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Brief Contents

Anthropology: Asking Questions Economics: Working, Sharing,

About Humanity 3 and Buying 211

Culture: Giving Meaning to Politics: Cooperation, Conflict,

Human Lives 31 and Power Relations 237

Beyond Nature and Nurture: Race, Ethnicity, and Class:

The Individual, Biology, and Understanding Identity and Social
Culture 55 Inequality 265

Linguistic Anthropology: Relating Gender, Sex, and Sexuality: The

Language and Culture 81 Lives of Women and Men 291

Ethnography: Studying Kinship, Marriage, and the

Culture 107 Family: Love, Sex, and Power 317

Globalization and Culture: Religion: Ritual and Belief 341

Understanding Global
Interconnections 133
Medical Anthropology: Health,
Illness, and Culture 371
Foodways: Finding, Making,
and Eating Food 157
The Arts: Objects, Images,
and Commodities 393
Environmental Anthropology:
Relating to the Natural World 185

••
VII
 Contents
Letter from the Authors xxi
About the Authors xxiii
Preface xxv
Acknowledgments xxxi

Anthropology: Asking Questions About Humanity 3

How Did Anthropology Begin? 5
The Disruptions of Industrialization 5
The Theory of Evolution 6
Colonial Origins of Cultural Anthropology 7
Anthropology as a Global Discipline 7

What Are the Four Subfields of Anthropology and What Do They

Share in Common? 8
Culture 10
Cultural Relativism 11
Human Diversity 12
Change 14
Holism 15

How Do Anthropologists Know What They Know? 15

The Scientific Method in Anthropology 17
When Anthropology Is Not a Science: Interpreting Other Cultures 20

How Is Anthropology Put to Work in the World? 21

Applied and Practicing Anthropology: "The Fifth Subfield"? 22
Putting Anthropology to Work 22

What Ethical Issues Does Anthropology Raise? 24

Do Not Harm. But Is That Enough? 24
To Whom Are Anthropologists Responsible? 25

~~~ CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: E. B. Tylor and the Culture Concept 11

~~~ THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Anthropological
Responsibilities to Informants and People in Authority 26
~~~ DOING FIELDWORK: Conducting Holistic Research with Stanley
Ulijaszek 16

~
Culture: Giving Meaning to Human Lives 31
What Is Culture? 33
Elements of Culture 33
Defining Culture in This Book 39

•
IX
 X CONTENTS

If Culture Is Emergent and Dynamic, Why Does It Feel

So Stable? 40
Symbols 40
Values 41
Norms 41
Traditions 42

How Is Culture Expressed Through Social Institutions? 43

Culture and Social Institutions 44
American Culture Expressed Through Breakfast Cereals and Sexuality 44

Can Anybody Own Culture? 49

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Franz Boas and the Relativity

of Culture 39
THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Understanding
Holism 47
ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Michael Ames
and Collaborative Museum Exhibits 50

Beyond Nature and Nurture: The Individual, Biology,

and Culture 55
What Can the Biology of Brain Development Teach Us
About Culture? 57
The Adaptable Human Brain 57
The Mind and Culture 5 8
Uniting Mind and Matter: A Biocultural Perspective 59

How Do Anthropologists Understand Other People's

Psychologies? 60
What Is an Individual Person? 60
The Culture and Personality School 61
The Individual: Persons and Selves 61
Ethnopsychology 63
Culture and Mental Illness 63

What Role Does Evolution Play in Human Lives? 67

Understanding Evolution Among Human Populations 67
Racism and Early Evolutionary Models in Anthropology 69
Franz Boas and Antievolutionism 69
Moving Beyond Purely Biological Notions of Evolution 71

Is Biotechnology Changing Our Bodies? 72

How Genes Work: The Basics 73
The Dilemmas of Geneticization 74

::: CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Ruth Benedict, the Individual,

and Culture 62
 •
CONTENTS XI

::: THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Controversies Over I.Q

Testing and Mother-Infant Bonding 75
::: ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Kim Hopper,
Homelessness, and the Mentally Ill in New York City 65

Linguistic Anthropology: Relating Language

-- and Culture 81

Where Does Language Come From? 82

Evolutionary Perspectives on Language 83
Historical Linguistics: Studying Language Origins and Change 84

How Does Language Actually Work? 87

Descriptive Linguistics 87
Phonology:SoundsofLanguage 87
Morphology: Grammatical Categories 88
Sociolinguistics 89

Do People Speaking Different Languages Experience Reality

Differently? 92
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 92
Hopi Notions of Time 92
Ethnoscience and Color Terms 94
Is The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Correct? 95

How Can Languages Be So Dynamic and Stable at the Same Time? 96

Linguistic Change, Stability, and National Policy 96
Language Stability Parallels Cultural Stability 97

How Does Language Relate to Social Power and Inequality? 98

Language Ideology 9 8
Gendered Language Styles 99
Language and Social Status 99
Language and the Legacy of Colonialism 10 3

::: CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Edward Sapir on How Language Shapes

Culture 93
::: THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Exploring Relationships
of Power and Status in Local American Dialects 100
::: DOING FIELDWORK: Untangling Language Ideologies in Contemporary
Egypt 102

Ethnography: Studying Culture 107

What Is So Distinctive About Anthropological Fieldwork? 109
Fieldwork 109
Taking Fieldnotes 114
Seeing the World From "The Native's Point of View" 116
Avoiding Cultural "Tunnel Vision" 116
 ••
XII CONTENTS

Aside From Participant Observation and Interviews,

Do Anthropologists Use Other Methods? 119
Comparative Method 119
Genealogical Method 119
Life Histories 120
Ethnohistory 121
Rapid Appraisals 121
Action Research 122
Anthropology at a Distance 122
Analyzing Secondary Materials 122
Special Issues Facing Anthropologists Studying Their Own Societies 124

What Special Ethical Dilemmas Do Ethnographers Face? 127

Protecting Informant Identity 127
Anthropology, Spying, and War 128

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Bronislaw Malinowski on the

Ethnographic Method 118
THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Fieldwork in an American
Mall 110
ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Aleida Rita Ramos
and Indigenous Rights in Brazil 125

Globalization and Culture: Understanding Global

Interconnections 133
Is the World Really Getting Smaller? 135
Defining Globalization 135
The World We Live In 136

Are There Winners and Losers in Global Integration? 140

World Systems Theory 140
Resistance at the Periphery 142
Globalization and Localization 142

Doesn't Everyone Want to Be Developed? 144

What Is Development? 144
Development Anthropology 145
Anthropology of Development 146
Change on Their Own Terms 147

If the World Is Not Becoming Homogenized, What Is It Becoming? 147

Cultural Convergence Theories 148
Clash of Civilizations 148
Hybridization 149

What Strategies Can Anthropologists Use to Study Global

Interconnections? 1SO
Defining an Object of Study 150
Multi-Sited Ethnography 152
 •••
CONTENTS XIII

;;; CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Eric Wolf, Culture, and the World System 141
;;; THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Understanding Global
Integration Through Commodities 139
;;; DOING FIELDWORK: Studying Chernobyl's Aftermath with Adriana
Petryna 151

Foodways: Finding, Making, and Eating Food 157

Why Is There No Universal Human Diet? 159
Human Dietary Adaptability and Constraints 159
Cultural Influences on Human Evolution: Digesting Milk 160

Why Do People Eat Things That Others Consider Disgusting? 162

Foodways and Culture 162
Foodways Are Culturally Constructed 163
Foodways Communicate Symbolic Meaning 164
Foodways Mark Social Boundaries and Identities 164
Foodways Are Dynamic 166

How Do Different Societies Get Food? 169

Foraging 170
Horticulture 171
Pastoralism 172
Intensive Agriculture 173
Industrial Agriculture 174

How Are Contemporary Foodways Changing? 175

Growing Environmental Impacts of Industrial Agriculture 178
Industrial Foods, Sedentary Lives, and the Nutrition Transition 178
The Return of Local and Organic Foods? 179
The Biocultural Logic of Local Foodways 180

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Audrey Richards and the Study

of Foodways 163
THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Food Preferences
and Gender 167
;;; ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Migrant Farmworker
Food Security in Vermont with Teresa Mares 176

Environmental Anthropology: Relating to the

Natural World 185
Do All People Conceive of Nature in the Same Way? 187
The Human-Nature Divide? 187
The Cultural Landscape 189

How Is Non-Western Knowledge of Nature Similar to and Different

From Science? 190
Ethnoscience 191
Traditional Ecological Knowledge 192
 •
XIV CONTENTS

Do Only Industrialized Western Societies Conserve

Nature? 195
Artifactual Landscapes 195
The Culture of Modern Nature Conservation 196
Is Collaborative Conservation Possible? 198

How Do Social and Cultural Factors Drive Environmental

Destruction? 199
Population and Environment 200
Ecological Footprint 202
Political Ecology 203

