Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-08

ti0ll VI I1dIu lIIilCS All SdAAo0d aAAl
all the world. The fact is that til,
world having INDUCED for foul
years in the dance Of death callee
war, has now to pay the fiddler
And it has been paying with heavy
taxes, falling prices, ruined Fl,
nances and depressed industries. L
will have to continue to pay fol-
many years to come.
The chairman of the Harvard
committee on economic research
| says we will have an era of high
costs of living for ten years yet
and that then we will have anoth-
er crash in prices and wages which
will ruin many business men. Not
a very pleasant prediction that. But
the Harvard economic researchers
are not infallible in their prognos-
tications as we know by exper-
fence. IF they were we would have
had good times more than a year
ago, and Judge Gary of the steel
trust told US the truth the other
day when he said that while bust
Tess was better than it was a year
ago, and on the up grade, it had
not reached normally yet. His
opinion is that good times such as
we had before the war are on the
road, but are still some distance
away. The strikes delayed their
arrival in the opinion of this in
dustrial magnate.
Most business men have now
reached the conclusion that prices
will not again reach the pre-war
level Of 1914 during the life of this
generation. The increased tax bur
dens which they must carry alone
would prevent that. This conclu-
sion is backed. UP by most econ
onic experts.
"The latest report of the nation
al industrial conference board
marks food in average communi-
ties at SO per cent higher than in
July, 1914, just before the war;
shelter. IS per cent higher; cloth
ing, So per cent higher: fuel and
light, 81 per cent higher; and SUM-
dries, IL per cent higher. The
whole family budget, with all items
figured in the proportion generally
used, is placed at $50 per cent
higher than in the month before the
war began. This means that in the
average American community out
side of New York in September of
this year it took S1.55 IL to do
the work of $500 did in July, 1914,
"As against these costs for av-
erage communities the department
of labor rates New York city in the
cost of living scale at: Food, 1873
per cent higher than in 1914; cloth
ing, e8.1 per cent higher; rent, 56.2
per cent higher; fuel mad light,
e7.7 per cent higher: furniture,
117.e per cent higher, and miscel-
laneous, 1924 per cent higher. The
consolidated family budget for all
items taken together is 69.7 per cent
higher than in the year before the
war. A fair average for the whole
country or for the active industrial
of the country may be taken
at somewhere between so and IS
per cent higher now than the year
before the war.
But if American prices, as re-
Elected by American living costs,
are to continue for 10 years at
about IS per cent above what was
normal eight years ago. or even
above normal, for prices were not
low in 1914-if we r going to
stay lacked up in our costs while
Europe gradually RECEIVERS its
economic powers and resumes its
industrial and commercial func-
tions, nationally and International
Iy, then two things are bound to
to this country.
THE first is that while our costs
stay up in the air we can not hope
sell exports abroad in the meas
ure to which our production ma
chinery is now geared for foreign
as well as domestic trade.
THE second is that if our costs
stay up in the air while foreign
costs readjust themselves down
ward as compared with ours, not
even a tariff that is grotesquely
high can keep out the low-cost for
eign products that will press upon
our market Of excessively high
prices. z
"And if American producers be-
cause of their high costs can not
sell abroad what they need 10 sell