THE HIGH COST OF LIVING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 72, 18 November 1912, Page 5

THE HIGH COST OF LIVING.

In discussing the high cost of living in America, Mr F. Munsey, in his magazine, for October, says:—“lncreasing wage® and shorten hours, and perhaps lower efficiency for the hours worked, have cut a Ihgger figure in the high cost of living than anything else. This higher cost of production is expressed in every phase of, endeavour and every phase of living—expressed alike on the farm, in the factory, in mining, merchandising, transportation, clerical force, and in domestic service. We cannot get something for nothing; we cannot double the cost of business or residential building and expect to get rents at tlie same price. And the cost of buildings is tremendously increased as the hours of labour are increased and the wages of labour advanced. This has its bearing, as well, in the material that goes into the building and the transportation of the material, as is docs in assembling it, fashioning it into a habitable structure. Taxes are necessarily higher as municipal expenses increase, and this, too, is expressed in the price of rents in either business or residential properties. Indeed, the effect of higher wages and shorter hours of work is felt in a thousand ways, all of which have to do with the present high cost of living. Moreover, high living has a good deal to do with the high cost of living. Our demands are constantly expanding as we drift further and further away from the simple life. We must have better homes, with more conveniences, and more luxuries, must dress better and dress our children hotter, and have more amusements than a dozen years ago. With a return to the thrift of our forefathers and something of their genius for and love of work, we should no longer feel the grip of the high cost of living, and the politician would have to seek another theme to boost Its business. in our extravagance, in our sweep towards ease and idleness, our growing antipathy to work, is a real danger to the nation.”

The Askew family neknowl cl 10 symoathy in their late bereavement in tho loss of their mother. . Miss T. Butcher thanks the Hospital staff and friends for kindness in her late illness.