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The Commoner.
10
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 14
TltjrSjj "J" KHf-wjitf. "-
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One Farmer's Experience
Tho Chattanooga, Term., Times
prints tho following intorcBting
lottor:
Dy far tho most interesting feat
ure of your valuable paper Is tho lo
cal discussion now in progress on tho
high cost of living. This subject
sooms to bo attracting tho attention
of moBt overy ono, from the United
States government down to "A La
boring Man," alias "Farmer," who,
by tho way, was amusing in his first
articlo in tho Times and his second
"takes tho calco." Just how ho can
wrlto such articles on a dollar and
a half a day is a profound mystery
to me. So, ho is going back to tho
country to ralso cabbage, potatoes,
corn, otc, and to my notion he will
raiso h 1 in goneral.
Now, ho has told us what ho is
going to do. Let mo tell you what I
havo done, because I am right fresh
from tho country, whore I spent two
years. I thought I would raiso cab
bago, tomatoes and beans and had
nico prospocts, but tho wholo blamed
thing was promaturely harvested by
old Chickamauga' crook tho first week
In Juno, 1909, when she Hooded tho
wholo country along her banks.
With full determination not to bo
outdono by a llttlo overflow, I plant
od corn and watcrmolons; nursed
thorn like a sick babo and had lino
prospocts, but tho August-September
drouth cooked them. I lacked fifty
conts of making enough off of two
acreB of melons to pay for the sood
and mado less corn than I ato whilo
making it. JL didn't raiso anv h 1
oither, for nftViredltors and my land
lord did plenty of that.
Yes, Mr. Farmer, thoro is a greater
opportunity on tho farm to livo
economically and independent of
trusts and trust products than in
tho city, and until such time as con
gress passes a law requiring hickory
bark to peel the wholo year, you
will find trouble in steering clear of
trust-made leather, nails, bolts, etc.,
and if you will train your dog to
catch rnts as woll as rabbits you
can save tho cost of keonine a t.
By climbing tho barn-lot fence you
will save much wear and tear of gate
hingoB. Notwithstanding my idea of
economy, I decided that rural life
was not what it was cracked up to
bo and wont back to tho city, where
tho femalo part of tho family could
make the living. "Let tho men do
tho voting and tho women do tho
work."
Our friend ventures to guess that
60 per cent of tho laborors of Chattanooga-
own their homes. If I were
guessing on that subject I would
guess that not 10 nor cent of ihn
laboring men of Chattanooga own a
froo homo, for I have been over,
through and around about thirteen
states and two territories and I can't
boo that tho laboring men of Chat
tanooga aro materially bettor fixed
than those of other localities or
rather, I don't seo that thov n
above tho average. See wliat tho
average is, according to ttio eigh
teenth annual report of tho United
States labor commissioner, issued in
190?, by Carroll D. Wright:
Homes United States census
1890: Rented, 62.2; free, 34.4;
mortgaged, 13.4 per cent. Commis
sioners' annual report, 1903: Rented
81.1; free, 10. G; mortgaged, 8.3 per
cent.
The abovo shows that the freo
, homo .of the laboring man is very
fast slipping from him and h'o la
gradually becoming a tenant. This
fa ono feature of the high cost M
living that Is generally being over
looked. I have no statistics but I
believo extortionate house rent In
Chattanooga is working a greater
hardship, for laboring people than
any other ono thing. I beliove a
rate of 15 per cent on purchase mon
ey is being collected in many in
stances. Mr. Wright, in the same report
quoted abovo, gives tho result of a
canvas of 28,000 working men's
homes in thirty-three different states,
and gets tho average incomo of each
family, the number of workers per
family being a portion over two to
each. He found the averago annual
Income per family $827.17, and the
averago cost of living $768.54. That
leaves us $58.65 to save up and get
rich and to put In the savings bank.
Me also gives us a table showing just
how this $768.54 is spent, and, by
the way, it shows rent to bo the
second highest articlo in tho list.
Lot our observing farmer friends
sit up and take . notice of the high
standard of living that our spell
binding, high-flying office seekers and
prosperity howlers make us believe
shall be kept up. This table is well
worth studying and comparing with
our individual experiences.
