1912. 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
©a 
NOTES ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 
Special Message on Wool. —The Presi¬ 
dent has found from the investigation of his 
tariff board that the duties in Schedule K 
are greatly in excess of the cost of pro¬ 
duction at home and abroad. His recom¬ 
mendations may be summarized as follows: 
1st, that there be an immediate and scien¬ 
tific revision downward of all wool duties; 
2d, that the duties shall be reduced to a 
point where they will conform to the repub¬ 
lican principle of being adequate, and only 
adequate, to equalize the cost of production 
at home and abroad; 3d, that in fixing the 
duties consideration be given to the facts 
reported by the tariff board and to the 
necessity of preventing an injury to a groat 
and established industry, involving the wel¬ 
fare of hundreds of thousands of employees; 
^th. that a specific duty on grease wool 
in terms of its scoured content be levied, in 
order to prevent discrimination due to dif¬ 
ferent shrinkages; 5th, that a graduated 
scale of ad valorem duties on cloths he care¬ 
fully considered and applied ;v6th, that the 
tariff board, the value of which is proved by 
the complete and exhaustive report it has 
presented, be made a permanent institution. 
It will be noted from these recommenda¬ 
tions that he does not commit himself to 
any definite duties. The tariff board made 
no specific recommendations. Perhaps the 
LaFollette bill vetoed by the President if 
re-enacted would be vetoed. 
High Cost of Living. —The most import¬ 
ant topic for discussion at the meetings of 
the American Economic Association held in 
Washington during the last week in Decem¬ 
ber was the high and increasing cost of liv¬ 
ing. The cost of living problem is world¬ 
wide. Tt is more acute perhaps in Europe 
where a lower scale of living is more gen¬ 
eral but the advance in living costs is more 
rapid here than abroad. In some sections 
of Europe the laboring population lives so 
near the starvation mark that a slight rise 
in the cost of food brings them to despera¬ 
tion and as a result there have been bread 
riots in many parts of the continent. Many 
of the same causes are at work here and 
abroad to cause this rise in cost of living 
and the Economic Association went on rec¬ 
ord in favor of an International Commission 
to study this international problem. Prof. 
Fisher of Yale University was selected to 
lay the matter before President Taft with 
a view to his recommending Congress to 
authorize the creation of such a commis¬ 
sion and to interest European nations to 
co-operate in the investigation. Prof. 
Fisher called on the President a few days 
ago and the President expressed himself as 
heartily in favor of the matter, promising 
to call the attention of Congress to the 
subject at an early date. 
Causes of the High Cost of Living.— 
Many eminent men were present at these 
meetings of the American Economic Asso¬ 
ciation. among them presidents and pro¬ 
fessors of our large universities. Senators 
and Representatives from Congress and stu¬ 
dents of affairs. There were many different 
views of the causes of high prices. Prof. 
Fisher, of Yale University, stated that 
many causes have been given for the great 
advance in living costs and that as many 
remedies have been proposed. He urged 
ns the chief reason the huge increase that 
has taken place in the world’s stock of gold, 
lie contended that the remedy would he 
found in a better money system. The 
world’s supply of gold has increased in just 
about the same proportion as has the in¬ 
creased cost of commodity prices. Per¬ 
haps there is some connection between these 
two facts, athough many eminent students 
of the subject do not believe in the “theory” 
Cfor it is a theory!. of the “quantitive 
theory of prices being governed by the 
money surmlv.” No less an authority than 
the Treasurer of the United States. Mr. 
Roberts, denies the “theory.” It was sup¬ 
posed that the money question was settled 
for all time when we adopted the gold 
standard and here we are face to face with 
the subject again. Perhaps the country is 
being only educated to some money changes 
as advocated by former Senator Aldrich. 
Another Ottess at the Cause. —Senator 
Burton of Ohio gave the increased gold sup¬ 
ply and the increased cost of distribution 
as the principal reasons for the increasing 
cost of living. He dwelt upon current ex¬ 
planations, such as trusts and combinations, 
the tariff, and increased wages, but denied 
that the responsible cause could be found 
in any of these. Tie urged a diminished 
production of gold, greater attention to 
agriculture, and more natural consideration 
of our natural resources. 
Senator Smoot.—TT o said : “Thlst cost of 
living question affects every man. woman 
and child in the civilized world. The time 
has come for action in the matter. Among 
the causes T would name the higher cost 
of producing farm products, the shifting of 
rural population to cities, the withholding 
of food products from market, the large 
cost of distribution, and industrial combina¬ 
tions. but as to these, their influence is over¬ 
drawn in the popular imagination. Prob¬ 
ably the increased gold supply accounts for 
25 per cent of the higher cost of living.” 
Our Money System as a Pause. —Samuel 
H. Barker of Philadelphia, blames our 
money system. lie says: “Cost of living 
involves money, and money largely governs 
the cost of living. Here have we two prob¬ 
lems tied in one parcel. Our present money 
system was born of chidlike delight of the 
savage in the beautiful and the rare. It 
was given form by the old-time money 
changers and it has been developed by their 
present-day counterparts, the. bankers. The 
resulting money system has proved itself 
both barbaric and dishonest. In the main 
it cheats the debtor. Often it robs the 
creditor. At no time does it do exact jus¬ 
tice between debtor and creditor. Thus it 
fails in the all-essential function of money.” 
The Writer’s Guess.— There were many 
other causes given by other speakers. Per¬ 
haps all of these causes have some bearing 
on the question. The writer would place a 
large part of the high' cost of living to the 
destruction of competition. Our tariff laws 
shut out foreign competition and our trusts 
and combines have destroyed domestic com¬ 
petition. That is one reason why the ad¬ 
vance in prices here has been greater than 
abroad. No other country has such high 
tariffs and in no other country has the 
growth of trusts and combines been so 
marked. The cost of distribution is an im¬ 
portant cause. Secretary Wilson in his last 
annual report states that the farmer gets 
only 50 cents of the consumer's dollar. 
