176 THROUGH CANADA 



case. Increase in prosperity is the root factor that 

 operates in increased cost. As one writer states, 

 the trouble lay "not in the high cost of living, 

 but in the cost of high living." The higher standard 

 of life set up by the wealthy section of the community, 

 by no means a negligible one in Canada, has diverted 

 labour from the production of necessaries to that 

 of luxuries, such as motor-cars, yachts, costly dress 

 fabrics and luxurious commodities generally. The 

 class which demands the best of everything-, and will 

 have it at all cost, has been a growing one throughout 

 the Dominion. Mr. C. C. James, Deputy Minister 

 of Agriculture for Ontario, regards this factor as 

 such an active one in the higher prices of pro- 

 ducts, that he prescribes "plain living and high 

 thinking" as the remedy. The rural population of 

 Ontario had decreased, from 1,108,874 in 1899 to 

 1,047,016 in 1909, whilst in the same period the 

 population of cities and towns had grown from 

 901,874 to 1,197,274. The effect on the production of 

 the necessaries of life produced by these changes is 

 obvious. 



Local combines are another active cause in the 

 greater cost of living. This can scarcely be 

 eliminated, inasmuch as Canadian exports can 

 be purchased in some cases at a lower rate in 

 Liverpool than in Toronto, and agricultural imple- 

 ments made on the shores of Lake Erie command 

 a higher figure in Calgary than in London. 



