and its products, resulting in the misleading of the general public. To my certain knowledge, fabrics of wool, whether made on the worsted or woolen system, were considerably higher thirty years ago than today. I recall, for instance, a 12 ounce, all wool fabric which we sold at that period at $1.62 1/2 per yard, and today a similar cloth can be bought at $1.00 per yard, or less-62 1/2 per cent. higher then than now.

The Fabrics of Old Times Would Be Largely Unsalable Today.

"My business career commenced in 1856, and was continued for over five years in a country general store in the central part of Pennsylvania, which experience gives me a practical knowledge of the values of that time. At that period money was scarce, and merchandising was conducted very largely on a trading and credit basis. The financial circulating medium was largely that of the notes of country banks, founded frequently with no substantial capital, whose notes were sent to distant points to avoid their quick redemption and whose failures were a daily Occurrence. The every day clothing of men of small earnings was of coarse quality and indifferent durability. It was largely made of fabrics which are now obsolete and entirely unsalable, and which were sold at that time at twice the price at which they could be disposed of today. To make this statement definite, I instance two of such fabrics.

Jeans and Satinets.

"The best grade of jeans, a rough fabric with a cotton warp and a wool filling, retailed at about 50 cents per yard, 27 inches wide, and the best grade of satinets at a somewhat higher price. The satinet was also a

cotton warp fabric with a wool filling which appeared on the outside face of the cloth, and flocks (fine woolen dust) felted on the back to produce weight. In those days the trousers were lined as well as the coat. After a few weeks' wear, when the flocks in the back of the cloth separated from the fabric by attrition, the wearer of satinet garments found an accumulation of flocks at the bottom of his trousers and inside of the skirt of his coat.

No Men's Wear Fabric So Poor Today or Such Poor Vale.

"Notwithstanding the ignorant statements so freely made in public journals, which describe fabrics of the present day as poor and containing shoddy, cotton, etc., there is no men's wear fabric of today's manufacture which can be compared in poorness with the two fabrics I have mentioned. Further, for the same money there can be purchased today fabrics of twice the old value. I recall a ready made pair of trousers retailed at a period before the Civil War for $5.00 made of a cotton warp adulterated cassimeres, which today could be bought at not more than $2.50-100 per cent. higher then than now. The reason this particular garment is recalled to my memory is because I wore such a pair myself and I remember they were very unsatisfactory.

The High Civil War Prices.

"During the time of the Civil War prices of even ordinary necessities of life were enormous. Common unbleached muslin sold at $1.00 per yard, white sugar at 28 cents per pound, and other articles in proportion. A pair of good black doeskin trousers of imported material cost $25, which sum today will buy two

good summer suits made of pure all wool material. At that period the wages of the working man were probably not more than one-half or two-thirds of the present rates. At that time there was no complaint, as well as I remember, of the high cost of living.

Earning Ability of Today and Economy of Former Days Would Mean Large Savings.

"I am confident that if people of small means and small wage earning ability would go back to the more economical and plainer manner of life of those days and receive present wages, their savings would be large. Even under present conditions, the amount of savings in savings institutions, of which the greatest proportion belongs to the wage earning class, together with the enormous sums sent abroad by the foreign population of this class, indicate that their present wages in relation to their living expenses leaves a sufficient margin to provide savings for a rainy day.

Testimony of Department Store Heads as to Greater Cheapness and Value

of Today.

"In an interview with the heads of two departments of a large department store, with which establishment both men have been connected for over thirty-five years, the experience of the buyer of the underwear department, which includes underwear, hosiery, shirts and collars, is as follows: After commencing his service as buyer for the department he purchased on a falling market for twenty-five years. The market then gradually recovered, but up to the present time not to the original level. As an illustration of the present cheaper prices, he tells me he retails

as good an undershirt today at 25 cents as he sold twenty-five years ago at 50 cents also 100 per cent. dearer then than now. Other articles in this line, he said, are in proportion. The head of the clothing department informs me that during his experience of forty years, all material and workmanship of ready made clothing has gradually improved without any practical enhancement of price. That today he sells a better suit, better trimmed, better made and of better cloth for less price than thirty years ago. Man's Entire Wearing Outfit Cheaper

and Better Than Twenty-five
Years Ago.

