The Richmond Palladium And Sun Telegram

Food Prices. Labor and War

In trying to get at the reasons for the indifferent attitude of British labor toward the government and the war, Lloyd-George and his associates found one of the chief causes of dissatisfaction was the advancing cost of food in the United Kingdom. The workingmen believed most of this advance was the result of private capital securing control of the food supply and exploiting the masses. Naturally, if capital wasn't patriotic enough to keep down the price of food to the working classes, the working classes didn't feel that it was up to them to be patriotic enough to supply munitions of war to protect the capitalists. Germany was cited as an example of a nation which saw to it that food prices were kept at a minimum as an especial favor to the working classes.

This may not have been patriotic or loyal upon the part of the British workmen, but it was natural. Nor does the moral apply only to nations under the stress of war. The relation between labor and food costs is very intimate. Hubert Eva, of the Duluth Commercial club, in a recent address before the National Association of Commission Men in Detroit said:

"In the family of the wage earner, food takes a greater percentage of the family income than it does in the family of the average salaried or business man. Food costs have a greater bearing on the wages of mechanics than on the salary of the executive. Accordingly the modern wise man, with capital to invest, considers the food supply and its effect on wages when seeking a location for his factory."

Applying this, Mr. Eva reasoned that if civic and trade organizations would devote less time trying to "boom" their communities by artificial methods and acquiring new factories and other enterprises by offering bonuses, free taxes and the like, and would devote their talent and energies to guaranteeing a proper food supply at reasonable prices, they would be stimulating the growth of their community in a substantial and permanent manner that would never slump.

A city with a low cost of living attracts more people than a city with almost any other sort of an inducement. It draws and holds a good class of working people, promotes a permanency of population and reduces dissatisfaction and agitation to a minimum.

The situation in England, where the government is beginning to take charge of food supplies and food prices in order to stop the exploitation of the working classes and remove their cause for resentment and indifference, furnishes point to Mr. Eva's argument.--Sioux City Tribune.