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Show WE NEED THE MONEY. A do.ren years ago the United Stales was just emerging from an era of hard times which had brought prices of everything down to a very low-level, low-level, with wages cut down to a minimum, so that people were very cautious in their expenditures, and reluctant to break a dollar lest the change bo fritted away. As a consequence, the business men were very keen to secure the trade of the people w-ith money lo spend, and manufacturers exerted every effort lo place their wares on the market and were content to receive a very small margin of profit pro-fit on their good.-. Competition wits very strong, for the demand was limited, and money was not plentiful plen-tiful among the consumers. With the passing of the panic, ihe production increased, and it seemed the people were about to enter upon an era of prosperity, pros-perity, with plenty of work at fair wages and everything every-thing cheap to consumers. But some bright men in business conceived the idea that the merciless competition was unnecessary, so they combined and eliminated a great portion of it. Then (he manufacturers manu-facturers boosted prices to the wholesalers, and wholesalers to the retailers, and the retailers to the consumers, with the result that the consumer found his money losing purchasing power. The man on salary or wages put the proposition up to his employer; em-ployer; he must have more money to meet the increased in-creased expense of living. The employe's wages being be-ing increased, the employer naturally passed his increased expense to the consumer. Tt is like the old proposition of lifting one's self over a fenciby a hard pull on the boot straps. If each increase. in wages is accompanied by an increase in the cc'-Af living, it is evident that the salaried emplo.L'a wrage-earner winds up in just about the same whence he started. The transition to higher : Oil seems but to have started. Trust-controlled ? ijjjj go up almost daily. Where it will end no o foretell. t ' While we all try to -meet the requirements iln ff new order of things, it is pertinent to ask wha'.' individuals in-dividuals and corporations whose incomes are limited lim-ited by law are going to do about hi Congress votes to increase the salary of its members, and to cut down the income of the railroads. Street car companies may charge only 5 cents for a passenger. The 2-cent-a-mile laws in some states hit the railroads rail-roads hard. The limitations placed upon the public service corporations may be just, but will they be if the present tendency to higher prices continues? And the man who took out life insurance fifteen years ago and paid his premiums during the years of stringency when a dollar went as far as two or three do now, in the hope of receiving a competence in his declining years, what will his $1,000 policy be worth in purchasing power when it is finally paid up and he receives his draw-down? In the readjustment to a higher level of prices there are going to be enacted some cruel tragedies to those who believed in the stability of the pur-j pur-j chasing power of the dollar unless a crash come and with it a revision to the "good old days" when ten houra' labor brought the worker from 90 cents to $1.25. |