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Show PRICES OF NECESSITIES MAY ADVANCE. That the cost of living is to advance is the opinion of Gorge E. Roberts, 'director of the mint, who has recently completed a tour, of the west. He says that while agricultural development will be noted, he does not expect it to keep pat:e .with Uic increase in population. pop-ulation. Farm rentals are advancing, he finds, because many farmers farm-ers are being forced back to tilling of the soil. The consumers must realize, he says, that the day of cheap free lands has passed, and with an advance in the cost of everything entoriug the production of' food stuffs there must be an increase in prices to tho consumers. Roberts p'oints.to the fact that the census shows the population of the country increased 21 per cent. between 1900 and 1910, while tho farm land area increased only 4.2 per cent, and says it means higher livingcost.- Said Roberts: "The principal faotor in this is the -complete occupation of tho country. There is actually less to divide than there used to be. There is relative scarcity, and we have been so important a factor in world production that all the world is affected." af-fected." ; ' The problem raised by this situation, Roberts says, are much largor than Canadiaureciprocity. He does not think it can reduce price levels, but it may tend to keep them from becoming abnormally abnormal-ly and oppressively high. " . ' ; Roberts. says there are symptoms of a struggle for land, which means higl'nJF values. |