That the complainte have some foundation may be gathered from the fact that as compared with the price in February, 1914, wheat is 72 per cent. higher, flour 75 per cent., sugar 72 per cent., coal 15 per cent., fore meat 12 per cent. and British meat 6 per cent. Other articles of daily diet have not materially altered. In all the circumstances, it is surprising that meat is not much dearer, while flour would rapidly fall if the Dar-dandles were open to traffic.
The Labour Party were not quite satisfied with the Prime Minister's statement and contended that prices were being inflated to fill the pockets of traders. This is not a tenable view. Freights only account for a very small fraction of the rise, which is primarily attributable to the demand outstripping the supply. People are apt to forget that the able-bodied population of this country is being fed in a way unexampled in history, and that while the soldier at the front may undergo all sorts of privations from the climate, he has more than enough to eat, and whether wounded or not comes back looking positively fat and well.
In short, while there is a great deal of grumbling at the necessity of spending a larger proportion of wages on food, there is at the same time no violent outhurst—nor is any likely—because the working man realizes he has a good deal more to spend. Even this week we settled friction both in the coal trade and in the manufacture of khaki, by the employers readily agreeing, as they well can, to a rise in wages during the war; the railwaymen will get their advances next week.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.