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WHERE THE MONEY GOES.

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WHERE THE MONEY GOES. A housewife now needs 29s. to buy food that cost a sovereign before the war, according to statistics just issued by the Labour department of the Board of Trade. In peace time this would be regarded as a very serious matter, but there is a disposition to regard the great increase in the cost of living as an inevitable part of the burden of war. Certainly we have little reason to complain when we remember what cruelly high prices the British workers paid for bread during the Napoleonic wam when wages were much lower than now. Nor would there seem ground for complaint when we compare the cost of living in this country with that in Germany, or Austria, or even France. But these considerations are not altogether relevant. We are a lucky people, and the advantages of our in- sular position, and of our great navy, ought properly to belong to the whole nation. Are we paying more for the staple articles of food than conditions due to the war justify? There can be little doubt that the answer is in the affirmative. Bread and meat, to take only two commodities, are much dearer than they have strict need to be. On both these commodities the shipowners ,a,re taking a huge toll. Startling facts as to the extortion of the shipowners have this week been made public by Mr T. E. Watson, president of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce. Freights from the River Plate, he pointed out, have now reached a point equivalent to a rise of 2-d. in the four lb. loaf. Now that a further increase in the price of t-he quartern loaf to 9d. is being sug- gested his revelation has added force. Mr Watson instanced a ship, costing P,42,000, making a profit of £ 86,000, am amount which, after deducting war taxes, leaves a profit of R45,000 to owners who normally have to be con- tent with £ 5,000. These huge profits come out of -the pockets of the con- sumers, and the majority of the con- suming public consists of the workers. Thus of the increased price of bread, part is unavoidable, part goes from the pockets of the workers, via the ship- owners, to pay the cost of the war, part swells the fortunes of the shipowners. In this case it is the workers who are really paying the "war profits" tax. It would be ironic, were it not tragic, to think that practically all the miners have got from the ooalowners through the much-criticised strike now goes into the pockets of the shipowners and other capitalist harpies. Foreign meat, which regulates the price of home meat, is in the same case with bre&d. Commnndverr!d -,zhip;, for which the shipowners are quite liberally com- pensated, are 'used to bring the meat to this country, and its distribution, after the needs of the army have been met, is decided partly by the magnates of the meat ring. We may be very sure that these gentlemen do not allow their interests to suffer, and we are all 4COMpolled willy-nilly to enrich them or -do without the Sunday joint. Possibly miners who are puzzled why, in face of the war bonus and the increased stand- ards, their wives find difficulty in daking both ends meet will ponder these facts.

:—I THE DILUTION OF LABOUR…

CRYNANT- !

CRAY I

RAGS GOING UP. I

OUR LONDON LETTER. ————

LLYFRAU AR WERTH AM LAI NA…

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YSTALYFERA NOTES. I dI

SEVEN SISTERS-

[No title]

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