~~~ CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Roy Rappaport's Insider and Outsider

Models 194
~~~ THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Identifying Hidden
Costs 204
~~~ DOI NG Fl ELDWORK: James Fairhead and Melissa Leach on Misreading
the African Landscape 201

Economics: Working, Sharing, and Buying 211

Is Money Really the Measure of All Things? 213

Culture, Economics, and Value 214
The Neoclassical Perspective 214
The Substantivist-Formalist Debate 215
The Marxist Perspective 218
The Cultural Economics Perspective 218

How Does Culture Shape the Value and Meaning of Money

Itself? 220
The Types and Cultural Dimensions of Money 220

Why Is Gift Exchange Such an Important Part of All

Societies? 222
Gift Exchange and Economy: Two Classic Approaches 222
Gift Exchange in Market-Based Economies 226

Why Does Having Some Things Make You Cool? 227

Are There Distinct Cultures of Capitalism? 229

Culture and Social Relations on Wall Street 230
Entrepreneurial Capitalism Among Malays 231

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Marshall Sahlins on Exchange in

Traditional Economies 217
THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: The Role of Exchange
in Managing Social Relationships 224
ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Ashraf Ghani and the
Reconstruction of the Afghan Economy 232
 CONTENTS XV

Politics: Cooperation, Conflict, and Power Relations 237

Does Every Society Have a Government? 239
The Idea of ((Politics" and the Problem of Order 240
Structural-Functionalist Models of Political Stability 240
Nee-Evolutionary Models of Political Organization: Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms,
and States 242
Challenges to Traditional Political Anthropology 243

What Is Political Power? 244

Defining Political Power 245
Political Power Is Action-Oriented 245
Political Power Is Structural 246
Political Power Is Gendered 247
Political Power in Non-State Societies 248
The Political Power of the Contemporary Nation-State 250

Why Do Some Societies Seem More Violent Than Others? 252

What Is Violence? 253
Violence and Culture 253
Explaining the Rise of Violence in Our Contemporary World 255

How Do People Avoid Cycles of Aggression, Brutality,

and War? 257
What Disputes Are ''About" 257
How People Manage Disputes 257
Is Restoring Harmony Always the Best Way? 260

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: E. E. Evans-Pritchard on Segmentary

Lineages 241
......
......... THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: The Power of Personal
Connections 249
......
......... ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Maxwell Owusu
and Democracy in Ghana 251

Race, Ethnicity, and Class: Understanding Identity

and Social Inequality 265
Are Differences of Race Also Differences of Biology? 267
The Biological Meanings (and Meaningless) of ((Human Races" 268
Race Does Have Biological Consequences 270

How Is Race Culturally Constructed? 270

The Absence of Race in Colonial Virginia 271
How Africans Became ((Black" and Europeans Became ((White" in Seventeenth-
Century Virginia 271
The One-Drop Rule 273
Racialization in Latin America 273
Saying ((Race Is Culturally Constructed" Is Not Enough 276
 •
XVI CONTENTS

How Are Other Social Classifications Like Ethnicity, Class,

and Caste Naturalized? 276
Ethnicity: Common Descent 277
Class: Economic Hierarchy in Capitalist Societies 278
Caste: Moral Purity and Pollution 279

Are Prejudice and Discrimination Inevitable? 281

Understanding Prejudice 282
Discrimination, Explicit and Disguised 282
The Other Side of Discrimination: Unearned Privilege 287

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Hortense Powdermaker

on Prejudice 283
THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Counting
and Classifying Race in the American Census 274
•••
••• DOI NG Fl ELDWORK: Tamie Tsuchiyama and Fieldwork
in a Japanese-American Internment Camp 285

£=--" Gender, Sex, and Sexuality: The Lives of Women

and Men 291
In What Ways Are Males and Females Different? 293
Toward a Biocultural Perspective on Male and Female Differences 293
Rethinking the Male-Female Dichotomy 295
Hormones and Differences in Male and Female Behavior 297

In What Ways Are Men and Women Unequal? 298

Debating "The Second Sex" 299
Taking Stock of the Debate 300
Reproducing Gender/Sex Inequalities 300

What Does It Mean to Be Neither Male Nor Female? 302

Navajo Nddleehe 303
Indian Hijras 304
"Transgender" in the United States 305

Is Human Sexuality Just a Matter of Being Straight

or Queer? 308
Cultural Perspectives on Same-Sex Sexuality 308
Controlling Sexuality 312

•••
••• CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Margaret Mead and the Sex/Gender
Distinction 294
•••
••• THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: The Ethics of Research
and Advocacy With Transgender People 307
•••
••• DOING FIELDWORK: Don Kulick and "Coming Out"
in the Field 310
 ••
CONTENTS XVII

