The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-08-21
The HIGH Price Circle

The locomotive engineers demand
of the President either further
wage increase or a checking of the
depreciation of the dollar What
should be done the brotherhood does
not say, passing HE problem On. But
results are sternly commanded.
The facts that give birth to the
general dissatisfaction with ne pres
ent purchasing power of the dollar
are familiar to every one who strug.
giles to keep outgo within the limit of
income. Avoiding exaggeration and
getting at averages, the weight of au-
thority is that it now takes about
81 60 to buy what was buyable before
the war for4$1. Many commodities
have gone up 100 per cent or more
The greatest relative increase has
been in food, the next in clothing the
next in miscellaneous articles, and
the least in rent.
Now food production, as is welA
known is not monopolized. and food
distribution is little monopolized. The
farming industry is indiyidualistic and
so is The retailing OF food, although
now there is tendency toward com
bination
So this time blame for unsatisfac-
tory conditions can scarcely be laid
at the door of big business" Ii
prices are TO be brought down The ac-
ton must trike lower than the cor
porations. The producer now gets
more than $40 hundred for hogs ON
the hoof, 1921 bushel for wheat,
and 50 for corn. with butter and eggs,
cts, similarly high. Great is the pros.
perity Of the country's chief agricul-
tural areas-not, perhaps, in the
East, where farmers largely buy feed
but in the West. In one state land
values have gone up 500 an acre dur
ing the last twelvemonth The owner
OF good land has great benefit from
the deprecated dollar.
But it is not deemed politically eX-
pedient to cavil at the farmer gains.
For many years life was hari wi,h
him-that city lite paid better than
country life was attes.ed by the
steady movement of population TO ur-
ban centers. With sympathy is
mingled fear. The farmer is numer-
Gus, and his political power, when he
chooses to exercise it, is great. SO
even the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers is more inclined to attack
wicked "big business than to face
the situation as it is.
If prices to small producers are not
to come down and yet are to come
down to consumers, the two price lev
els must be brought nearer by, lessen
ing the distribution expenses and
profits. But can this be done if big
business is discouraged? A com.
plant against big business lis that
it makes money on margins that al
low the little fellow no chance.
How close big concerns bring the
two price levels is shown by figures
recently compiled by a Chicago pack
ing company. During 1918 the aver
age price paid by it for live cattle
was $92.75 head. The receipts for
meat were $S145 head, and for by
products $2206 head, a total of
S103.5l a head For manufacturing
costs and other expenses 1919 a head
was spent leaving for profit and in
terest $l02 a head. The elimination
of all profits would have lowered
prices to consumers only / per cent.
But other arrangements would prob
ably not do so We'll, with the result
that prices to consumers would still
go higher or be lowered to the pro-
ducors-New York Tribune.