The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1910. THE COST OF LIVING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 885, 3 August 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1910. THE COST OF LIVING.

There was little comfort for the American public in the report of the special Senate Committee appointed to ascertain the causes of the. high cost of living in the States. The majority report, which was brought down on June 23 last, is a very voluminous document, and would have been larger and more exhaustive if the Committee had had the means of employing agents to assist in the investigation. The following are given as the most marked of the many causes contributing to the advance in prices:

Increased cost of production of farm products, by reason of higher land values nnd higher wages. Increased demand for farm products and food. Shifting of population from- food-produc-ing to iood-consuming • occupations and localities. Immigration to food-consuming localities.. Keduced fertility of land, resulting in lower average production or in increased expenditures for fertilisation. Increased banking facilities in agricultural localities, which enabled farmers to hold their crops and market them to tho best advantage. It was found that this not only steadied prices, but had a tendency to raise them. Reduced supply convenient to transportation facilities of such commodities as timber. . Cold-storage plants, which result in preventing extreme fluctuations of prices of certain commodities with the seasons, but by enabling the wholesalers to buy and soil at the best possible advantage, tend to advance prices. Increased cost of distribution. Industrial combination. Organisations of producers or of dealers. Advertising. < Increased money supply. Oyer-eapitalisation. Higher standard of living.

The tariff, it will bo seen, is • not saddled by the Committee with any responsibility for the consumer's (roubles, but a little reflection will' show that several, of the conditions referred to by the Committee have either been created or intensified by tho tar.ifi'wall. Nobody is likely to accent the report as conclusive; but it will undoubtedly convince everybody that the increased cost of living is not a simple thing to deal with. In New Zealand, of course, it is the firm belief of every true Radical that air that is necessary to remove any difficulty whatever is an Act of Parliament. America fortunately possesses enough men of intelligence to secure her against being plunged into new troubles by the adoption of the Jfew Zealand Radical's simple rule. The findings summarised, above were gathered by measuring the prices of 257 commodities. It was found that the general wholfsale price .level has advanced by 14.5 per cent, in the last ten years. Farm products advanced by 39.8 per cent., food 19.7 per cent., lumber and building materials 19.6 per cent., cloths and clothing 12 per cent., fuel and lighting 6.9 per cent., furniture 5.3 per cent. The Committee's .investigations have at any rate shown that even in-a great manufacturing country like America the stability and comfort of society depend upoii the soil. That is atruth which canrot be too often insisted upon in New Zealand, where ior years the tendency of legislation has been to harass the occupiers of land,, and. indeed, to treat land-ownership as a business, undeserving of sympathetic consideration.