Norwich bulletin., 1921-05-27

the high wages. sovernmentaily assess. ed on the railroads in wartime stress are the chief compelling cause fer high freight tariffs They know that high height tariffs are choking the life ont of producers and gtarving it out of cunsun- ers- And yet. when those on any one railroad intelligently measure the sffua- ton and manfuily accept their share of the cut. the exception is % unusuai that It becomes matter of news. 10 be head lined on the front page of the morning paper. In nine eases out of ten, perhaps. in nirety-nfne out of a hundred, all taIk of reduction is opposed
 EAta doe1 net peem rieht to the aver. age farmer. He fails to see why he
 should be deprived not only of a fair wage but even of . living wage by sud- den cuts of from fifty ts sixty per cent. while the employees of the raKlroada
 should have their higher wages left un- reduced. There's too much Heads [
 win, tails yca loses" about f.
 Aeegrdinr ts statistics of the depart-
 ment of labor, based on reports frorn all parts of the country on all clRSsz of
 goods, the consumers dollar Is worth
 about twenty-five cents more 10 him.
 now, than 1t was a year ago at this
 time. In May 1920. when prices were at
 their peak, dollar would buy only about
 as much as thirty-seFen cents would
 have bought before the war. Now, that same dollar will buy as much as sixty
 five cents before the war.
 The average wSEe of the 1. ,ese, zee Iemployes in various industries of the
 nation is now reported to be s2s.os a week, against 33e.1o a week in May 1920. That makes the average reduc- ton in wages s2.e2 a week in the year.
 or less than eight per cent. while de- crease in prices has made every dollar earned worth twenty-five cents more in lpurchas3ng power. That is. if you care to figure it out the smaller wages Of 1921 will. nevertheless. buy about s1eo,- 0o0, 900 more goods than the larger wages of 1920 would have bought for
 the 12.0oo,oee wage ezrners of the in- dustriee.
 The farmers of the nation, taken as a whole. are the biggest shippers of the nation. Their products outbulk and out value the products of all the shops and factories of the country. The present : eKorbitant and intolerahle freight rates . bear hardest on them Moreover. farm products consist largely of absolute ne cessIties, while manufactured prodncts are not always in that clasA
 de not knew much sbSut the char. , acter of the horns" which The Coun. lTg OcQIeuldn 0eCldTcb the ldEIn Bu1L has recently develope1. Nor do I know much about the putting abEty of thu
 Aforesaid goat" But I sincerely trus ' that the blunt warning about them | t warranted by facts. In the old speI1ini n book of our younger days, we read wftl s keen interest the famous tale of the far D mer and the boys who had climbed Inf h tree and were stealing his applea- n, t tried them first with fair words, thel n with small sticks and bits of turf. Whel y they sniggered at these, finding in then [, Inc effective arguments for descent. tn e old farmer finally resorted to Stenes l. Then the boys came down. People wh l. can't appreciate an appeal to reason, ar ,- sometimes amenabie to club.
 r n h usaany pIeasanter to try the ap If peal as a starter. But, If 1t fails, the
 a club or a heap of cobble-stones Is . handy reserve. President Roosevelt . advice we all remember. which was ( Q Walk softly-but carry big stick" n If our frie1da sf the raTlrsad ssrVie h persistently. and permanently refuse | f listen to reason ana take their faI !. share ef the cut which Is affecting a m other classes of industry in the lant
 they put themselves into quite as inds
 Ifensiple a position as that occupied D - lthe treed boys in the spelhng-book stor.
 And the farmers who are the chief sui .. Iferers from their unfairness are not | '. be blamed too harshiy if they begin { s lose faith in fair words and soft turf = and look for harder missiles.
 os THE FARMER