Kinship, Marriage, and the Family: Love, Sex,

and Power 317

What Are Families, and How Are They Structured in Different

Societies? 319
Families, Ideal and Real 319
Nuclear and Extended Families 320
Clans and Lineages 321
Kinship Terminologies 323

How Do Families Control Power and Wealth? 328

Claiming a Bride 328
Recruiting the Kids 329
The Dowry in India: Providing a Financial Safety Net for a Bride 329
Controlling Family Wealth Through Inheritance 330
Inheritance Rules in Nonindustrial Societies 330

Why Do People Get Married? 331

Why People Get Married 331
Forms of Marriage 333
Sex, Love, and the Power of Families Over Young Couples 333

How Are Technological Changes Reshaping How People Think

About Family? 335
In Vitro Fertilization 335
Surrogate Mothers and Sperm Donors 336

~~~ CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: A. L. Kroeber on Classificatory Systems

of Relationship 324
~~~ THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Genealogical Amnesia
in Bali, Indonesia, and the United States 327
~~~ DOING FIELDWORK: Ellen Lewin on Studying Lesbian and
Gay Commitment Ceremonies 332

Religion: Ritual and Belief 341

How Should We Understand Religion and Religious Beliefs? 343
Understanding Religion version 1.0: Edward B. Tylor and Belief in Spirits 343
Understanding Religion version 2.0: Anthony F. C. Wallace on Supernatural
Beings, Powers, and Forces 344
Understanding Religion version 3.0: Religion as a System of Symbols 345
Understanding Religion version 4.0: Religion as a System of Social Action 346
Understanding Suicide Bomber Attacks 347

What Forms Does Religion Take? 350

Clan Spirits and Clan Identities in New Guinea 351
Totemism in North America 351
Shamanism and Ecstatic Religious Experiences 352
Ritual Symbols That Reinforce a Hierarchical Social Order 353
 •••
XVIII CONTENTS

Polytheism and Monotheism in Ancient Societies 354

World Religions and Universal Understandings of the World 355
How Does Atheism Fit in the Discussion? 356

How Do Rituals Work? 356

Magical Thought in Non-Western Cultures 356
Sympathetic Magic: The Law of Similarity and the Law of Contagion 357
Magic in Western Societies 360
Rites of Passage and the Ritual Process 360

How Is Religion Linked to Political and Social Action? 363

The Rise of Fundamentalism 363
Understanding Fundamentalism 364

;;; CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Sir James G. Frazer on Sympathetic

Magic 358
;;; THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Examining Rites
of Passage 361
;;; DOI NG Fl ELDWORK: Studying the Sikh Militants 365

Medical Anthropology: Health, Illness, and Culture 371

What Do We Mean by Health and Illness? 373
The Individual Subjectivity of Illness 373
The "Sick Role": The Social Expectations of Illness 374

How and Why Do Doctors and Other Health Practitioners Gain

Social Authority? 376
The Disease-Illness Distinction: Professional and Popular Views of Sickness 377
The Medicalization of the Non-Medical 380

How Does Healing Happen? 383

Clinical Therapeutic Processes 383
Symbolic Therapeutic Processes 383
Social Support 384
Persuasion: The Placebo Effect 384

What Can Anthropology Contribute to Addressing Global Health

Problems? 386
Understanding Global Health Problems 386
Anthropological Contributions to Tackling the International HIV/AIDS Crisis 388

CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Arthur Kleinman and the New Medical

Anthropological Methodology 379
THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: The Emergence of New
Disease Categories 381
ANTHROPOLOGIST AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Nancy Scheper-Hughes
on an Engaged Anthropology of Health 389
 •
CONTENTS XIX

The Arts: Objects, Images, and Commodities 393

How Should We Look at Art Objects Anthropologically? 395
The Many Dimensions of Objects 396
A Shiny New Bicycle, in Multiple Dimensions 397
An Anthropological Perspective on Aesthetics 398

Why and How Do the Meanings of Things Change Over Time? 402
The Social Life of Things 402
Three Ways Objects Change Over Time 403

How Do Certain Objects Come to Represent People's Goals

and Aspirations? 409
The Cultural Biography of Things 409
The Culture of Mass Consumption 410
How Can Some People Use Objects to Manipulate Us? 413

How Do Images Shape the Worlds in Which People Live? 414

The Power of Visual Media 414
Manipulating Images 415
Films Have Social Lives, Too 417

::: CLASSIC CONTRIBUTIONS: Nancy Munn on Graphic Signs Among the

Walbiri of the Australian Desert 400
::: THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST: Looking at Objects From
Multiple Perspectives 407
::: DOING FIELDWORK: Christina Kreps Studies Indigenous Indonesian
Perceptions of Museums 411

Glossary 421
References 427
Credits 439
List of Boxes 444
Index 445
Letter from the Authors
Dear Reader,

Imagine how people would react to you if the next time you went to the university
bookstore you tried to haggle at the cash register for your textbooks. Or if the next
time you caught a cold you explained to your friends that you were sick because a
jealous person had hired a witch to cast a spell on you. In both cases, a lot of people
would think you are crazy. But in many societies throughout the world, a lot of ordin-
ary people would consider you crazy for not haggling or for not explaining your mis-
fortunes as the workings of a witch.
Issues such as these raise some interesting questions. How do people come to believe
such things? How are such beliefs reflected in and bolstered by individual behavior
and social institutions in a society? Why do we believe and act in the ways we do?
Such questions are at the core of the study of culture. The idea of culture is one of
anthropology's most important contributions to knowledge.
The goal of our textbook is to help students develop the ability to pose good an-
thropological questions and begin answering them, our inspiration coming from the
expression ((99°/o of a good answer is a good question." We present problems and ques-
tions that students will find provocative and contemporary, and then use theories,
ethnographic case studies, and applied perspectives as ways of explaining how anthro-
pologists have looked at these topics over time. Our approach emphasizes what is
currently known within the study of cultural anthropology and issues that continue
to challenge.
Central to the plan of this book are three underlying principles that guide our ap-
proach to cultural anthropology:

• An emphasis on learning how to ask important and interesting anthropological

•
questions.
• Applying anthropology to understand and solve human problems.
• Respecting tradition, with a contemporary perspective.

Every chapter, every feature of the book has been written with these principles in mind.
We have written a book about anthropology that draws on insights anthropologists
have learned during the twentieth century. At the same time, with its cutting-edge
content and pedagogy, this is a textbook that provides what students need for the
twenty-first century.
For most students, an introductory course in cultural anthropology is the only edu-
cational exposure they will have to anthropological thinking. Most readers are un-
likely to see anthropological thinking as relevant to their own lives unless we find a
way to make it so. This book represents our endeavor to do just that.
Here's wishing you greater appreciation of cultural anthropology and a lifetime of
cultural revelations to come.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Welsch

Luis A. Vivanco

•
XXI
About the Authors
Robert L. Welsch currently teaches cultural anthropology at Franklin Pierce Univer-
sity and previously taught for many years at Dartmouth College. He was affiliated
with The Field Museum in Chicago for more than two decades. Trained in the 1970s,
at a time when anthropologists still focused mainly on non-Western village-level soci-
eties, and when cultural materialist, Marxist, structuralist, and interpretive theories
dominated the discipline, Welsch's research has focused on medical anthropology, re-
ligion, exchange, art, and museum studies in the classic anthropological settings of
Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Luis A. Vivanco teaches cultural anthropology and global studies at the University
of Vermont, where he has won several of the university's top teaching awards.
He was trained in the 1990s when post-structuralist perspectives and "studying up"
