The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1914. THE COST OF LIVING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 210, 5 March 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1914. THE COST OF LIVING.

According to the American papers, there has so far been 110 diminution i.i the cost ef living in the United States as the result of the lowering of the Customs tariff on articles of common consumption; but it is evident that it only requires time for the effect of those changes to be felt. In the meantime the winter season in the northern States has been marked by much unemployment and destitution, with soup kitchens and other forms of relief in active operation. With moat at 3s a pound, eggs at 2s Gd a dozen and butter at 2s a pound, the working classes of the United States must indeed be feeling the pinch of hunger as they have hardly ever felt it before. A great fall in prices must take place in America soon, as the result of the free importation of foodstuffs; and an inevitable consequence of this, at least for a time, will be an advance in the price of the necessaries of life in Great Britain and perhaps also in other British countries. Formerly America was a great exporter of meat and cereals. To-day she citn barely raise sufficient wheat for her own requirements, and lias become a large importer of meat. The cry has gone forth that over all the world there is ft growing shortage of food, and this is the real cause of the steady increase in the cost of living. The United States, with a hundred million people to feed, will draw to their shores vast supplies from other countries. An English writer has pointed out how this is affecting London already. England, formerly the one free market of the world, has now the United States as a rival for foodstuffs; and as tho Americans can pay higher prices the world's surplus food supplies will henceforward flow to the United States instead of to England. Six months ago there was a glut of boneless beef in the English market, and the price went down to 2'/ 2 d a pound; now the market is baro and the price is up to 4d. The meat is going to the United States instead of to London, and in due course there will be a levelling process in the matter of prices I —downwards in America, upwards in England. In tho present fiscal year it is estimated that the United States will import eight million pounds of fresh beef. Formerly there was a large export of cheese from the United States to England; now that has stopped and England is taking instead 30,000 tons of cheese annually from New Zealand. And now British merchants dread that the American market will absorb some, if not all, of the Xew Zealand supply, leaving England destitute, unless she pays a much higher price. So with butter; it is evident that America will become a large importer of this commodity and the price to the British consumer must go up. This will mean prosperity for New Zealand—at least for a time, until matters adjust themselves. That there must be a general adjustment is becoming clearer to thinkers. The high cost of living is a world problem. It is the result of growing demand, coupled in some cases with tho baneful effects of trusts and combines "cornering"' the supply. The problem finds expression in labor unrest —in industrial revolts in nearly every country, with consequent hindrance to trade and grave disorders in many cases. A remedy for this state of things must be found, if the world is to be saved from a lapse into anarchy. Surely it is not beyond the wit of man to deviso means of regulating the cost of living and maintaining a fair standard of comfort in every part of the globe. Unless this is done there can be no escape from sanguinary wars; for no matter how the "caasus belil" may be disguised, most conflicts between nations resolve themselves into a struggle for existence —a fight for food. While, therefore, we ought to furbish our guns, keep our powder dry and build Dreadnoughts, for defensive purposes, we ought not to neglect preventative measure, such as seeking a solution to the problem of I the cost of living.