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EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN I 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, 1873. Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail. $5.00 a year. Payable in advance. lhe High Cost of Living Throughout the World * r » Suggestion That Congress Investigate It. A Good Idea. But the Explanation Is Not Very Complicated. Mr. Crawford 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 hill is passed the president wiH 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 Crawford-Sulzer idea is a good one. The more light the better. But the average citizen knows fairly wel] why the ' ' cost of living has gone up. It has gone up principally because those that PRODUCE the things that we 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 lhe very great profits of the man who does not produce and only HANDLES the goods have beep features of life for ages. But until recently this was the arrangement. The man who produced that which we eat, the farmer, was willing to work tor just as much as would barely keep him alive. In the old days he was 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 ami her day started at three in the morning. An,d 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 look up Ihe 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. Ami the man in the city who worked for a living was content to get along with very little more than - would keep him and 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 ami his amusements or tries to have them. .\pd the middleman still wants what he had before any where from a hundred per cent to two hundred per eent on the cost of the article for distributing it. Naturally SOMEBODY HAS HOT 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 ten dollars a ton. Now the price ranges from twenty to thirty dollars a lon A horse that draws your butcher’s wagoii eats hay at thirty dollars a ton Oats that used to sell for twenty-one or twent.y-two cents a bushel have been selling this winter for more than sixty cents a bushel. 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 you have got to pay twice and three times as much for your meat Everything after all is the result of natural wealth I’Ll'S HUMAN LABOR. Human labor used to be lhe cheapest thing imaginable—you <mh gave the human being enough Io 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 human labor goes up. and life tiecomes more complicated and ex pensive. when the farmer g< ts fair prices and shares in the com forts of the world SOMEBODY JIAS GOT TO PAY MORE. Everybody has got to pay more. You know that miners' wages have just been increased, and they deserved the 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 hill. That would not he 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 xmid dlemen or by others, using intelligence so a< to supply the con stantly iucr< asing demand Continued in Last Column The Atlanta Georgian IFhe never had a chance 1 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 b jCAFE'I ) H I ' y \ / iitk a-Mate. SEfOl i IS - 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 ard, ‘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 —■■■w-" 1 ■ " 1— ' EVERY father and mother should read an article in the June number of GOOD 11 ••I■S El< E EDI NG M A(IA 7.1 NE. by Dr Gulick, on the educational value of summer camps for boys and girls Without repeating anything that that article contains it may be pointed oui that when children are placed tn 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, apd 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 mote for the health, the well being and the physical and mental development of either a boy 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 and styl ish boating and costly dinners con stitute tlte daily round. People who go into the country and carry the city along w ith them do not see the real .country and gain none of its bent tits. A boy who has once been In a summer camp, where he has had an opportunity to do things for him self. to make his own shelters, to manage his boat, to fish, to shoot (under proper guidance), to cook, to see the cooking of his own game, to help make the tires becomes so fascinated by the discovery of his own powers that he would laugh at a suggestion to spend th< next summer amid the comparative idle ness. the conventional restrictions and the stale ami tiresome amuse ments of a big fashionable <ara- | vanserie. Nature Demands Occupation. Human nature demands contin ual, occupation for body and mind during the waking hours The more we work the better we, are, pro vided that the work interests us. and it always interests us if wc see that its results are for our own benefit. That benefit is .lust as great whether it puts money in our pockets or simply satisfies the in born desire to accomplish some thing with our own hands and brims The boy who builds a hut THURSDAY, .JUNE 6, 1912. By GARRETT P. SERVISS. in the woods gets a better educa tion in the essentials of archite< - lute than any book can give him. He can learn a great deal about navigation if he fnaanges his own boat. Every step he takes serves to open his eyes hnd cultivate his powers of observation and reason ing. 1 remember when 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 Adirondack region, where w e made camps on the shores' rowed around the wooded islands; shot squirrels and cooked them over our own tires; took refuge during a storm in a woodcutters’ aban doned hut. and let our fancies have free range as we explored bays and inlets, gave names 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 roclfs, w'hifh we duly marked ami charted. We examined the nature and productions of the shores; landed with shouts of de light on long, beautiful, shaded promontories; imagined inhabi tants, and sometimes savage tribes, in these strange lands, and gave them names, too, drawn from our limited historical lore. Wonderful Adventures. We found places where small streams entered the lakes, winding down from the woods behind. They seemed rivers to us. and promptly received names—Mississippi, Oro noco. Amazon—while we sought out the sites of mighty cities of dream land on the banks neai their mouths new Londons. Babyions and ('alcutl.'is. V. e discovered lit tle bights and coves w here the sun fish sported, and yellow perch lurk ed. and named some of them from the kind of fish that we saw there; we found a. little round, lonesome lake, a hundred yards broad, with ( gold-hued water, as smooth as a mirroi, and completely inclosed with overhanging trees, whole .we took a swim, disregarding the leeches that fastened upon us, we had :'n exciting adventure in the largest of the lakes, a quarter of a mile from shore, where a terrible storm and mountainous waves J consisting in reality of a summer breeze with wavelets six inches high) threatened us. as we chose to 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 fi 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 Easy money, with very little risk. He had nothing to do hut sit around all day, vote a few limes 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. lie knew a bunch of politicians now, and he was promised a pretty soft little job if the boss got away with the election. (To he continued.) the sawmill hamlet from which we had 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 would 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 Adirondacks 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 us little as possible. They will learn all that they real ly need to know about trees, flow ers, streams, rocks and animals 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, taking endless pleasure in the doing. 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, tn youth, will never be able to do so later. And. then, a summer camping expedition need not be costly. One does not have to go 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 gills, with two or three older persons in charge—persons who p have common sense and sympathy with the needs, desires and ambi tions of youth—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 needed. 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 be admired and waited on in some glittering summer hostelry. THE HOME PAPER ——— —1 cSa To Men i Bv -ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. Copyright, 1912, by American-Journal-Examiner. SIRS, when you pity us, I say « You waste your pity. Let it stay j Well corked and stored upon your shelves, * i { Until you need it for yourselves. 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 I We are glad of many things. God strung our hearts with such fine 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 in pain-filled nights, ' And mysteries of gain and loss Known but to Christ upon the Cross 1 Our tears are pitiful to you? Look how the heaven-reflecting dew Dissolves its life in tears. The satld Meanwhile lies hard upon the strand. How could your pity find a place Eor 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 Throughout the World 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 scullerymaid 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 usecl 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-rnillion-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 they only drank whisky and stole in a small way—more high cost of liv’ng, 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 and 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 up. And it will continue to go up. AND IT OI’GHT TO CON TINTE I’o GO UP. 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 bill introduced by Crawford and 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 day’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 increased tn price and in value