Judge — September 28, 1912 — page 2: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Plain Truth About the High Cost of Living! the face. . Let us find out—if we can—WHY prices are high; WHO is getting the high prices; whether or not a retum of low prices might upset our present prosperity. ['* US look this question of the “high cost of living” fairly in eee YOU—Mr. American Citizen—are facing a grave danger. You are being told, in effect, by self-seeking politicians, that the present administration at Washington and the present tariff are more Of lese directly responsible for the “high cost of living.” Your ears are filled with plausible promises of marvelous benefits that will come to YOU if you elect to office these men who seek to upset and tear to pieces existing conditions. You—an intelligent, common-sense thinker—are asked to believe that one man, or a group of men, can readily change conditions that affect the whole civilized world! Can pass laws that will neutralize natural forces, turn black into white, and make water run up hill! Are you unwise enough to believe it ? Having only recently been saved from the deep waters of panic and poverty, are you foolish enough to jump out of the life-boat and dare the danger again ? Are you anxious to exchange the certainty of present prosperity for the risky experiments of those who must adopt radical measures in order to appear to make good their wonderful promises? We think NOT! We believe the good, sound common-sense of the American people will cause them to go slowly when danger threatens. To “look before they leap.” WHY-—then—are prices high ? Instead of filling a page with bewildering figures and statistics let ut this thing in plain, simple words, that ALL may easily understand and remeniber The price of everything in the world is measured in gold. The influence of a scarcity or abundance of gold on the price of food and clothing is difficult for many people to understand. Yet it is none the less a very REAL THING. Voting against Mr. Taft and putting someone else into the White House will not change in the slightest degree the production of gold. The population of the whole world is rapidly increasing. And this increase is much greater in the cities and towns than in the country. There are fewer people producing food, clothing and other ne- cessities of life. And more and more people who are consuming them. There is no more free, rich land to be given away to new farmers and settlers. The great cattle the policies of adminis:rations BEFORE Mr. Taft entered the White House. And millions of acres of grazing land are lying idle; the cattle are gone! In short —population is increasing faster than production. Fewer peple are growing wheat, raising cattle, and supplying wool. There are more eaters and wearers than there are growers and pr . And this is so ALL OVER THE WORLD. Here are examples. In England the price of meat of all kinds, butter, eggs, fuel, clothing and furniture has advanced one-fifth during the past five years. And note that ALL THESE ARTICLES are duty free. In Germany almost every article of food, clothing and shelter is very much higher in price than it was five years ago. In many cases the advance is over fifty per cent. Many workmen eat no meat, but live on black bread, soups and potatoes. ges of the West were practically abolished by In France beef is twenty-two per cent higher, fish fifty per cent, dry vegetables thirty per cent, coal thirty. four per cent, milk almost fifty per cent. In Italy, generally believed to be the home of cheap living, eggs cost double what they did five years ago, beef is twenty-five per cent higher, milk one-third higher. A few years ago Italy was an exporter of beef-cattle, now it is an importer. Other countries show similar conditions of high prices. Mr. Taft and the Tariff are not to blame for conditions that exist in all the countries of the world as well as in the United States. eee WHO are getting the benefit of the high prices? Primarily the producers. The wheat-growers, the men who raise cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry, eggs, wool and cotton. Also the manu- facturers and their employees, who make clothing, shoes, furniture, machinery, and other things we all need and use. Wages depend on the high or low prices of manufactured pro- ducts and these wages in all lines are steadily increasing. There may be some middlemen who are still benefiting more than they should, but the relatively small amount of their profits is infinitesimal compared with the Blood of money that is reaching the men who produce the goods. Only that nation can be happy and Prospero erous where the tiller | the soil is liberally rewarded for his labor! Because on the land and on the crops depends the entire fabric of all prosperity. The farmer buys from the retailer; the retail dealer from the jobber or manufacturer; the factory gives employment to millions of men in shops and mines and forests; the railroad fills its cars with freight, and pays wages to hundreds of thousands of famil railroad and factory earnings return dividends to vast numbers o! I capi- talists; who in turn buy more goods and create more need for the fruits of the farm and the field. Thus, when prices are good, prosperity rules. All benefit. All have work. Of course living is higher than in times of panic and of stress. Abundance of work brings abundance of employment; no man who wants work lacks a job; he earns more and lives better than when prices are low, work is scarce and pacertaiaty and anxiety prevail. And remember that prices are never so low as when panic rules in the land. eee Now—can we gain anything by experimenting with our present prosperity? Feit wise to “ play with fire? We can easily create another panic such as devastated the coun- try the year before Mr. Taft was elected. ‘We can easily disturb the present healthful activity of farm and factory. We might—by adverse and drastic legi: prices of food and clothing— BUT— in so doing we put agriculture back in its old impoverished condition; contract the trade of the rural districts; reduce the output of field and factory; turn millions of men out of their jobs; bring want and poverty in place of abundance and prosperity. [s it wise to experiment ? eee Voting st President Taft and the present administration ex- poses us to a return of the days of frightened capital, restricted pro- duction, fewer jobs for the workingman, lower prices for the pro- ducer—to all the doubts and sufferings from which we are now so happily free. Things may not be perfect—but they are good and getting The wise man—with McKinley—“ holds fast to that which ion—cut down the high “Better to bear the (lessening) ills we have than fly to others that we know not Republican National Committee CHARLES D. HILLES, Chairman JAMES B. REYNOLDS, Secretary In answering advertisements please mention JUDGE. It will be appreciated. comicbooks.com