The sun., 1919-08-31
Expert, Analysing
Situation Then
andNow,P Presents
a Striking Parallel

giving even the wfsest food experts.
pause. Read then the record for 19193
January .230.14
FEBRUARY .................. .21O.Oy
| AprH ...s.-............ ..zlS.eT
| may .................... .<zz.lb
| June .............'... z%I'Bt
July ..-....s ........ ........... z83.50
august .'''..'.' 1919 ......... .<fi'on
The indications are that there viii
be still further rise indicated after
all the returns are considered.
The sharp repressive measures
which have been begun In many direc-
tions have caused a decline in some
commodities. When the Government
has run the last food hoarder to earth
and has started some kind of fair
price movement the drop in the living
cost is bound to be developed before
the end OF this year.
Although the reduction following the
civil war period was accompanied by
many other changes as well, there are
many lessons which may be drawn
from it, It was accompanied by Just
as many, IL not more, difficulties than
those which now beset the American
people. The shrinkage of the Ameri-
can dollar and the increase of the
cost of so many articles of food by
100 per cent. or more are serious
| factors.
Faced Many Strikes Then.
The restoration of peace and plenty
in the opinion of the optimists will
come in due time, and even the labor
| troubles which we are now having
are following along the same lines as
the industrial disturbances of the dec
ade which. followed the civil war.
There were constant strikes for short
er hours, and had the workmen been
anything like as well organized as
they are now the results would have
been even more serious, when coupled
with the many other symptoms of ma
tlonal unrest. There Is much food
for thought in the History of Labor in
the United States" by Commons and
associates, for the work represents
careful study of conditions of the
period following Appomattox.
Wholesale prices during 1863" to
quote from that work, Increased 90
per cent. above the level of 1860; 1875
per cent. in 1864, and on an average
of 1913 per cent. from 1860 to 1864,
/ Merchants who contracted in advance
for the output of manufacturers were
the largest beneficiaries of the rapidly
rising prices. The manufacturers BEN
Gifted more moderately.
The farmers were equally benefited
by the tide of prosperity, the prices
OF their products having risen 165 per
cent. during 1865. The only class
which suffered rather than bene-
fitted by the wave Of prosperity, was
the wage earning class. 1t is true that
the opportunity for employment in
creased and in that sense the laborer
was direct beneficiary Of the high
prices. But on the other hand, as
the cost of living was increasing,
wages were tagging approximately si1
mFnths behind"
The curve Of the wages was nestled
under that of the increased cost of
! living for months, but finally 1t did
! emerge and got its sharp upward
trend. The ship builder and caulkers,
of which there were many at work
even in the city of New York, kept in
| sisting on more money, and the brick
! layers, who were very busy, as the
building operations interrupted by the
war again got under way, were often
III MOOD 10 nurl bats.
The writer's of that day, as are those
of this epoch, were much disturbed
over the situation, and viewed the agt-
tation in the labor market with alarm.
! One student of the conditions OBJ
served that the bricklayers who had
been receiving IS day for ten hours
work, were asking for $3.50 for eight
! hours that is a reduction of the
working day by 20 per cent. and only
a reduction of 10 per cent In the
| amount Of wages required
1t will be seen, therefore, that tho
workingmen Of that period were crop.
ing for some way of coming down
| from the high rates Of wages Of the
war and to grapple also with the prob-
lens of living at lower rate. There
| were often epochs when prices for
| food which had begun to go down
| took flurries upward, and then as now
| the publicists were worried about the
! recurrence of high price levels and
wondered how it would be possible to
| bring wages lower If the cost of com.
! modities were not depressed.
However, adjustments to the satis-
| faction of all concerned did come. The
wages of the laborers went slowly but
! steadily upward ana the cost or living
! slowly and sometimes rather jerkily
! proceeded to accommodate itself to the
circumstances Of the American people.
At present, when the country 10
| more responsive to changing condi-
| tons than it was in the period after
the civil war, the earnings OF the la
! borer and the increase OF prices do
not vary nearly as much in proportion
as they did in the reconstruction
! years, when it was gathering its re-
sources for the dawn of the American
Renaissance which eliminated in the
| Centennial Exposition. BY the light
of other days we may be able to dis
/ Germ that the solution of our prob-
lens is close at hand.
Life Without Microbes