
Here we get back to food, especially
the cereal crops, and pre-eminently
wheat, as the basic factors. And OBJ
fviously this is so. Primitive man lived
unhoused Except for natural shelter)
and unclothed until he developed to a
stage when he devised clothing and be-
came a builder. But there never was
q time when he lived unfed. And today
We can make use of last years clothes
and live in houses built thirty OF forty
years ago. But we can not live on last
years meals. Food is a matter of from
hand to mouth, from day to day, and
Is thus precautionary basic and pre-
dominating. Next to 1t come those
other natural products, wool, cotton
and raw material for linen, together
with hides for shoe leather. And these
are. of course, either products of the
soil or derived from live stock. Coal
flor needed warmth and for manufac-
lures closes the basic natural products.
Can one look forward to any ade-
quate solution of this problem in the
near future? The solution depends
and must depend on a worldwide in
creased output per capita. A general.
increase in wages for the same output
simply jumps prices still higher and
will not solve this problem.
A community that owns a million
sheep that 1t can exchange for a mil
lion articles that 1t desires Is no richer
If they double n money value If the
million other articles similarly rise in
price. But two million sheep capable
of being exchanged for two million
other articles n with no increase in
population either within or without
the sheep raising community would
represent no only two-fold wealth but
an average of two-fold wealth per cap
ita- An average and general increase
In output per capita is the only way
out of our present economic dilemma
of alternating increases in wages and
prices.