(studying powerful institutions and bureaucracies, often in Western contexts) was
becoming commonplace. Vivanco has worked in Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia,
and the United States, studying the culture and politics of environmentalist social
movements, the media, science, ecotourism, and urban mobility with bicycles.
In addition to this book, he is author of two ethnographic monographs, co-editor
of two others, as well as numerous articles and book chapters.

• ••
XXII I
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
generation, nor those to come can ever know, for the waste places of the
earth are being inhabited, and the old ways are lost ways, and may never be
known again. We that were of them know that the world grows better and we
do not wish the dial to now reflect only the shadows of the past, but there are
times when the old simple ways are ways to regret, even though we accept
the truth that progress means betterment. But in the betterment, we lose
some things we miss greatly and would love to retain. There is nothing more
humanizing, nothing more tending to the brotherhood of man, than much
interdependence.
"In those days while there was of necessity great self-reliance, there was
also much wholesome dependence upon our neighbors, in all the matters of
daily life the need was felt, and the call was answered.
"The day, in the last extremity, when death invades the household doubtless
the last rites are better cared for in the skilled hands of the "funeral director"
than by the kindly neighbors who in the earlier times came with tender
thought and kindly intention to you in your affliction. It brought you close
together. If there were need to be tolerant to some blemishes in their general
make up, you felt you were constrained to exercise such tolerance, for you
had accepted their services in your need.
"You knew them at their best and always remembered they had such a
best.
"We lose this in our larger life, and it is a serious loss, as are all things that
separate us from our fellow man, when our need is to be brought closer
together. In all large gains we have to accept some losses.
"It is the remembrance of this feature of primitive days that make them so
dear to us."
"E. J. ALLEN."

FOOTNOTES:
[31] Now so rare that $25.00 has been paid for a copy in two
instances.
[32] Since deceased at the age of 93.
 CHAPTER LVII.
SKETCHES OF WESTERN LIFE.
"Occidental, Transcontinental, Oriental" McDonald.
In the early fifties of the 19th century, there appeared on the
waters of Puget Sound an eccentric character answering to the
name of Joe Lane McDonald. He was a corpulent man of low stature,
short bowlegs, a fat neck, a "pug" bulldog nose, with small but very
piercing eyes and withal a high forehead that otherwise softened the
first unfavorable impression of him.
The writer is relating personal observations of this unique
character as he frequently saw him at the new and then thriving
town of Steilacoom, then the center of trade for all of Puget Sound
and to the Straits of San Juan De Fuca.
McDonald enjoyed the distinction of being among the first, if not
the very first, trader among the 6,000 Indians of Puget Sound, for at
that early day, 1853-55, there were but few whites to be seen. His
sloop, about the size of an ordinary whaleboat, was decked over fore
and aft and along each side, leaving an oblong open oval space in
the center from which the captain, as he was frequently called, could
stand at the helm and manage his sail, and eat a lunch easily
reached from a locker nearby.
When once engaged in conversation, the unfavorable impression
made by his physical deformities and unkempt condition
disappeared, as he was glib of tongue and possessed a world of
ideas far in advance of his compeers, and with knowledge to back
up his theories. He would declaim almost by the hour portraying the
grand future of Puget Sound, the "Occidental, Transcontinental,
Oriental Trade", as he put it, that would certainly come in the near
future and the grand possibilities for the embryo center of trade, the
town of Steilacoom.
"Harping" upon the topic so much, McDonald came to be known
more by the sobriquet of "Occidental, Transcontinental, Oriental"
McDonald, rather than by his own given name.
The keep of his sloop was as neglected as that of his person,
which of itself is saying a good deal. It was a fact that the odor from
his boat (not to give it a worse name) could be detected, with
favorable wind, a hundred paces away and from McDonald himself
uncomfortably so in a close room.
Notwithstanding all this he was an interesting character, and
always arrested attention when he spoke, though of course with
differing views of his theories advanced.
McDonald clearly pointed out what was going to happen and what
has happened, the building of a vast overland and oversea trade far
beyond his greatest "flights of fancy," as so many of his pioneer
friends were wont to call his teaching.
But the Indian war came, some white people were massacred,
some Indians went on the warpath, the remainder of the six
thousand went to the reservations and McDonald's occupation was
gone, his sloop was taken over for Government use and he himself
disappeared, doubtless to reach an early and unmarked grave.
These scenes were enacted now nearly sixty years ago. The then
silent waters of Puget Sound, save by the stroke of the paddle upon
the waves and the song of the Indians, is now displaced by great
steamers navigating these waters; the overseas tonnage is in excess
of McDonald's prophecies.
The transcontinental traffic that McDonald so prophetically pointed
out is now almost beyond computation and cared for by six great
railroad systems; the "Oriental" trade has assumed vast proportions,
cared for in part by the regular sailing of 20,000 ton steamers; the
coast tonnage has grown far beyond the most optimistic prophecy;
the "dream of the star" to the flag has come true for the great State
of Washington, as depicted by the poet:
"For the land is a grand and goodly land,
And its fruitful fields are tilled
By the sons who see the flag of the free,
The dream of the star fulfilled."
 CHAPTER LVIII.
SKETCHES OF WESTERN LIFE.
"The Prairie Schooner."
Just why the prairie schooner wagon body was built boat shape I
have never been able to tell or see anybody else that could. That
shape came in very handy when we crossed the plains in the early
days, with which to cross the rivers, but we had the same kind on
the farm in Indiana, where we had no thought to use them as a
boat.
Their real history is, this type of wagon was introduced from
England, and for a century this form was used because those that
had gone before us had used it, and it took a long time to bring
about a change.
These, though, as the Westerner would say, "came in mighty
handy," when we came to a big river to cross as we were on the
road to Oregon sixty-three years ago.
The Prairie Schooner on the White House Grounds, Washington, D. C., November
29, 1907. White House in Background.

I got into a scrape once in crossing Snake River when I foolishly

put my whole running-gear on top of the bed and weighted it down
to within an inch of the top; I escaped, as the saying goes, "by the
skin of my teeth," but vowed I would never do so again, and I never
did. Hundreds crossed over in their wagon beds in 1852, and I never
knew of an accident, though when some foolish people started down
Snake River they soon got into rapid water, lost all they had, and
some their lives.
Just to be a "doing" as the saying goes, and to see how it would
look, I concluded to cross a river in my wagon box on this last trip
when I drove to Washington, and let the moving picture men take it.
It was the Loop Fork of the Platte River and about three-quarters of
a mile wide. I have the film and some days I showed it in the
Washington State Building at the Panama Exposition at San
Francisco and every day the oxen themselves could be seen.
 Before I got through I was somewhat like the little boy that went
out a hunting and got lost, who said he was sorry he come. We ran
onto a sand bar and had to get out on to the quicksand to push off,
and then, to cap the climax, the current carried us down past our
landing and we had to tow up by main strength and awkwardness,
so I concluded there wasn't so much fun in it as there might be and
that I didn't want any more like experiences when past eighty years.
