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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- FRANKLIN’S PHARMACY WEST PEACHTREE and TENTH STS. Hemlock 4195 Our Quick Delivery Makes Ours the Nearest DRUG STORE Have Your Prescription Filled by Us and You Will Be Satisfied. Eighteen Years’ Experience Quality Will Make Us Famous. Service Will Make Us Grow Drop In and Hear the Radio Franklin’s Pharmacy 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,