Hero Is tho list:
Fresh beef $ 50.05
Salt beef 5.26
Fresh hog products 14.02
Salt hog products 13.89
Othor meat 9.78
Poultry , 9.49
Fish 8.01
Eggs 16.79
Milk 21.32
Butter v; .... 28.76
Cheese 2.62
Lard : , 9.35
Tea' . . 5.30
Coffeo 10.74
Sugar 15.76
Molasses 1.69
Flour and meal 16.76
Bread , 12.44
Rico 2.05
Potatoes 12.93
Other vegetables 18.85
Fruit 16.52
Vinegar and pickles 4.12
Other food 20.40
Rent , 99.53
Principal and interest on
mortgage 12.15
Fuel 32.21
Lighting 8.15
Clothing 107.90
Taxes 5.76
Insurance 20.98
Organization fees , 8.99
Religious purposes 7.60
Charity 2.30
Furniture and utensils ...... 28.68
Amusements and vacations. . 12.30
Books and newspapers . . . .-.. 8.38
Intoxicating liquors 12.45
Tobacco 10.91
Sickness and death 20.52
Other purposes 45.14
in tho world wo need a good long
war to kill off about half of them.
Now, horo comes Mr. Sam Divine,
"the farmer," and others advising us
to discriminate against trust pro
ducts and high-priced grocerymen.
When I was in a railroad camp
when a dish of eatables would be
come exhausted wo would pass the
dish back to a' Mexican table boy to
bo refilled. Ho would say "Hain't
no mo'." So don't talk to us about
"free competitive articles and cheap
merchants for there 'hain't no mo'."
Then we find thousands conspiring
to leave off eating meat until the
price comes down. Hero is one old
work-ox that does not enter any such
a conspiracy for two reasons: First,
I will not punish my stomach for the
amusement of the beef trusts, for
amusement is what it would amount
to with them. Second, I do not want
to take chances on having an injunc
tion served on me, or going to jail
for contempt of court, or conspiracy
to injure some man's trade. I don't
Intend to die in debt to my stomach
and when I cut out my eating it will
be for tho want of the price.
If this world owes us a living, or
even, as I believe, owes us the op
portunity of making a living, this
world Is already in debt to me sev
eral .times the price of a beefsteak.
Live without patronizing the
trusts! Come across, "Mr. Farmer,"
"Mr. Observer," "Mr. Divine," tell
us how we can do anything except
breathe, or jump in the river with
out directly or indirectly patronizing
the trusts. I am from Missouri.
Gentlemen, the trusts and com
bines are not products of competi
tion, therefore competition can not
ever destroy them. They are crea
tures of the law and by the consent
of the law-making bodies and they
will never be destroyed by law. No
man can make goods half as cheap
as machines can; no small factory
can manufacture goods as cheaply
as can a large combine. Tho trusts
are here and th.ey are here to stay
and the sooner we all realize that
fact the better for us.
To do away with trusts and com
bines and return to the good old days
of the stage coach, hand-made goods,
toll gates, jean pants and cowhide
boots is as unreasonable and as im
possible as to arrest circulation and
turn the hands of progress backward
on tho dial of evolution. It would
be like turning the Tennessee river
flowing back toward its fountain head
in the mountains.
Tho only thing I can see to do is
to all get on the great trust band,
wagon and take a ride. If you were
on the trust band wagon now we
would get our coal oil for two cents
per gallon, for that is what Mr.
Wright said was the actual labor, cost
of producing and delivering to con
sumers. If we were all on. the trust
band wagon we would not be paying
three cents per mile to ride on a
railroad train, while the cost is less
than one cent per mile. If Uncle
Sam (not Sam Divine) was on the
trust band wagon instead of under
it, he would not have a deficit of
one and a half million dollars in
feeding the army and navy.
If he were on, instead of under
the trust band wagon, he would not
have an enormous deficit In the
postal service, for then he would not",
pay twice as much as express com
panies for car service and would not
be paying twice as much per year
P
The Sublime Oberammergau
assion
V"G
Play
Total for all purposes $768.54
Mr. Wright also tells us that tho
aggregate wealth of this nation in
1902 averaged $2,500 per worker
over ten years of ago, still in wages
it takes two workers to earn $827.19
per family.
Anybody with brains enough to
read writing and write reading
knows there is a screw loose some-
wuoro. ah admit this fact,1 but the
remedy is what we all differ on. A
man told me on the car last Sunday
that if we would leave off whisky and
tobacco wo would soon be a1 free peo
ple. Another told me once that the
thing to do was to stop raising chil
dren to work for tho rich neonlo
so tho rich would have to 11 to
work for themselves.
A good old rural democratic chair
man told mo last summer that the
trouble was there are so many people
In tho little village of Oberammergau in tho Bavarian Highlands the
fhiCaresuSmeT IT Pr,0n PIay f JCSUS th Saviour' wil1 03
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