We got a good picture, though, for when we got into the scrape we
forgot to act and got "the real thing."

Dave and Dandy (mounted), with the Prairie Schooner in the Transportation
Building, Panama-Pacific Exposition.

I have often been amused when asked how I got the oxen over,
just as though they thought I could put a two thousand pound live
ox into a wagon box. I didn't take these in the picture at all, but
came back to the same side of the river from which we started. Not
so in '52. We had to cross with the oxen also, and sometimes it was
no small job, in fact, more than to cross the outfit and wagon. I was
generally able to get all mine to swim over in a bunch, but I knew
some that had to tow over each animal separate, and some were
drowned on the way. Some streams had quicksand bottoms, and
woe betide the wagon that once got stuck. To guard against this
many wagons were hitched together (a team though to each wagon)
and it was a long, strong pull and a pull altogether. We had to keep
moving, else there would be serious trouble.
Some places the sand would disappear so suddenly the wheels
would come down with a jolt like as if passing over a rough corduroy
road.
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.
When the tariff was recently revised and protection withdrawn or
duties reduced on agricultural articles produced in the United States,
with trumpets from the housetops it was proclaimed the cost of
living would be reduced. No such result has followed, as in fact it
has advanced.
 Take the article of beef for instance. The duty was removed, the
great packing firms at once established agencies in all foreign meat
producing countries, the foreign markets advanced a notch, the
meat baron of the United States took up the remainder of the duty
reduction, the government lost the revenue, meat at the block
continued as high as ever to the consumer, the meat producing
industry of our country was discouraged and the high cost of living
remained. This foreign meat produced on cheap lands and with
cheap labor is a constant menace to our own meat producing
industry and will deter many from increasing their bands of cattle, so
that we may see prices in the future advance instead of declining,
because of the reduced home production.
Take the item of eggs. The duty was removed and immediately
shipments came from China, where labor is twenty cents a day or
less, where eggs can be produced at half the cost as here, but the
consumer does not as yet reap any benefit, for the shipper fixes the
price at what the market will bear; but, and here is the point, there
is the menace to deter our home producers from reaching out to
produce more eggs, knowing there will come a time when prices will
seek a common level, governed by the shipments from China, our
producers will be discouraged and go out of the business and up will
go the price of eggs higher than ever.
The duty was lowered from six cents a pound to two and a half on
butter; foreign canned milk is displacing our home production and
the dairy interest begins to feel the depressing influence of the
danger that hovers over it. Let the prices drop to a point that would
cease to be profitable, our dairies would be depleted and the foreign
products take possession and take all the market would bear. And so
we find it in other agricultural products, to be considered hereafter.
The point bearing on the high cost of living is that we need to
encourage and not discourage home production and labor and to get
the producer and consumer closer together; also with our railroads,
we should insist that they look inward and stop the waste before
being granted an increase of rates, so with our consumers, before
they outlaw the producers and kill the goose that lays the golden
egg, they had better look inward and see if the remedy is not at
least in part with themselves.
Let us now look into the scenes of the Cincinnati market of
pioneer days. I will describe only one phase of it, as handed down to
me by my mother, who was one of the actors. My grandfather Baker
was a farmer and lived twenty-five miles away from Cincinnati as the
road ran. He had settled a few miles east of Hamilton, Ohio, in 1801
or 1802, where my mother was born and near where I was born. In
ten years time he had his flock of sheep, his cows, pigs, horses, colts
and abundance of pasture on the land he had cleared. I never could
understand why in all these years he didn't have a wagon, but such
was the case. He never would go in debt for anything. When my
mother was twelve years old she began making the trips on
horseback with her father to the market at Cincinnati. They carried
everything they had to sell on the horses they rode, or perhaps a
loose horse or a two-year-old colt might be taken along. They
carried butter, eggs, chickens (dressed and sometimes alive),
smoked meat and sometimes fresh. Sometimes they would make lye
hominy and then again sauerkraut; then again when hog killing time
came around, sausage and head cheese would be added, and so we
see quite a variety would make up their stock to offer on the market.
Nor was this all. The family of four children were all girls. They were
taught to card the wool raised on the farm, spin the yarn and weave
the cloth all by hand in the cabin adjoining the living room and
sometimes in the living room. I can remember the hum of the
spinning-wheel and the "slam" of the loom as the filling of cloth was
sent "home", also the rattle of grandmother's knitting-needles to be
heard often clear across the room, which is a precious memory. To
the stock of products as enumerated would often be added a "bolt"
of cloth, or perhaps a blanket or two or a few pairs of stockings and
often a large bundle of "cuts" of yarn which always found a ready
purchaser—wanted by the ladies of the city for their knitting parties.
 The youngsters will ask, "What is a 'cut' of yarn?" I will tell you as
near as I know. The yarn when spun was "reeled" off from the spool
of the wheel into skeins of even lengths of yarn that could be used
in the chain or warp for the cloth to be woven or wound off into
balls for the knitting. These "cuts" were the skein, of even length of
thread neatly twisted, doubled into shape as long as your hand and
size of your wrist and securely fastened to remain in this shape.
Sometimes the yarn would be "dyed" a butternut color and again
would be taken to market in natural colors either white or black;
sometimes a black sheep's wool would serve to make up the variety
by doubling and twisting a black's and white's together.
The trip to Cincinnati would often be made by moon-light, so
timed as to arrive at "peep of day" to be ready for the buyers that
were sure to come to meet the country folks, for this was a real
country market where no middlemen appeared, and for that matter
were not allowed. My grandfather's "stuff", as they called it, would
be displayed either on the sidewalk or in the street nearby where his
horses were munching their grain or a bit of hay, and by 9:00 o'clock
they would be off on their road home, to arrive by nightfall, hungry
and tired, with the money safe in his deerskin sack.
It is needless to add that this household was thrifty and
accumulated money. Later in life it was currently reported that he
had a barrel of money (silver), and I can readily believe the story, as
he spent but little and was always accumulating. I know that more
than a peck of this silver came over to Indianapolis to assist in
buying the farm where I received my education in farming on the
daily routine of farm work experience.
And so we can see that the so-called high cost of living is
chargeable to the cost of "high living", to the abandonment of the
simple life, to the change in habits of the later generation, not
counting the extravagant wants now so prevalent that was unknown
in pioneer days.
 CHAPTER LX.
THE COST OF HIGH LIVING.
On the 16th day of December, 1873, the last spike was driven to
complete the Northern Pacific Railway between Kalama and Tacoma.
This was then, and is yet, considered a great event in the history
of the Northwest country, not because of completing railroad
connection between the two towns, but because of the binding
together with bands of steel the two great arteries of traffic, the
Columbia River and Puget Sound.
Kalama, situated on the right bank of the Columbia forty miles
below Portland, was then simply a construction town of railroad
