The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1910. THE RISE IN FOOD PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 143, 18 June 1910, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1910. THE RISE IN FOOD PRICES.

Vor the came that Tacts assistance. For the wrong that needs reeisiaoo*, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can de.

I We have heard, a great deal recently about the rise of food prices in America; ' and the cause of this increase in the cost of living is naturally exercising the curiosity of economists and politicians, as well as the rank and file of the "common people" throughout tho United States. I As to the facts of the case, there seems to be no room for doubt. Last year most foodstuffs were said to be 100 per cent dearer in America than they had been in 1890. To give a few details: Flour j had gone up from 2_d to 5d per lb, live stock M to 1/7 per lb, eggs Od to 1/2 per, dozen, mutton 24d to 5Ad, bacon 2d to ssid, -butter 7-Jd to 1/1J per lb, and potatoes in the same proportion. It is true j tliu.t' w__-e_ have risen considerably in 01|t that comprinK the fiajures for 1908Out .IK i-flpiiiil o_o Hiaioo mi iooo 0 with the average for IS9O-00. working i men's wages bad risen by nearly 29 per cent, while the price of ordinary neees- ( _*a.ri<_s of :__.__. __i_-a ri-en, -by less t_x__r_ IS ; \KX CCTlti Tliis seems to corroborate President Ta-ft's argument tlmt Protection -oes not unduly ra.ise the cost of living relai'ivo to tlie average rate of wages. But it renuius true that tlie rise in the price of food is a serious factor in American domestic economy just now, and the extent to which public feeling has been aroused thereby may be judged from the fact that over a million people a few months a-go voluntarily pledged. themselves to abstain from eating meat as a protest against the high prices that tbey were being charged. This reference to the Meat Boycott points toward one acknowledged source •of this serious increase iv the cost of living. For this movement was an organised demonsstration against the Beef Trust, which is generally credited in America with being chiefly responsible for the rise in the staple food prices. And the Beef Trust docs not stand alone in the eyes of the public as the plunderer of the people. The Oil Trust, the Ice Trust, the Sugar Trust, the Coal Trust, the Milk Trust, all began their careers with the same pretext and excuse—the need for better and more economical organisation in their respective trades. ,But when once they had killed off all possible competition, or amalgamated the surviving producers in one hugo combine, they began to ccnie out in their true colours. For some years after these great trusts were first established, it was their boast that their profits came wholly from cheaper methods of business, and that they had made no attempt to raise prices against the consumer. This, for the time, was true; but when once they had established themselves m an unassailable position, and theix monopoly was impregnable, they began to make use of the advantages they had secured. An enormous mass of evidence has been compiled by American journalists and publicists, -which proves unquestionably that tho Sugar Trust, tho Beef Trust, the Coal Trust, and many other combines, are extorting heavy tribute from the people of Ainorica through the.ir control of the sources of production, and the means of distribution. It is interesting for New Zcalanders to note that tlie rise in the price of meat in America has given us an opportunity to open up din-ect trade with New York in frozen mutton. -But, advantageous as this may be to us, it should not blind us to the real origin of the rise in food prices in America, and to the iniquity of the system on •which, tliis monopoly of the necessaries of life is based. But, having expressed our conviction that this upward tendency of food prices in America has been due largely to the selfish manipulation of the Trusts, we must limit this statement of the case with the condition that to some extent the rise in food prices is only one phase of a wider movement, which is now extending throughout tiie world's markets—the relative depreciation in the purchasing power of gold. It is one of tlie truisms of financial science that when the supply of gold available for exchange against commodities is increased, its exchange value falls, or, in other words, general prices rise. It is equally indisputable that a large increase in the gold supply has, other things being equal, alvva3's been followed by a rise in prices, and a relative decrease in the amount of currency available, for exchange has always meant a rise in gold values, and thus a fall in prices. Between 1870 and 1595 the increase in the world's supply of gold entirely failed to keep pace with the requirements of the world's trade; hence the long-continued and disastrous fall in general prices from which these colonies suffered so acutely during that period. But since 1595 the annual increase in the gold supply has been at the rate of 5 per cent, or more than three times the rate for the previous period. Therefore, while the index numbers compiled by financial statisticians show that general prices fell by i about 32 per cent between IS7O and 1595, the corresponding figures for 1595-190S ! show a rise of from 30 to 40 per cent in I general' prices. Naturally, food prices have risen to some extent in sympathy j with the depreciation of gold; in fact, tlila rise pt latisfc in p_rt indiaataa tho fall in the guro_asi_g._? owes of .£_.. j>-_si-

ons metal. But we may console ourselves "wdtli the reflection tlia-t a rise in general prices by increasing, profits, en-coTixa-ging enterprise arwl espa.nd.ing trade, on the whole does far more good than Ihann; while we have had bitter experience of the loss of confidence, the failure of credit, the crippling of business and the paralysis of industry that always ensue upon a general fall in prices brought about hy a comparative scarcity of gold.