Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-03-02
ANE R|CAN BOOBs
KEEP PRICES UP
Secretary Meredith Says People
Must Learn Horse Sense.
NATION OF GULLIBLE SUCKERS
Head of Agriculture Department Tells
Chicago Association of Commerce
Things About This Nation Of
"SiIly spendthrifts."

Chicago, Feb. 25.-The rube who
bought the gold brick used to be q
whimsical novelty in the life of the
nation. The yokel who paid SAT spot
cash for the Masonic Temple used to
be stray bit of color in the news of
the day. Today-take it from the Uni
ter States department of agriculture
and its secretary, Edwin T. Meredith
the nation is a collection of gullible
suckers walking around with exposed
bank rolls.
The famous American public, than
which there never used to be no
''famouser," has become in the last
five years as naive as girl with her
first hair net. 1t has, by its semi-in-
difference, brought upon itself high
cost of living and q dollar worth 80
cents.
FOOD today" said Mr.. Meredith,
who came to Chicago to speak before
the Association of Commerce, should
be as cheap if not cheaper than 1t was
six years ago. There is more food per
capita being produced in the country.
Great Gain In Grain Output.
Mr.. Meredith produced figures. The
figures showed than in the last thirty
years the production of grain on the
farms has increased from 266 bushels
per capita to 400 bushels per capita,
that since 1880 production has in
creased % per cent per acre; that cot
ton has increased from thirty-six and
one-half pound per capita to sixty
pounds per capita; that milk has in
creased from eighty gallons per
capita to ninety-six gallons; wheat
from six bushels to eight bushels; the
six leading cereals from thirty-eight
bushels in 1874 to f1fty-two bushels in
1919.
These and succession of similar
figures marshaled by the secretary of
agriculture point plainly, in his opin-
ion, to the fact that production on the
farms has not fallen off, but increased
that following the natural laws of
supply and demand the cost of food
should not have increased.
Enter, however, the great, wise
American with the nervous bank roll
Ten years ago a man going in to buy
a pair of shoes for So would no more
have thought of buying a pair for $40
than he would of eating them. To-
day the citizen entering shoe store
or any other kind of a store will
come through with any price asked
and no questions asked by him. 1t is
the same in the groceries, in the res
taurants, theaters and all other places
where the great American rube is
shedding his bank roll
"Nation of Silly Spendthrifts."
"We've become nation of silly
spendthrifts," said Mr.. Meredith, land
the result is, we are being trimmed
body. The newspapers prepare the
American for his trimming. They
keep writing about the high cost and
higher cost of living. The result is
that an American, when asked some
preposterous sum for an article, signs
and says: Prices have gone up
prices are hundreds per cent high
er in some places than they should
be. But that isn't my field. That's
up to the department of justice"
Next to the spectacle offered by the
everyday metropolitan rube stagger-
ing from counter to counter and she'll
ing out his dough in the foregoing
yOkel manner, the most ironic situa-
ton on view is that of this same hick
gathered in solemn conference adopt
ing solemn resolutions that the price
of eggs should come down and the
cost of derby hats be investigated.
There is only one way and that Is
individual education" said Mr.. Mere
dith. 1.-The people as a whole must
act and each must act for himself. If
we Americans could, by some miracle,
recover the ordinary everyday horse
sense that distinguished our individual
lives ten years ago prices would col
lapse"
Mr.. Meredith spoke before the Chi |
cago Association of Commerce on the |
activities of the department of agri- |
culture. He outlined the manner in |
which the department was in contin- |
ual contact with the lives of every |
citizen in the nation, inspecting his |
meats, cigars, clothes, building his |
roads, keeping him clear of adulter-
ators, providing him with new fiavors |
and similar countless activities.