Verily the pioneers did have all sorts of experiences.
CHAPTER LIX.
HIGH COST OF LIVING.
I am going to tell you the story of a public market of Cincinnati, Ohio, nearly a hundred years ago, or more accurately speaking of incidents in which the farmer dispensed with the service of middlemen; where the producer and the consumer met and dealt face to face upon the sidewalks of that embryo city in the long ago.
I am reminded of the incidents referred to by a stroll through the public markets of Seattle. The "middleman", those who bought of the producer and sold to consumers, or those who established a place of deposit and for a commission would sell the products of producer to the retail merchants, who in turn would sell to the consumer, have been berated and charged with the crime of contributing to the high cost of living, hence the public markets were established to the end that producers and consumers might meet on common ground and drive their own bargains. Here is what I found in the Seattle markets:
Eggs from China; grapes from California and Spain; nuts from Brazil, California, Texas and Italy; lemons from California, and Italy; bananas from South America; tomatoes from Cuba; peanuts from Japan and Virginia; oranges from California and Florida; grapefruit from Florida; beef from Australia; butter from New Zealand; cranberries from New Jersey; cocoanuts from South America; oysters from Maryland, and so on down a long list, of various minor products not necessary here to name, to illustrate the point, or rather two points, first that the producers and consumers could not come together and must be served by the "middleman"; and, second, that we are ransacking the world, even to the antipodes, for the products of the earth, in a great measure to satisfy the cravings of abnormal appetites incident to high living.
Any one, at a glance, can see this marshaling of products from the ends of the earth and transporting them for thousands of miles must increase the cost of living and must of necessity call for the offices of the hated "middlemen" with their resultant profits. Even the local products were sold to a great extent by dealers (middlemen) and but few producers were seen in the market. Things are different now from the prevailing condition of a hundred years ago, or even eighty-five years ago, when I was born. The application of steam power for propelling boats was unknown then, or known only as an experiment, and hence there were no steamships to cross the ocean and bring their cargoes of perishable freight; no cables to tap and with a flash to convey an order to the uttermost corners of the earth; no international postal service to carry and deliver written messages; in a word, no facilities to aid in and thus to increase the cost of living; hence, that generation of a hundred years ago, led the simple life. I am not here canvassing the question as to which is the better—simply record the fact. I will venture the opinion, however, the pioneers enjoyed their living with their keen appetites, incident to their out-of-door life, as much as the most tempting collection can give to the abnormal hunger following a gorge of dainties after a day of idleness.
It is well to note, however, the fact that not all the gatherings from foreign lands tend to increase the price of a particular article. Sometimes the opposite results and the cost is reduced, but the general rule is that the imported articles are simply luxuries and should be chargeable to the cost of high living rather than to the high cost of living.