laborers, and has remained as a village to this day. Tacoma, which
then could boast of four hundred inhabitants—mill hands, terminal
seekers and railroad laborers—has now fully one hundred thousand
permanent inhabitants, engaged in the usual avocations of industry
incident to civilized life.
On the 16th day of December, 1913, the Tacoma Commercial Club
celebrated "The Fortieth Anniversary of Train Operation to Tacoma,"
in the form of a railroad "Jubilee Dinner." In consideration of my
having been a passenger on that first train, and "possibly the only
survivor of that passenger list", the writer received a cordial
invitation to be the guest of the club, which was accepted. He
occupied a chair at the banquet table, sat as a mute spectator, and
listened to the speeches that followed the banquet, and saw the
many devices arranged for entertaining the company.
It would appear unseemly for the writer, as a guest, to criticize his
host, the Commercial Club, for the manner of his entertainment,
particularly considering the cordiality of the invitation. "We hope that
you can be here, but if you cannot there will be at least one vacant
chair at the banquet table, and it will be held in memory of Ezra
Meeker, the pioneer of the Puget Sound country", this following
expressions of concern as to my health. So, whatever criticism may
follow will be as a friend of a friend and not in a facetious spirit. Let
us now consider the banquet, so intimately connected with the
subject of the high cost of living, or perhaps in this case might I not
better say, "cost of high living", or for what might be more
appropriately known as the woeful waste cost of living. Covers were
laid for 344 in the large banquet hall, and every seat was occupied.
In addition a large number were fed in overflow, improvised dining
halls, the participants coming into the main hall to hear the speeches
after the feast was over. Seven courses came upon the board,
including wine in profusion. Fully one-third of the viands of these
seven courses was sent off the table and to the garbage cans,
destined to soon reach the incinerator or sewers of the city, and later
the deep sea waters of Puget Sound, save one item, the wine, all of
which was consumed. As I sat and mused, to me it seemed a pity
the wine did not follow the waste into the sea. The tables and hall
were profusely decorated with flowers. In one corner of the hall soft
strains of sweet music would issue from a band half hidden from
view. Alternately with these, in a more central position, gifted
singers would entertain the assemblage with appropriate songs.
In one angle of the room was a booth, "The Round House" of one
of the transcontinental lines; at another point, "The Terminals", and
so on through with the four transcontinental railroad lines centering
in Tacoma, with "conductors" as ushers, dining and sleeping car
porters as waiters, each appropriately decorated to point the line to
which they belonged.
As I sat and mused between courses, it gradually dawned upon
my mind that this was in fact as well as in name a "railroad jubilee
dinner" and celebration, and not an assemblage to commemorate
pioneer deeds as pioneer days; that the "Anniversary" date had been
seized upon to attract the widest possible attendance to accomplish
another purpose—that the object of the meeting was to obtain a
hearing for a "square deal" for the railroads, in a word, to build up a
public sentiment favoring the increase of freight rates. This fact
became more manifest and more apparent as the program was
unfolded in the introduction of five railroad magnates as the principal
speakers of the evening, followed by the young governors of the
States of Oregon and Washington, but not a pioneer was called or
heard. In fact, less than half a dozen of the pioneers of forty years
ago were present—a whole generation had passed in these eventful
years since 1873.
We come now to the consideration of the high cost of living as
outlined by the railroad magnates in their plea for an advance in
freight rates. The high cost of living had advanced wages; the cost
of operating the railroad was greater, while the rates from time to
time had been lowered until the receipts had almost reached the
vanishing point where dividends might be declared; and to the point
where more capital could not be enlisted for betterment and
extension of the lines to keep pace with the vast increase of traffic.
The burden of these speeches for an hour and a half was for a
higher freight rate and a plea for a more friendly feeling on the part
of the general public towards the railroads.
I had expected to hear something said about some method of
reducing the cost of living, but nothing whatever was said on that
point; or of economizing in the cost of operating the railroads, but
on that point the speakers were silent. These five speakers were
together probably drawing a hundred thousand dollars annual salary,
but no hint was given of expecting to take less. However, many of
the points were well taken, and ably stated by the speakers, and
received the serious consideration of the four hundred business men
who were present, and of thousands that read the account of the
proceedings published in the current issues of the newspapers of the
day. I mused. If because of the high cost of living wages advanced,
and because wages advanced freight rates advanced, how long
would it be until another advance for all hands round would be
demanded? This in turn brings to the front the question of whither
are we tending? Some honestly, while others with better knowledge
insolently, charged the "Robber Tariff" as the cause of the high cost
of living. The tariff has been revised downward and yet the cost of
living advances. The demand for labor has lessened and bread lines
for the unemployed threatened, and with it the cost of low living has
become a vital question.
Referring again to the banquet room and to the woeful waste
going into the sewers of Tacoma, may we not pause for the moment
to ask, How many of these banquet rooms, great and small, hotels,
kitchens of the idle rich as well as the improvident poor, are pouring
like waste into the sewers and the deep sea in the United States? If
all were collected in one great sewer, the volume would stagger the
imagination. One authority would have it the volume would equal
that of the water pouring through the channel of the Ohio River.
Whatever the volume, all will realize that could this wilful waste of
food be stopped, that food would become more abundant, the
general public better fed while the cost of living would be lowered.
The American people have this sin to answer for, and the question
will remain with them until answered and atonement made.
May we not properly ask the railroad magnates to look inwardly
and see if some methods of economy can not be introduced in their
management that will reduce the cost of operating while not
lessening the efficiency of the services. Not one word was said by
the speakers on this point. I do not allege that much can be
accomplished in this direction, but I do say that it is incumbent upon
railroad managers to search the way and come before the American
people with clean hands and they will be met with hearty response
for the square deal. Some of the speakers emphasized the fact that
once the people eagerly welcomed the railroads until they got them,
and then turned against them apparently as enemies. The speakers
seemingly forgot the time when the railroad managers had become
arrogant and acted, some of them, somewhat as expressed by that
inelegant phrase, "the public be damned", and treated the railroads
wholly as private property the same as a farm or a factory or the
home. One might easily read between the lines of some of the
speeches that this doctrine of ownership without restriction as to the
duties due the public was still lurking in minds of the men making
them.
These speeches and kindred efforts, however, will do a good work,
will clear the way for a better understanding, and will in the end
accomplish the coming together of the people and railroads. More
than once in the banquet speeches, government ownership was
spoken of as the result of present tendencies, and one might almost
say welcomed by the speakers, anyway, flippantly spoken of as a
possible if not probable event. I could not help but feel that there
was a vein of insincerity running through these expressed opinions,
and that the words were intended for effect to hasten the day of
