Newspaper Page Text
November, 1922
THE ATLANTIAN
7
High Prices and Republican
Panic Continue.
Americans are just now receiving a
painful demonstration of the fallacy of
the Republican claim that high prices
—an increase in the cost of living—
shall always be accepted as the effi
cient cause of prosperity. The whole
philosophy of a Republican tariff is
that the people can put money into
their pockets by taxing themselves;
that the larger the prices they have
to pay for what they consume, the
more sure they are to have the where
withal to pay.
The cost of living is at a higher level
than it was a year ago. All the prices
the consumer must pay are higher by
some 8 or 10 per cent. Prosperity
should be almost at the zenith, if it
grows with the rise in prices in ac
cordance with the Republican formu
la: The public is well aware, how
ever, that the wage-workers, the farm
ers, the small business man, the great
mass of Americans whose only in
come is their salaries, are no more
prosperous today than on the same
date in 1921.
Bankruptcies and commercial fail
ures are as numerous as they have
been at any time since the Republicans
took charge of . the Government. The
prices of agricultural products re
ceived by the producers are the only
prices that have not soared under the
stimulus of the Republican prescrip
tion. Even these products, when they
have left the farmers’ hands and are
sold to the consumer as manufactured
commodities, are dearer than they
were a year ago. The Republican tar
iffs—two of them—have done noth
ing for agriculture and a good deal
to its detriment, notably by increas
ing the cost of everything that agri
culturists require.
LET “PAT DO IT”
510 Courtland St.
U. S. Foreign Trade
Continues to Shrink
America’s exports, which in normal
times include vast quantities of agri
cultural products, have been decreas
ing at the rate of $228,400,000 a
month under the Harding administra
tion, according to the official figures
of the Department of Commerce. Be
tween June 30, 1921, and June 30,
1922, the shrinkage of this country’s
export trade amounted in money to
$2,745,000,000.
The aggregate foreign trade of the
United States in 1921 was $10,170,000,-
000, of which $6,516,000,000 was ex
ports and $3,654,000,000 was imports.
In 1922 the volume had fallen to $2,-
608,000,000 for imports and $3,771,-
000,000 for, exports, so that the na
tion’s favorable balance of trade for
the year ended last June was only a
little more than $1,000,000,000.
Operation of the Fordney-McCum-
ber tariff law, which is prohibitive in
pected to produce an even worse show-
its effects on certain imports, is ex-
ing in 1923 than that revealed by the
figures for 1922. Curtailment of im-
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ports, against which this new tariff
act will militate, is believed certain to
reduce the volume of exports, since
the outside world’s inability to sell in
this country will prevent foreign buy
ing here on the scale of the last sev
eral years.
As there is a surplus of most of the
cereal crops of the United States, this
excess of domestic production over do
mestic consumption must find a mar
ket abroad. Decrease in foreign de
mand for these surpluses will react on
prices in this country and the agricul
tural interests are facing a new era of
depression.
Republican control of national af
fairs has been accompanied by a steady
decline in the volume of commerce
with the outside world and this has
been reflected in domestic conditions.
The industrial and agricultural panic
of the last eighteen months has been
solely a Republican calamity.
Potters Get High Protection,
Then Cut Wages.
Workers in practically every Amer
ican plant manufacturing sanitary pot
tery were recently ordered on strike
as a protest against the reduction of
20 per cent made in their wages by
their employers, most of whom are
members of an organization that urged
higher rates of duty on their products
in order to “protect” the industry.
Already about 5,000 employees of
various pottery plants in Trenton, N.
J., and adjacent towns have quit work
in response to the strike order from
the executives of the National Broth
erhood of Operative Potters. It is ex
pected that nearly all of the 10,000
men in Trenton and its environs will
go on strike. The Brotherhood has
many thousands of members through
out the country.
The new Fordney-McCumber profi
teers' tariff law raised the duties on
this class of pottery from 33 1-3 to 60
per cent, and the prices now asked of
consumers have already begun to re
flect these increases. Now within a
few weeks after the manufacturers of
sanitary pottery obtained the “protec
tion” they demanded of the Republi
can Congress, they have cut the wages
of their employees and advanced the
prices of their wares.
It is believed that many other bene
ficiaries of the exorbitant rates of the
Fordney-McCumber act will reduce
wages now that the elections have
been held.
Sally, the colored maid, was being
taunted by her mistress about Jim,
her beau, who was considered half
witted.
“But Jim hasn’t very much sense,
has he, Sally?"
“No’m, he ain’t got much, but what
he is got is very good.”
“Isn’t there some fable about the
ass disguising himself with a lion
skin?”
“Yes, but now the colleges do the
trick with a sheepskin.”—Washington
Dirge,