Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1919-09-08
OLD III COST A TOUGH ONE.

OLD III COST A TOUGH ONE.
Nobody in Washington can see an
end to, the cost of living issue. 1t
has not been solved yet, and there
is no telling when it will be. All the
| indications are that it will be in evil
dcncc for many months to come, if
not years
Practically. it is obvious to every
body. little impression has been made
on high prices of necessarics as eN-
acted of the ultimate consumer. Neith-
er the activities of the department of
justice nor legislative action thus far
has served to cause dollar III the
hands of the housewife to go much
farther than it Washington Dis
patch.
During the war nobody expected
anything but higher prices. but the war
closed nearly ten months ago and
prices have steadily climbed since.
From the tlippant manner i'll which the
democratic national. convention of 1912
dealt with this problem there were
some people foolish enough to believe
that possibly the policies promised by
that party "to reduce the high cost of
living" would have some results: but
alas, those promises were only the idle
tvaporings of excited politicians and
dreaming idealiSts. Here is the way
the democratic national platform pro-
posed to deal with Old Hi Cost and
bring him in defeat to the mat:
1.-THE high cost of living is serious
problem in every American home. The
republican party in its platform at
tempts to escape from responsibility for
present conditions by denying that
they are due to protective tariff. We
take issue with them on this subject
and charge that excessive prices result
in a large measure from the high tariff
laws enacted and maintained by the
republican party and from trusts and
commercial conspiracies fostered and
encouraged by such laws, and we as
sert that no substantial relief can he
secured for the people until import
duties on nccessaries of life are ma
terially reduced and these criminal
conspiracies broken, up"
Well, the democratic party reduced
the tariff all right. but what did it
accomplish? Trusts. combinations and
ccnspirates never fourishcd as at
present. Continuing i'll its hot air cx
lii9itions and inca ming less explosions
the democratic platform joker de-
clafes-- t 81
a private monopoly is indcfcnsible
and intolerable We therefore favor
the vigorous enforcement mote that
word vigOrOuS) of the criminal as well
as the civil law against trusts and
trust officials. and demand the enact
mcnt of such additional legislation as
may be necessary to make ii impossible
for private monopoly to exist in the
United States
What has President Wilson and IA
congress accomplished to
make good this pledge? Even now the
president and his plant political tools
are trying to saddle responsibility for
strikes and lOckOuts and high prices
upon republican congress that has
beer in session only "A few months,
white they themselves did nothing dur
ing the previous six years to corrct
conditions of which they complain
They are asking the republican party
TO enact legislation in Il few months
which they were unable to enact in six
years of rmbroken power in the lcgis-
government.
Here is another joke that the same
platform builders imposed upon the
people:
I'VE believe in the preservation and
in their full strength and
of the three coordinate
branches of the federal government
the executive. the legislative and the
judicial-each keeping within its own
bounds and not encroaching upon the
just powers of either of the Others.
4 Il