reconciliation as between the public and the railroads. To my mind
such expressions coming from such a source were ill advised. One
can scarcely imagine a so-called railroad man that in his heart would
welcome government ownership of railroads in this great nation of
freedom. These lines are penned by the hand of one born before the
advent of railroads in the United States. Perhaps, to be exact, we
might note that at that time (December 29, 1830) twenty-eight miles
of a so-called railroad (a tramway) were in operation in the coal
mining district. Now we are told there are over two hundred and
sixty thousand miles, requiring a tremendous army to operate and
maintain. The day the policy of government ownership of railroads in
the United States is adopted, that day will see the germ planted that
will eventually grow to open the way for the "man on horseback"
and the subversion of a free government. The reader may conclude
this belief comes from the pessimistic mind of an old man, and not
worthy of serious attention. The writer will cheerfully submit to be
called elderly, but will emphatically disclaim being a pessimist and
will claim this thought expressed as to government ownership of the
railroads deserves very serious consideration as fraught with great
danger. But this is a digression and now let us get back to the
subject of the high cost of living.
 A few weeks ago much was written and published about the high
cost of eggs. Finally the ladies of Seattle hired a theater and more
than a thousand of them assembled to listen to speeches made and
to vote for resolutions presented denouncing alleged speculation in
eggs by the cold storage people, forgetting the fact there was no
surplus and that the law of supply and demand governed. As before
written, I hesitated to criticise mine hosts, the Commercial Club, and
how shall I dare brave the danger of the displeasure of this
particular thousand ladies and of millions more of the same mind to
be found in other parts of the land? Notwithstanding all these
resolutions and denunciations, the hens refused to cackle and the
price of eggs advanced. If these same ladies had, during the season
of abundance and reasonable prices of eggs, provided themselves
with suitable earthen jars and a small quantity of water glass they
might have had a supply in their own larders so near in quality that
only a connoisseur could tell the difference, just as healthful and at
moderate price, and thus contribute one factor to keep down the
high cost of living. God bless the fifteen million housewives of our
nation. It is with diffidence I venture, even in a mild criticism, and so
let me assume the role to question and leave conclusions to the
ladies themselves. How many of these ne'er-do-well housewives look
closely to the garbage cans? I would ask, what percentage of the
food that comes on to the table is carried off and not eaten—in a
word, wasted? If this waste, even to a small degree, was stopped,
the effect would be instantly felt, not only in each particular
household, but likewise in the larger way to cut off a portion of the
demand in the markets, and this would tend to lessen the general
cost of living.
Again, we hear much charged against the "middlemen", as not
only conducing to the high cost of living, but as being the real
cause; that the producer gets scarcely fifty per cent. of the price
paid by the consumer, hence a great wrong is being perpetrated
upon a suffering public by a class who are unmercifully denounced
for their alleged wrong conduct. Indeed, here is one factor that gives
us most trouble, that is, I mean to say the gap between the
consumer and the producer, not the middlemen.
As with the ladies and the eggs, where words had no effect,
denunciation of middlemen is ineffectual. A sufficient answer to clear
the middlemen's skirts is, that as a class they do not build up great
fortunes, and in fact a large percentage of them either fail in
business or barely make a reasonable living.
It is the system we must look to for the real cause of our trouble
and not the instruments carrying out the mandates of the public
demand. If we insist upon having the products of the farm in season
and out of season, some of which must be transported for long
distances, cared for, much of it in refrigerating cars and in cold
storage, all of which costs money, of course we must expect an
increase in the cost of living. I am not decrying against this so much
as simply noting the fact, to point the way to one real cause of our
complaint. A more real cause of this great disparity lies with the
consumers who demand their supplies delivered in small portions,
always wasteful and expensive, put up in attractive, costly packages
—all of which must come out of the pockets of the consumers. If the
good lady of the household telephones to her grocer to send her a
pound of some new named stuff (and which comes in a neat but
expensive package), how can she expect to get the same value at
the same cost as if bought in original form and at the counters? She
must not only pay for the cost of delivering but often for the new
name of an old-time material in a different dress. It is the demand of
the consuming public that makes possible the waste of small
purchasers and incidentally the additional cost of delivery.
There is another phase of this question of high cost of living that
has so far received scant attention, which we may properly write as
Fast Living. I do not mean this in the sense of the profligate
spendthrifts, the joy-riders, the senseless wanderings of the idle rich
traveling thousands of miles to drive away the ennui incident to the
sin of indolence, although this has an appalling effect upon the vital
question under consideration and of the welfare of the nation, and
must be treated in another chapter. What I mean now is the
legitimate fast living which adds so greatly to the general cost of
living. If, for instance, the physician using an automobile can visit
twenty patients where before he could only see ten; or the business
man utilizing this rapid transit means for quick dispatch of business
can transact as much business in a day as otherwise would take a
week; travel thousands of miles where before he could make but
hundreds, then he becomes a fast liver and with this a high cost
liver. If a locomotive hauls a train but twelve miles an hour (the
original standard of high speed) manifestly if the speed is increased
to sixty miles for the same period of time, the cost of coal must be
much more than at the lower speed. And so with the fast liver; his
expenditures for a given time will be far greater than if content to
move at lower speed. This principle as applied to individuals is
equally applicable to communities, and becomes a factor in
accounting for the high cost of living. We are as a nation fast livers,
and to an extent high livers, and must needs suffer the penalty of
higher cost of living than our forbears who led the simple life and
practiced frugality as a cardinal virtue.
Another factor we are apt to lose sight of, and it is a large one,
that of withdrawing so many from the field of food production and
moving them over to the side of consumers. Take the army of
automobile builders as one instance; these men, with their
dependent families become consumers, while engaged in an
occupation that aids measurably in the opportunity for fast living,
which, as we have seen, adds to the high cost as compared with the
ordinary methods in life. Many such instances might be named, but
this one must suffice.
Another far-reaching cause—in fact worldwide—is the vast
increase in the volume of gold within recent years and consequent
decline in purchasing power, which of course carries with it the high
cost of commodities exchanged for it measured in dollars and cents.
Space will not permit following this feature of the question further,
but it is one of the things that must be reckoned with in reviewing
the whole question. This, however, is more apparent than real and is
entirely without our control.
And so, in summing up, we can see that high cost of living is with
us to stay; that, as compared with the simple life, it is a thing of the
past; that so long as we practice fast living we must expect a higher
cost; so long as any part of a community insists on high living, the
inevitable corollary follows that the average cost is advanced.
Are we then helpless to combat this upward tendency in the cost