We believe he receives nearer one-third than 
one-half of the final cost to the consumer. 
This distribution cost is on the increase 
for by various ways the transportation 
agencies increase their charges. Then, too, 
the dwellers in the cities make the cost 
higher by their demand for delivery service. 
The city housewife now has the use of the 
telephone and orders from her grocer not 
once a week but several times a day and in¬ 
sists on the delivery of the article at once 
even though it be only a yeast cake costing 
but two cents. If she goes to the dry goods 
store and buys only a spool of thread she 
has it delivered, although she might carry 
it home in her chatelaine bag. These costs 
of delivery are all charged up finallv to the 
consumer. In the United States we are 
content with having our means of transpor¬ 
tation owned by private individuals instead 
of being owned and operated by the gov¬ 
ernment. On January 1, just passed, the 
telephone system of the British Isles be¬ 
came the property of the nation and is to 
be operated as part of the postal system. 
The. telegraph has long been part of the 
British postal service. So has the parcels 
post. They have no express system con¬ 
trolled by private enterprise as an element 
in making for high cost of living. There 
are practically no private telegraph, tele¬ 
phone. or express companies in all Europe. 
And in all Europe the railroads are owned 
and operated by the various governments 
except in England. France and a few minor 
lines in a few other countries. There are 
no huge fortunes derived from these public 
necessities. In most all cities of Europe 
the street car systems are owned bv and 
operated by the public. Having all of these 
public utilities in private hands in this 
country is one reason for the high cost of 
living. 
The Cost of High Living. —Tn some 
measure the cost of high living by our 
wealthy classes is one factor in the high 
cost of living. When one class takes too 
much of the products of industrv the other 
class must accept too little. Of the joint 
product of capital and labor, there is no 
question that capital takes more than a 
.Hist : proportion. The bitter fights between 
capital and labor are because of this un¬ 
equal division of the joint product. 
F. N. CLARK. 
A Friend of the Deer. 
1011 make me tired when you get on the 
ueoi and sportsman rjuostion. Four voars 
ago you printed an item saying woodsmen 
had been driven from the woods near here 
ny deer. I looked the matter up and found 
the men named had a bad reputation as to 
veracity, and the reporter for the New York 
papers was a notorious liar. Deer walk 
through my sweet and field corn fields 
from time it is a few inches high till the 
fodder is put in barn, and I have never 
been able to see a blade or ear bitten. Thcv 
have eaten a few sunflower plants, a very 
few beans and somn clover. I would judge 
10 cents would repay me for all damage bv 
deer on my place in three years. They 
walk right through my orchard, actuall'v 
brushing against the trees. Winter and 
bunimer. and I have never seen a single 
twig eaten by them. They do eat the 
acorns and oak leaves in my woods, and 
when the snow was on the other day rav 
woods looked like a flock of sheep had been 
there. And yet no damage of any moment 
has been done me. One farmer told me 
he had seen as many as nine pasturing with 
lus cows, but would no more think of killing 
one than he would of shooting the squirrels 
that play among his shade trees. Very 
fp w farmers here but would prefer the deer 
and the pleasure of seeing them to their ab¬ 
sence and freedom from damage. 
< 'onnecticut. farmer. 
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Two Important Lessons From 
The Coe-Mortimer Company Five-Hundred Dollar Prize Corn Contest 
for the 
Most Profitable Acre of Field Corn Raised in New England During 1911 
THE FIRST GREAT TRUTH 
Proven by this Prize Contest is that in a wide open competition where High Grade Commercial Fertilizers, Home Mixtures 
and Stable Manure may compete freely, the 
Largest Crops Are Produced by the Use of High Grade Commercial Fertilizers Alone 
Mr. L. S. White, the winner of the First Prize used 1,000 lbs. per acre of High Grade Commercial Fertilizer, testing 
about 5-8-8. NET PROFIT, $65.75. 
Mr. M. H. Williams, the winner of the Second Prize, used 1,000 lbs. per acre of a similar High Grade Commercial Fertilizer, but 
in addition used 360 lbs. per acre of a Home Mixture of Cottonseed Meal and Muriate of Potash. The returns show the use of 
this mixture gave no corresponding increase in the crop, but only increased the cost of raising the Corn. NET PROFIT, $49.26. 
The winner of the Third Prize, Mr. M. H. Clark, used only 325 lbs. per acre of High Grade Commercial Fertilizer in 1911, but 
had previously for three successive years applied a ton to the acre of High Grade Commercial Fertilizer to this land. 
Thus it is plain that Mr. Clark’s profitable crop of Corn was clearly due to the use of large quantities of Commercial 
Fertilizer. NET PROFIT, $43.23. ___ 
THE SECOND GREAT TRUTH 
Clearly proven by this contest is that 
Heavy Applications of High Grade Commercial Fertilizer not only raise the Largest Crops of 
Corn per acre, but also raise the Most Profitable Crops 
STUDY THE COMPLETE REPORT UNO TABLE IN THE RURAL NEW-YORKER ISSUE OF JANUARY 20TH 
Your Corn Crop for 1912 Will Need Fertilizer—Now Is the Time to Provide for It by Ordering a Good Supply of 
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1912 
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Our Annual Fertilizer Booklet, and Handsome Calendar for 1912, will be sent free of charge while the supply lasts if you mention The Rural New- Yorker 
THE COE-MORTIMER COMPANY STREET ERS NEW YORK CITY 
