Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-03-13
Ham Is Now Selling in Rome
at So a Pound and House
Rents for Workmen Are at.
Prohibitive Prices.
GOVERNMENT BLAMED
FOR WINKlNG AT GREED
Wealthy Classes Are Angry.
Because They Realize Ruin.
Is Likely to Come in Wake
of Labor Unrest.
BY Beatrice Baskerville.
(Staff Correspondent of the Aibuquer-
que Journal and New York World
Copyright, 1919, by the Press Pub
fishing Co.
tThe New Y 0fk world,
Especial Gable Dispatch.)

especial Cable DlSpatcn.)
Rome. March 12.-"We Italians dol
not want Bolshevism. We are fight
ing against Bolshevism. Yet the gov
ernment is doing It's best by mud
ding and representation, to force
Bolshevism upon us"
This is the opinion of an Italian
employer of labor shared by many
men of all classes here. 1t is useless
to deny the fact that discomfort in
Italy is greater than for many years
for Italy, from being one of the
cheapest countries in Europe, is now
the dearest. Prices in New York are
low compared with those in Rome,
Milan, Turin and Florence, while
even those who Rave come from EEK
pensive Paris" have held UP their
hands in horror at the high cost of
living in Italy
Food bills and house rents are rap
idlv soaring to those dizzy heights
which drove Vienna into revolt and
helped the allies beat Germany
Wages have dropped since the ar
mistice, many war factories have
closed down and never was the strug-
gle for life so severe among all classes
in this country Distress has invaded
the ranks Of doctors lawyers, state
employees and journalists. Every day
those who must struggle heroically to
make both ends meet are faced with
higher prices.
Meat Sells ut $1.40 a Pound.
The other day the price of meat
went up, then followed sugar, now it
is the turn for fats and milk to rise.
The latest invention of the greedy
food profiteer is to sell oranges, lem
ons, salads and vegetables by the
ounce, and this when the expectation
of fruit and vegetables is forbidden
Butchers, bakers, grocers and frui
venders have bought jewels for their
wives and rea lestate for themselve
and yet are not satisfied The gov
ernments decree stands that butchers
may sell meat with rs per cent bone,
but the government winks at the
price, which is nothing less than $1.40
per pound.
Ham costs 81 a pound; mutton,
which used to be the great standby
of the Roman poor at 80 cents
pound, has gone up to 80 cents, but
it is rarely seen, because the butchers
think the price is too low and will
not sell it, Bacon Is now So a pound,
American caned beef $2.10 pound.
So great luxury has pork become
that butchers will condescend to sell
thin pork chop, about three mouth
fuls, for 35 cents.
Before the armistice it was still
possible to get a meal of soup, meat
and fruit for ST.. The lowest price
now is SO. Tea costs S. a pound;
sugar, not to be compared in quality
to that sold in America, is 70 cents.
Even inland mail rates have been in
cleased, thus adding one more burden
to the many restrictions on business.
A CITY letter costs cents postage,
an interurban one s cents, postal
cards are cents.
Cold Adds to Discomfort.
This has been the coolest winter
Italy has had for thirty years, and
wood, the only available form of fuel,
cost 81 a hundredweight The con
sequence has been. that thousands
nave had to go without any fires ex-
cept for cooking, although Rome's
fountains were frozen and peoples
hands were swollen and sore with chill
blains
All these things are making the
Italians very dscontented, for peo-
ple who were comfortably off in 1916
and got along fairly we'll even during
the last months of the war are poor
today. They are selling their pianos
and lesser luxuries and cutting off
their children's extra studies because
all their money goes for food and rent
For some weeks after the armistice
the orgy of profiteers was stopped by
the appearance of American food
which had been collected here in ex-
pectation of the arrival of American
troops in May, 1920, otherwise there
would have been a revolution. This
American food acted like magic. 1t
caused the profiteers to place their
own fairly reasonable prices and per-
mitted everybody to feed well at less
than famine prices. But the Ameri-
can stocks of food have either been
sold or found their way into the
hands of the profiteers. who are now
taking revenge by charging more than
ever for the necessaries of life.
Landlords Are Raising Rents.
Another cause of grave disconten
| is the "house famine before which
even the famous house famine in
Scontinued on Pass Two.l