12 THE AMERICAN FLINT
cated in martyr blood at Cananea and
Orizaba.
The unions demanded shorter hours, a
day of rest, the passage of laws protect
ing the workers. They undertake to aid
members, secure employment and to
build up the membership materially, in
tellectually and morally.
The possibilities of the Mexican work
ers thus indicated are a source of en
couragement to those who realize that the
Mexican population in this country must
be organized or it will reduce the stand
Tariff Does'n Seem to Chop Cost of Living
BY GILSON
With the exception of sugar and flour,
the cost of living continues to mount in
spite of the tariff.
The latest figures compiled by the
government bureau of labor statistics
show that on Oct. I5, 1913, retail prices
were at a higher level than at any other
time during the last 23 years and IO
months.
On that date the average of prices of
food—this average being weighted ac
cording to the average consumption in
workingmen's families—was 70.9 per
cent above the average prices for the
ten-year period between 1890 and 1899.
Moreover it was 7.9 per cent above
the prices for the year before, and 16
per cent above the prices for the year
before that. For these compilations the
government has taken the 40 largest
cities throughout the United States. The
record covers the following articles
which have advanced as follows:
Potatoes, 42.3 per cent; eggs, I4.2 per
cent; round steak, 12.9 per cent; ham,
10.6 per cent; rib roast, 8.8 per cent;
sirloin steak, 8.3 per cent; bacon, 8.2 per
cent; hens, 7.5 per cent; pork chops, 6.3
ard of living and the chance for employ
ment of the American worker.
For endeavoring to develop in their
fellow countrymen these tendencies
toward working-class solidarity, the men
with Rangel and Cline in the Texas
prisons are threatened with a worse fate
than that of the Orizaba martyrs.
Will American Socialists and Labor
Unionists stand idly by and let these
heroes in the fight be sacrificed?
We know they will not
GARDNER.
per cent; butter, 3.7 per cent; milk, 2.7
per cent; cornmeal, I.7 per cent; lard,
I.O per cent.
Sugar declined 8.8 per cent and flour
2.6 per cent.
The average annual income per farm
in the United States, according to Sec
retary Houston's latest report, is $900
per year. Out of this must come the
cost of hired help, machinery, the up
keep of buildings and similar expenses.
There are 6,600,000 farms in the
United States. On these the annual crop
value is $6,100,000,000. Of these crops
52 per cent remain on the farm to be
consumed; 20 per cent of the animal
products also remain on the farm. The
rest is marketed with the above result
as to income.
This report is the first by the depart
ment of agriculture analyzing the return
instead of treating it as a gross return.
It is not such a great boost for the back
to-the-farm movement unless one views
it in the light of an argument in favor
of cultivating the 73 per cent of uncul
tivated lands, privately owned and out
of use.