The Dominion. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1910. THE COST OF LIVING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 732, 3 February 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1910. THE COST OF LIVING.

The very singular meat boycott in the United States has had a result which should be hailed ; with pleasure by all those people who are seriously interested in economic problems. The Congressional, Con-' mittee of ; Ways and Means, it was reported.by cable yesterday, has authorised the preparation of; a resolution providing for a Congressional investigation of the causes of the high cost of living in. the United States. Whether the Legislature that recently showed its entire want of sympathy for the .consumer : by. hardening' up the oppressive tariff will agree to an honest investigation remains to be seen, but through: out America there is .a, vory strong and a rapidly-growing hostility to the tariff and its children the trusts, "and Congress may therefore be disinclined to refuse an investigation, 'that', is as ' urgently needed as it must be keenly desired. In his message to Congress on December 8, the President's - reference to the increased cost of living, was framed in the terms best calculated to absolve the' tariff from, responsibility for a hardship which nearly any American newspaper that one may pick up nowadays shows to bo pressing very severely upon the people. :He . admitted that the high prices of products meant "a very considerably- increased burden upon thoseclasses , in . the -;; community whose yearly compensation. does .not ospand with the improvement in business; and the general'; prosperity," but lie assigned the trouble ,to other causes than the tariff:

The proportionate increase in. the output of gold,': which , to-day ,is .the, chief mediumi-of exchange and is in some reBpectsi a; measure -of value, furnishes a substantial explanation of at least part of the increase in prices. • The increase in ; population and tho more, expensive modi of living of tho people, which have not-been accompanied, by a ate increaso in acreage production, may furnish a furtherVreason. • It is well to note that;tho:increase in the cost of living is not confined to this, country, but prevails the world over, : and that those who would charge increases in prices to. the existing protective tariff must meet the fact that tho rise in prices has taken placo almost;'wKßlly in : those. products of tile factory'and. farm in respect to which there has .been either- no increase in the : tariff or in' many instances a very considerable reduction.: ' .

A cable message published on January 22 last credited' American economists with having added-to "the President's list of contributory causes of the advance in the cost of living "the exactions;'of trusts,! protection, and.the demands of labour." The' trusts, are of course; the children of the tariffsuch trusts as those which have lately taken excessive ■ toll of the! workers' -meat, bread and milk cannot exist ■ in a Free-trade country; '..'Excessive demands' by labour are .. also a naturar corollary of a protective tariff, for the tradesunions contend—they have made this contention , in, 'New: Zealand— that they should share in. the profits: secured to ■ the ■ protected ! mariufac-: turer. ' For the present public opinion in America is expressing itself through, a boycott of meat: millions of people - have pledged themselves to a vegetarian, diet as the strongest available weapon with which to fight the Meat Trust. The progress' of this revolt against, a condition of things resulting, partly directly and partly indirectly, from the high Protectionist" tariff will be watched with interest. ' Already, so it ..was reported a fow daya ago, there has been a decline in' the prices of food. Belief cannot" come, however, until the tariff is lowered, and a-lowering, of the tariff 'is the most difficult thing conceivable. The ■success of Mr. Tait was largely due to the popular belief that ' there : really would be a "revision downwards." Instead, Congress, actually j raised the: tariff so. far as it directly affects tho necessaries of life. As a result, as thc Economist of DecemI ber 18 : points'-out, ."the working I classes have no alternative but to struggle for higher wages in order to maintain their standard ■ of living." We learned by cable yesterday, for example, that the United Mine-workers' Wage Scale Commit- - tee; has recommended a suspension of bituminous coal-mining on April 1 unless a ten per cent, advance in' wages is granted. The situation is just such an one as has been described by Free-trade writers, arguing long ago from first principles. America, indeed—and Germany also, for' that matter—is at present illustrating very well; the soundness of the theory that trouble -and distress are 'the inevitable results of defying the natural laws of commerce and . industry. /That Nature revenges herself for every infraction of her fundamental laws is generally admitted: what is riot so . generally realised , iB that' it is an axiom as true in economics as in physiology, There is a • wido field for fruitful inquiry open to the Congressional Committee, if it is appointed, and if it applies itself honostly to its duties. Its report should bo of the highest importance, not only to America, but to every country in the world. We cannot forbear calling attention, in conclusion, to a side-issue of the meat boycott, which is simply a "consumers' strike." If our legislators were consistent, and wore to bet is nflcord-

anoo with the principle of the Arbitration Act, they would meet such a strike in thia country by enacting a. law providing penalties lor those who refused to buy meat. , If it is in essence a criminal thing to withhold one's services from the supplying of meat it is a criminal thing in essence to operate against the demand for meat. The meat boycott' supplies a useful reductio ad absurdurn of economic coercion.