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EDITORIAL PAGE J : * THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY • At 20 East Alabama St., Atlanta, Ga. Entered as second-class matter at postoffice at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1879. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mall, $5 00 a year. Payable in advance. The High Cost of Living Throughout the World It M M Suggestion That Congress Investigate It. A Good Idea. But the Explanation Is Not Very Complicated. Mr. (’rawford in the United States senate ‘and Mr. Sulzer in the house of representatives advocate an international inquiry into the cause of the high cost of living throughout the world. If the Crawford-Sulzer bill is passed the president will in vite foreign governments to take part in a conference or investi gation with a view to explaining the causes of increasing prices of food and other necessities. < The Craw ford-.Sulzer idea is a good one. The more light the better. But the average citizen knows fairly well why the cost of living has gone up. It has gone up principally because those that PRODUCE the things that >ve eat and wear and must have are getting more money for their work than they used to get. The cost of living has gone up also because distribution is " badly managed, the middlemen are too numerous and too ineffi cient, and too costly. Between the food produced on the land and the consumer of that food there are too many red automobiles and trips to Europe, and bank accounts, and boys at college—all paid for by the middleman’s profit, all added to the cost which the con sumer must pay. , The excessive charge for distributing products, extortionate freight and express charges and the very great profits of the man who does not produce and only HANDLES the goods have been features of life for ages. Rut until recently this was the arrangement. The man who produced that which we eat, the farmer, was willing to work tor ■unjust as much as would barely keep him alive. In the <id days he Jasras a serf, tied to the soil. In more modern days he was a farmer also tied to the soil, tied to a mortgage, tied to worries. His wife did the cooking for the men and her day started at three in the morning. And when the daughters were old enough, and the mother died at about forty—if monotony and overwork didn't send her to the insane asylum in the meanwhile—the daughters took up the work. In the good old days that are still quite recent, the farmer was content barely to keep alive and drive his tired horse into the village once a week. And the man in the city who worked for a living was content to get along with very little more than would keep iaw &ad his family alive. And the profit, the com fort, the luxury went to those that stood between the producer and the consumer. Now things have changed.' • The farmer has his automobile, and his daughter with both feet is working an automatic musical instrument. And the boys are at the agricultural college. And the wife “takes in help.’’ And the man at the other end who eats what the farmer produces is not content to keep barely alive. He wants the best, kinds of meat, and the best of everything. He also has his luxuries and his amusements—or tries to have them. And the middleman still wants what he had before—any where from a hundred per cent to two hundred per cent on the cost of the article for distributing it. Naturally SOMEBODY HAS GOT TO PAY MORE. Hogs and oxen are fattened on corn. Corn costs a hundred per cent more than it did ten years ago. Sheep and steers eat hay in winter. Good hay was bought ten years ago at prices ranging from six to ton dollars a ton. Now the price ranges from twenty to thirty dollars a ton. A horse that draws your butcher's wagon eats hay at thirty dollars a ton. Oats that used to sell for twenty-one or twenty-two cents a bushel have been selling this winter for more than sixty cents a bush'l. A horse that draws your grocer’s wagon eats oats at sixty cents a bushel. When you feed animals on hay or corn or oats costing twice and three times as much as formerly yon have got to pay twice and three times as much for your meat Everything after all is the result of natural wealth PLUS HUMAN LABOR. Human labor used to be the cheapest thing imaginable—you only gave the human being enough to keep him laboring and not enough to keep him alive for more than half the time that he might have lived. Now, the human machine which makes the clothes on your back, cuts the hay in the fields, grows the corn and the potatoes, does all the manufacturing demands and gets more. And when hitman labor goes up. and life Tweomes more complicated and ex