"Omitting the cost of food products, I contend, and believe an investigation of facts will confirm my statement, that as relating to articles of man's requirement, his entire outfit can be purchased today, beginning with his shoes and ending with his hat, of a better quality and at a lower price than would have been possible twenty-five years ago. This can be demonstrated by taking up any separate article. Shoes, stockings, underwear, outside wear, shirts, collars, neckties and hats all come under this category.

And Present Day Wages Practically Double Those During and for Some

Years After Civil War.

"As a corollary to this condition, present day wages average practically double what they were during and for some years after the Civil War. This is a plain and irrefutable exhibit of the present better condition of the small wage earner. Not being familiar with the prices of women's apparel, except in a general way, I can make no specific statement as to its present or earlier cost, although I believe that for similar quality it is less than many years ago. Fashion plays a most important part in this regard with its constant changes, which are followed more or less by women of all pecuniary conditions, and is a large element in any higher cost, if such there be, at present over that of old times.

Causes of Higher Food Prices.

"I believe that a large part of the increased cost to the consumer of food products is due to the following causes: First, the present methods of placing them before the consumer through several intermediaries; second, cold storage; third, the increase of capital; fourth, also to their production not keeping up to the increase of population and the possibly greater per capita consumption.

"It was formerly the custom of the small farmer to market his products directly to the consumer. I remember distinctly when on certain days of the week the farmers gathered at definite localities and there sold directly their offerings. The present method of merchandising farm products is to consign them to a commission agent, who in turn disposes of them to the grocer or dealer, who sells them to the consumer. By this means two additional intermediaries obtain a profit, which previously was divided between the farmer and the consumer.

"By the cold storage means of indefinitely preserving perishable food products they can be held off the market, to be sold at the will of the dealer, and likewise can be bought up in times of plenty and reserved for a time of artificial scarcity caused by such means to exact tribute from

the consumer, whereas, if such a conservation did not exist the necessity for a prompt disposal would cause their sale at a moderate and fair price. The cold storage proposition is closely allied with the use of large capital in cornering food products, which under the financial conditions of years ago, before the present great accumulation of capital, would have been impossible to carry out. "Recent statistics of the Interior Department show that the output of food products has not kept pace with the increase in population, and, therefore, their increased prices follow simply the old rule of supply and demand."

THE DEMOCRATS AND IN SURGENTS.

From the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Democrats, having shown that they can control the House of

Representatives on a test vote and

in spite of Republican opposition carried to the extreme limit, really places responsibility for legislation in that branch of Congress on the Democratic party. Unfortunately the Democratic leaders are in the same fix as the leaders of the Liberal party in the British Parliament. They can control only by the aid of a fantastic and utterly unreliable hodge-podge of allies who have just demonstrated their indifference to party or any other obligation. And the Democrats are worse off than the British Liberal Ministry in that the intellectual caliber of their side party is very weak. None of them are men who will be able, except temporarily, to get any hold on the attention of the country. In a political contest intellectual vigor wins in the end. There is no record of per

manent success obtained by the secession of the weaker element of a party. In the end they go where the Populists went into political oblivion.

The upheaval in the House of Representatives is merely an incident of the prevailing hysteria, which is certain to pass off within a reasonable time. The public cannot continue to throw fits indefinitely. Exhausted nature in the end demands her tribute, and after a good sound sleep the possessed wake up sane, repentant and ashamed. The fuss in Congress is really of no great importance of itself. The business of the country will get itself done somehow, regardless of who is speaker or how the Committee on Rules is constituted. Democratic members no than Republican will long endure to be bored by small men advocating fads which they imagine to be issues, and rules will again be established which will permit the party in power, whichever it may be, to transact the business of the country, for which it is responsible to the country.

more

The fracas is mainly of importance in respect to its probable effect on the country, and of that it is too early to judge. Apparently few or none of these Republican insurgents can be re-elected as Republicans. Probably not even repentance in dust and ashes will secure forgiveness within any reasonable period.

