The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-12-12

as the public service corporations are permitted
to add to the charges rendered the public for
services, just that long will the retailer be
powerless to bring his prices down to level
commensurate with the purchasing power Of
those whose earning capacity has been short
ened.
Every time the retailer buys a shipment
of goods, today, he is called upon to pay the
added expense cost to the travelling man who
calls upon him as the wholesalers representa-
tive-the man who now pays approximately
four cents for every mile of railway over
which he rides. In addition to this he pays
an added freight rate and reclassification
rate, i'll many instances, which doubles the
transportation charges upon his goods. He
heats his place of business with fuel the
price of which has been raised. He wires
for rush ORDERS using the lines of telegraph
companies which have been permitted to boost
the prices for sending messages, or calls up
a customer over phone line which, in addi-
tion to the increased rate allowed less than
two years ago, is now seeking another increase
for service, an increase sought, and based, as
was the last, upon promise of good and eff
cient service to be rendered.
Undoubtedly prices asked for both the
necessities and luXuries of life have been too
high.
Undoubtedly the consuming public has been
charged, in some instances, eXtortionate prices.
Undoubtedly the cost of living must be
reduced, must be cut down.
Undoubtedly, unless we would see panic,
this general decline of charges must be brought
about in just and a systematic manner.
And this is exactly what is not being done.
We are to use homely but trite expression,
putting the cart before the horse, seeking
to make the child carry the perambulator,
knocking the props out from under the con-
sumer and causing him to carry with him, in
his downfall, the retailer, even as Sampson
carried the assembage with him. as he went
to his death when he pulled the pillars from
beneath the cap-stones of the temple.
Politicians tell us that we are approaching
period of reconstruction, that we are getting
away from the season of initiation, that we
must sit steady in the boat and wait for the
pillows of unrest to subside
Writer'S tell us that we are passing through
a season of stressing conditions yet none seem
able to offer solution, to unhitch the cart
from the horse and to put the equine between
the shafts.
We are told that we must keep the wheels
of commercalism oiled and revolving, and are
asked to deflate prices with deflated cur
rency.
We are told that we must practice econ
omy and thrift, yet are asked to pay advanced
scales to public service corporations with money
drawn from bank account which has been
washed in alum water.
We are told that retrenchment must be
enforced by every industry, yet are asked to
pay fancy prices for inadequate service from
the public service institutions.
We are told that the supply must be made
adequate to meet the demand, yet are asked
to make this possible through cutting the
prices offered the producer Of the raw ma
terial to point below the cost of production.
Is it not, we ask you, time that something
sensible, something real something calculated
to solve the problem, be done?
1t is not time that the quantity OF circu-
lating medium, the lubricant which reduces
the friction upon the axle, be increased, in
place of lessened?
1t is not time that we have less talk OF
deflation of currency and prices, and be given
less initiation of charges by common carriers
and public service corporations?
Is it not time, in other words, that the
horse be htched to the load, in place of the
load to the horse, while the railways, the tele-
graph, the telephone companies be called upon
to get down to earth in place of asking the
producer of the raw material to bear the
burden and pay the freight from depleted
purse?
"DO CALL AGAIN, SOON. DEARIE"