pensive, when the farmer get.s fair prices and shares in the com forts of the world SOMEBODY HAS GOT TO PAY MORE. Everybody has got to pay more. You know that miners’ wages have just been increased, and they deserved th* increase. The price of coal has been increased twenty-five cents a ton in consequence. More high cost of living. The driver of your ice wagon used to get nine dollars a week. Now he gets sixteen dollars a week—and he ought to have more- more high cost of living in your ice bill. That would not be so bad, but the man who does not drive an ice wagon forms an ice trust, on a get-rich quick basis, and you must pay interest upon millions of ice stock more high cost of living, The proposition is to distribute prosperity, wages, all the products, in such away as to enable the different classes to exist —doing away with wasted labor, preventing extortion by mid dlernen or by others, using intelligence so as to supply the con stantly increasing demand. Continued in Last Column. The Atlanta Georgian HE NEVER HAD A CHANCE That Is What Nine Men Out of Ten Who Are Failures Say. Look Out That You Don’t Say It Yourself. By TAD I i Vi I / 0 fc ■ koHn l\ I-1 IT,. M I T ||| ■ •- mMB ’ f l,l i NO. 8. The stick man in a crap game must have some ability, and the ability to make quick and correct change is quite necessary. Yum held the job down until his mistakes were so common that a new man was taken on and Yum let out. Once more he was forced to tread the ’aid, ’ard ’ighway, as Boston Jimmy remarks. The world seemed colder and more cheer less than ever. Yum drifted from place to place and finally wound up in the tough quar ter. where the repeaters and small time poli ticians congregate. He knew one or two. and in a. few days knew quite a bunch. Yum lounged about the case getting an YOUR WORK AND YOUR PLAY If Your Mind Is Interested You Can’t Tell the Difference B EVERY father and mother should read an article in the .lune number of GOOD HOUSEKEEPING MAGAZINE, by Dr. Gulick, on the educational value of summer camps for boys and girls. Without repeating .anything that that article contains it may bo pointed out that when children are placed in direct contact with na ture, and are called upon to look out for themselves, they re-enact the history of the human race in its struggle upward from savagery, and become so interested in what they are doing that they would not exchange it for any play that could be offered to them. A month In a summer camp, in the woods, along the streams, by the side of a lake, is worth a thou sand times more for the health, the well being and the physical and mental development of either a box or a girl than a. whole summer, or many whole summers, at a fashion able watering place or a summer resort, where golf and tennis and card patties and dancing ami styl ish boating and costly dinners con stitute the daily round. People who go into the country and <ar>y the city along with them do not s>*e the real country and gain none of its benefit s. A boy who has once been in a summer camp, where he has Ijad an opportunity to do things for him self: to make his own shelters: to manage his boat, to fish, to shoot (under proper guidance). :o . oak. to see the cooking of his own game, to help make the fires becomes so fascinated by the discovery of his own imwers that he w ould laugh at a suggestion to spend the next summer amid the comparative idle ness, the conventional restrictions and the stale and tiresome amuse ments of a big fashionable c.tra ) nserie. Nature Demands Occupation. Human nature demands contin ual occupation for body and blind during the waking hour-.' The more we work the better we ate. pro vided that the work interests us, and it always interests us if w <■ see that its results are for our own benefit That benefit is just as great w hether ft puts money in*»mr pockets simply satisfies the in born <ies >. to accomplish soma thing with our own hands and brains Tl.e boy who builds a hut THURSDAY, .JUNE 6. 