Page 711

ALS IK KAN: REVIEWS
ALS IK KAN
LIFE ON THE AUTOMOBILE BASIS AND
WHERE IT IS LEADING US
  T last, they say, we have got at the
        real cause of the increased cost of
        living, but the satisfaction we might
        feel over finding out finally what
the matter is is somehow lessened by the
fact that the name of that cause is legion.
Senator Lodge's committee distributes the
responsibility of the overwhelming bills we
have to foot each month among many con-
ditions and circumstances, of which the
most important are:
   "Increased cost of production of farm
 products by reason of higher land values
 and higher wages; increased demand for
 farm products and food: shifting of popula-
 tion from food-producing to food-consum-
 ing occupations and localities; immigration
 to food-consuming localities; reduced fertil-
 ity of land, resulting in lower average pro-
 duction or in increased expenditures for
 fertilization; increased banking facilities in
 agricultural localities which enable farmers
 to hold their crops and market them to the
 best advantage, which results in steadying
 prices, but also tends to advance prices; re-
 duced supply convenient to transportation
 facilities of such commodities as timber;
 cold storage plants, which result in prevent-
 ing extreme fluctuations of prices of certain
 commodities with the seasons, but by en-
 abling the wholesalers to buy and sell at the
 best possible advantage tend to advance
 prices; increased cost of distribution; indus-
 trial combinations; organizations of pro-
 ducers or of dealers; advertising; increased
 money supply; overcapitalization; higher
 standard of living."
    It all sounds reasonable, and we have no
  doubt that each and every one of these
  causes bears its own share in the present
  stress and strain of living. But, after all,
  could not the whole list be summed up in
  the last item, the higher standard of living?
  We call it a higher standard for want of a
  better word, but we really mean a standard
  of ease and luxury that demands more money
  than the average man can possibly earn in
  a normal way. In the old days of moderate
  fortunes built up by hard work, necessities
  came first and luxuries were carefully con-
  sidered with relation to the general income
  and the needs of the family before they were
  made a charge upon the yearly income. But
  now the carpenter or plumber who comes
to your house if you happen to live in a
suburban town or in the country, comes in
an automobile, and you can hardly cross the
highroads on a Saturday or Sunday after-
noon for dodging the procession of flying
motor cars. You see that the people riding
in these cars are your neighbors and ac-
quaintances, most of them families depend-
ing upon the earnings of a man in a salaried
position or one who is in business for him-
self in a small way. Knowing something
of the cost of a motor car and the steady
expense of its upkeep, you are inclined to
wonder how they manage it, until you read
in an article on financial conditions in the
West that: "the Western speculation in land
was getting to be dangerous, but the banks
have checked that. So was the hunger for
automobiles. I never saw anything like the
way Western farmers went after automo-
biles. They even mortgaged their farms to
get them. I know of one Kansas City bank
that held fifty-two mortgages on that num-
ber of machines." If you were to make a
canvass of Eastern banks you would find
precisely the same state of affairs. The ma-
jority of these people have either mortgaged
their homes or borrowed money to buy an
automobile which they can not afford to
keep after they have got it, and the very
fact that they have it sets the pace for ex-
penditures all along the line.
   It is hard for a man with a moderate in-
 come to order his life on the automobile
 basis unless he has some way of making
 money outside of his salary. If he is dis-
 honest he naturally hunts opportunities for
 graft; if he holds to a higher standard of
 integrity he turns just as naturally to some
 form of speculation, whether in stocks, real
 estate or anything else that promises quick
 returns on a small investment. Then, when
 the market sags and the bottom drops out
 of prices, there is trouble all along the line,
 for all the ingredients of a panic are held in
 solution all the time, and it takes the veriest
 trifle to crystallize them into a genuine
 financial crisis.
    In fact, we are all living at high pressure,
  and nothing but the maximum of speed will
  satisfy us. This is a truism that during the
  past two or three years has echoed from, one
  end of the land to the other, but until peo-
  ple begin to take it seriously it can not be
  repeated too often. At one time it looked
  as if this problem of the higher cost of liv-
  ing was really going to be taken seriously
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