of living? By no means; but if we miss the mark in our effort we
lessen the chance of success. We must discriminate and not be led
astray by false prophets teaching false premises. When
demagogues, for political effect, allege that the "Robber Tariff" is the
cause, one can easily see the fallacy of the assertion; when honest
people inveigh against the middlemen as the cause, instead of
joining in the denunciation of a class, they should look inwardly to
the system and try to correct the abuse within. If we are wasteful as
alleged, then strive to stop the waste; if we are extravagant, then let
us stop it; if we are heedless in the method of making our
purchases, then let us turn over a new leaf and begin anew and
each do his or her part and the combined efforts will have effect.
While we will not get back to all the old-time ways of the simple life
(and it is not desirable that we should) yet the effort will correct
some glaring defects in our present system. While we may not get
the cost of living down to the old standard (and again it is not
desirable we should), yet all will agree that a combined popular
effort would work a wonderful change for the better in the direction
of reducing the cost of living.
 CHAPTER LXI.
PREPAREDNESS.
In the eighty-five years of a busy life I have witnessed five wars in
which this nation has been a party, not counting the numerous
Indian wars.
One of these, the Mexican war of 1846, was clearly a war of
conquest, brought on by the discordant element of the slave power,
then so dominant and I may say domineering in our councils. Then
followed the dreadful War of the Rebellion to settle the question
whether the United States was a nation or a loose confederation of
States.
I am one of the very few left that witnessed the war of aggression
that despoiled Mexico of half her territory, which gave us California,
extended our Pacific coast line to the 32° 30' parallel and made this
nation a great world power, in fact as well as in name.
Who will dare say that great benefit to the cause of civilization and
to the human race did not result from this war? Who, again, will
dare assert that the Indian wars of the last century did not likewise
result in the advancement of the cause of humanity and civilization?
And, again, are there any now so bold as to say that the war
prosecuted by the United States in suppressing the rebellion did not
result in the betterment of all parties engaged in the conflict? The
why, as to these results I will not discuss now, but simply state the
acknowledged fact, to the end that we may more clearly see that the
pacificists' doctrine is a fallacy and utterly impracticable until after
the advent of the millennium.
Suppose a thousand pacificists were gathered in a peace meeting
and some one introduced a resolution condemning all wars, would
they vote for it? If not, why not? If against preparedness—
preparedness for defense—it follows they are against preparedness
for war and prepared to sing: "I did not raise my boy to be a
soldier".
If, on the other hand, it is admitted that some wars are righteous,
the query arises, who would fight it? like the boy, when asked by a
visitor if he didn't wish that one of his brothers was a sister,
promptly responded, "Who'd a been her?"
Seriously, is there a pacificist with American red blood in his veins,
who will condemn the war with Spain to put a stop to the atrocities
right under our nose, in Cuba, or the wars with Aguinaldo in the
Philippines, or with the pirates of Tripoli, or coming right home to
the vital spot, the War of the Revolution that resulted in the birth of
this nation? There is no middle ground, there can be none, any more
than a given body can be moved in opposite directions at the same
instant of time.
It follows, then, that we who oppose the pacificists are in favor of
preparedness for defense or for war—for the two terms are
synonymous. How great and how numerous the ships needed for
our navy must of necessity be referred to experts, for the average
citizen can not know. How numerous the army and what the
formation, must necessarily be left to those who have made the
subject a life study.
The average citizen will know the fundamentals and join to curb
excesses, though he may not know the specials. He will know that if
we are to meet an enemy with guns that will carry five miles it is
useless to oppose them with guns that carry but four, though he
may not know how to construct the better arm. He will know that a
small army, that can be speedily mobilized, is of greater efficiency
than a large, unwieldy, scattered force that can not be quickly
concentrated at vital points of danger, though he may not know how
best to provide the means for speedy concentration.
 How narrowly we escaped a third war with Great Britain over the
Northwest boundary, now so nearly forgotten by this generation, I
personally witnessed on the San Juan Island in the northern waters
of Puget Sound. Again, how the Trent affair came so near plunging
us into a desperate struggle of arms with this same power, we of
this generation can read in history and a few vividly remember, and
finally, how the fitting out of privateers in English ports to prey upon
our commerce at last became so exasperating the war spirit of this
nation rose to a demand that emboldened our ambassador to the
court of St. James to utter those immortal words, "But, my Lordship,
this is war," and it was.
And then again how near another war with England we came in
the Venezuela affair, a direct result of the Monroe Doctrine, we are
too prone to forget.
I happened to be in London when Cleveland's famous message
was received and witnessed the excitement that followed, that with
but a little more indiscretion would have lighted the spark for a
worldwide conflagration. Again I am not assuming to say which
party was right, or which was wrong, but simply to recite the fact
and to point to the fact that preparedness—for England was
prepared—did not result in war.
And may I not point to another instance where preparedness did
not lead to war, but on the other hand averted war. I refer to the
French in Mexico. At the close of the Rebellion this nation was fully
prepared for the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine, and notice to
that effect was made manifest and the French troops were
accordingly withdrawn without a struggle. Without this preparedness
on our part the French troops would have tightened their grip upon
Mexico, and we would have been compelled to fight, or else
abandon the Monroe Doctrine. If we cannot assert our rights, no
other nation will for us. If we are prepared, no nation will challenge
us. Which do the American people want? Shall we submit to endure
as a nation by sufferance or shall we by the strong arm maintain our
rights?
 We must, likewise, take note that we have championed the "open
door" policy in China, and already one of the signatory parties has
violated the compact. Shall we give up our trade with the Orient or
shall we assert that we have the right to trade with China on terms
with other nations. If we are not prepared how can we uphold a
doctrine that disputed the right of European monarchies to seize and
appropriate any portion of either Americas and extinguish the right
of free government of the western hemisphere?
It is well to remember that this Monroe Doctrine—the doctrine
that Europe must keep hands off all Americas—is still held by this
nation and is still repudiated by all European nations except England.
It is also well to remember that this present war to determine the
question of the divine right of kings to rule as the "vice-regents of
God" is directly antagonistic to our theory of government "by the
people and for the people", which becomes a platitude if we are not
prepared to defend it.
Dating back to the dawn of history there has been war in all the
centuries. Why, I will not undertake to say, but simply recite the fact
—a condition and not a theory—and a fact the American people
should bear in mind.
I do not believe preparedness or unpreparedness will avert war,
but I do believe to be prepared will avert an appalling calamity in the
no distant future for this nation if we neglect to provide the means
of defense when attacked.
Preparedness of course lessens the danger of attack, but can not
nor will not avert it.
Another factor, the congestion of population of nations or likewise
in vast cities breeds danger and eventually war.