1912, >y GARRETT P. SERVISS in the woods gets a better educa tion in the essentials of architec ture than any book can give him. He can learn a are it deal about navigation if he maanges his own boat. Every step he takes serves to open his eyes and cultivate his powers of observation and reason ing. « I remember wlu n a boy an ex-» ploration with a companion of my own age of a winding, tree-bor dered stream joining two small, is land-dotted lakes, in the outskirts of the Adirondm k region, where we made camps on the shores- rowed around the wi/oded. islands; shot squirrels and cooked them over our own fires; to'jk refuge during a storm in a woodcutters' aban doned hut, and let our fancies have free range as we .colored bays and inlets, gave name' to them from our geographical store, and sound ed their depths with a stone at tached to a fish line. Occasionally, to our great joy, we found shoals and concealed rm ks, wdtich w e duly marked and charted. We examined the nature ami productions of the shores; landed with shouts of de light on long, peautiful, shaded promontories; imagineii inhabi tants, and sometimes savage tribes, in these strange lands, and gave them mimes, too, drawn from our limited historic il lore. Wonderful Adventures. A . found places w here small Streams entered the Ink s, winding down from the woods behind. They seemed rivers to us, and promptly received names—Mississippi. Oro noco, Amazon --whip, w'e sought out the sites of mighty cities of dream land on the banks near their mouths - new Londons. Baby lons and Calc.uttas. We discovered lit tle bights and coves where the sun fish sported, and y ellow perch lurk ed. and named some of, them from the kino of fish that we saw there; we found a little round, lonesome lake, a hundred yards broad, with gold-hued water, as smooth alt a mil tor. and • ompletely inclosed with overhanging trees, where we took a swim, disregarding the leeches that fastened upon us; we had an exciting adventure in the largest of the lakes, a. quarter of a mile from shore, where a terrible storm and mountainous waves (consisting in reality of a summer breeze with wavelets six inches high i threatened us. as w. chose t-> imagine with instant destruc tion; and finally we went back to • earful of news about soft drinks. He could make quite a piece of change if he would reg ister from 5 or 6 places before the primaries. Other fellows did it and got away with it. The boss told the gang it was a pipe, so Yum tried it, too I Easy money, with very little risk. He had nothing to do but sit around all day, vot<- a few times and get the change. That was softer than the stick man job. In fact, it was the only job in sight, and Yum grabbed it. He knew a bunch of politicians now, and In- was promised a pretty soft little job if the boss got away with the elation. (To be continued.) >. the sawmill hamlet from which we bad started, feeling as if we had circumnavigated the earth with Drake and Magellan. I have got my chart of those unutterably fas cinating lakes and streams yet somewhere, and I w ould sooner lose the memory of almost anything else in my life than that of those delightful adventures where na ture and the imagination met. Similar delights are open almost anywhere in the country; one need not go to the Adirondaeks or any half-wilderness to find them. The essential thing is to be face to face with nature, and to throw yourself upon your own resources. A sum mer camp is nature's school for boys and girls. Many things that they have learned from books and teachers for the first time become real to them there. Do Not Interfere. Let them have guidance and oversight, of course, but interfere with them as little as possible. They will learn all that they real ly need to know about trees, How - ers. streams, rocks and anijnals a hundred times faster and better than they can learn in school. They will see how the essential things in the world’s work are done, and do them themselves, tt king endless pleasure in the dping. This is the best of all ways to start budding men and women in life. The person who has not learned to take care of himself to do his own work, to meet his own emergencies, in youth, will never be able to do so later. And. then, a summer -camping expedition need not be costly. One does not have to g<> very far. New Jersey, the shores of the Hudson, the Highlands, the Catskills, nearby Connecticut are all full of delight ful hills, woods, streams and lit tle lakes. A small party of boys and girls with two or three older persons in charge—persons who have common sense and sympathy with the needs, desires and ambi tions of y outh—can easily be form ed. The outfit should be inexpen sive—a few utensils, a few tools, perhaps a boat, fishing tackle, tents, rough, strong clothing— not much else is deeded. Parents who give their children this kind of outing will do far more for their present and future happiness than by taking them to Europe., or dressing them up like dolls to he admired and waited on in some glittering summer hostelry. THE HOME PAPER $3 To Men Bv ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. 