At this time the natural expectation is that if any of these insurgents -and some probably will-secure nomination by a Republican convention, they will be antagonized by regular Republican candidates knifed at the polls. It is useless to expect the Republican majority to

or

receive them as coworkers. And it would be foolish to do so. There would be no harmony. So at present it looks as if the result of the contest at Washington would be an increased number of Democrats in the next Congress and perhaps control of the House. And that is what they are after. The insurgents are merely made use of to pull Democratic chestnuts out of the fire. It must not be forgotten that the real question at issue is not on the constitution of the House Committee on Rules, upon which there may be honest difference of opinion. The real question at issue is party discipline, without which there cannot be government by party, and the only alternatives to party government are anarchy or despotism. The people of this country are in about the frame of mind they were in 1892-only more so. And they seem in a fair way to repeat the experiment of that year. And all of us remember the result of that experiment.

THE PRESIDENT'S CRITICS.

From the New York Tribune.

Republicans who are disposed to take to heart current criticism of the Taft administration should consider the sources of that criticism. Depreciation of the President and his policies comes almost exclusively from these four groups:

I. From the Democratic party through its spokesmen in the newspapers and in public life. It is the business of an opposition to oppose, and the Democratic party exercises a natural function in trying to convince the country that the administration has committed errors which justify a transfer of responsibility for the conduct of the government into Democratic hands. Democratic criticism can be largely discounted because of the obvious motives by which it is inspired.

2. From professed independents, many of whom supported Mr. Taft for President only because they had to choose between him and Mr. Bryan. Most of these independents in the press or in public life have been malevolent critics in the past of the Republican party, its leaders and the legislation which it has enacted. They have been pronounced in their hostility to the protective system, and the perpetuation of that system in the Payne tariff law has been to them a cause of mortal offence. Their intense devotion to the theory of free trade makes them eager to grasp at anything which will seem to discredit a President who has defended the Payne law as a long step forward in the national development of the protective policy.

3. From a group of professional insurgents, who are delighted to advertise themselves by taking pot shots at so shining a mark as the President. Their criticism is only a means to an end that end being a generous ministration to their own vanity.

4. From a small coterie of Republicans who have served under or were closely affiliated with the last administration, and who seem to have grossly exaggerated their importance in the order of nature and politics. They are now selfishly distressed at their loss of authority and significance, which they hope to recover by undermining the present administration. These men would have been equally resentful against any new regime in which they were not permitted to play conspicuous

parts. They secretly encourage depreciation of President Taft-even when they do not openly engage in it. Their concern at the alleged shortcomings of the administration is much too intense and solicitous to be convincing.

Republicans who consider the sources and motives of the attacks on Mr. Taft need not be disquieted. The great mass of the American people have full confidence in the President's devotion to the public interest. They will not be stampeded by malicious criticism, but will give their own verdict at the proper time on the administration intentions and accomplishments.

PRICE ADVANCES BETWEEN PRODUCER AND CONSUMER.

A Correspondent of the New York Tribune.

On this matter of high prices let us quit the feathers and bristles of the subject and get down to the joint and marrow. Many recklessly charge all high prices to the tariff; others to the organized trusts, to the Republican party, to the President, to the increase in gold production and to various other causes. What have any of these things to do with the following facts and illustrations, and with other like cases?

The dairymen and butter factories of Wisconsin and of the northern counties of this state receive 22 to 28 cents for their butter; we pay 37 to 60 cents. Does the one-half cent or one cent a pound, more or less, of freight charges explain the difference?

The milk producer in northern counties of this state receives I 1/2 and 2 cents a quart for his milk. We pay 8 and 9 cents, while it can be