'Copyright, 1912, by American-Journal-Examiner. SIRS, when you pity us, I say You waste your pity. Let it stay v Well corked and stored upon your shelves, Until you need it for yourselves. j I - We do appreciate God’s thought In forming you, before He brought Us into life. His art was crude, But. oh, so virile in its rude Large, elemental strength; and then He learned His trade in making men; Learned how to mix and mould the clay And fashion in a finer way. How fine that skillful way can be You need but lift your eyes to see; And we are glad God placed you there, To lift your eyes and find us fair. Apprentice labor, though you were, He made you great enough to stir The best and deepest depths to us, - And we are glad He made you thus. Ay! We are glad of many things. God strung our hearts with such Jine strings The least breath moves them, and we hear Music where silence greets your ear. “We suffer so?’’ but women’s souls, Like violet powder dropped on coals, Give forth their best in anguish. Oh, The subtle secrets that we know. Os joy in sorrow, strange delights Os ecstasy tn pain-filled nights, Aud mysteries of gain and loss Known but to Christ upon the Cross! Our tears are pitiful to you? • Look how the heaven-reflecting dew Dissolves its life in tears. The sand Meanwhile lies hard upon the strand. How could your pity find a place For us, the mothers of the race? Men may be fathers unaware, So poor the title is you wear; But mothers? —who that crown adorns. Knows all its mingled blooms and thorns-, And she whose feet that path hath trod Has walked upon the heights with God. No, offer us not pity’s cup. There is no looking down or up Between us; eye looks straight in eye Born equals, so we live and die. The High Cost of Living I Throughout the World i Continued From First Column. We used to pay the president of the United States twenty five thousand dollars—that was General Grant’s salary after he saved the Union. Now we pay the president of the United States seventy-five thousand dollars a year. We allow him twenty?five thousand dollars for his traveling expenses. We spend fifty or a hundred thousand dollars helping him to entertain and keep the White House going—at the top of the nation prices have gone up. And in the White House kitchen the scullery maid used to get fifty dollars a year—or even twenty-five dollars a year in Jef ferson’s time. And now that lady gets at least twenty-five dol lars a month, which is three hundred dollars a year—and so it goes. The woman who used to do her own housework now has two other women to help her—and her husband must/see to feeding them, and that means increased cost of living. We all pay rent, and our houses, hotels, apartments and business offices are made of steel. Mr. Morgan took the steel business at a price of three hun dred millions of dollars from Carnegie. He made a fifteen-hun dred-million-dollar corporation out of it. The steel business had to pay interest from that time on fifteen hundred millions—and that increased the cost of rent. The man who lays the bricks and fixes the plumbing and nails down the floors and does the painting in the house that you live in gets at least as much as he got a few years ago that comes out of the rent or the price of your home. And in the cities taxes go up—for the bosses that steal their share need a constantly bigger share. They run automo biles and yachts and golf links now. whereas formerly thev only drank whisky and stole in a small way—more high cost of livfn» for you pay the dishonest bosses through taxation. When Carnegie in a few years makes three hundred mil lions out of your steel, and the Havemeyers more hundreds of millions out of your sugar, and the Rockefellers a thousand mil lions out of oil ami the Vanderbilts a hundred millions out of your railroads —somebody has got to pay for all that, and that is part of the high cost of living. So it goes in all directions. « Workers, servants, bosses, presidents, judges, policemen, fire men. school teachers, typewriters—workers of all classes, from the farm to the city, are paid more liberally. And as the cost of living depends upon the price of the labor that produces the liv ing, of course, the cost of living goes ujt. And it will continue to go up, AND IT OUGHT TO CON TINUE TO GO I’P. There is no reason why the man who raises your potatoes should not share in increased prosperity. There is no reason why the man who makes your overcoat or your shoes should not get his part of the extra pav. The hill introduced by Crawford arid Sulzer will bring out some interesting facts. It may enable the wise gentlemen of the different nations to give suggestions for distributing ‘wealth equalizing wages, standardizing the value of a dav's work. It takes no ghost to come from the grave to tell whv the cost of living has gone up ■IT has gone up because the work that creates the living has I increased in price and in value.