New-York tribune., 1869-04-05
WELLS "a. KELLEY.

| Mr. Commissioner Wells has written q letter
to the Hon. William ID. Kelley, defending the
conclusions of his Annual Report with regard
to the current recompense and general con-
Idit. on of American Labor, which Mr.. X. had
shar Dly assailed in q speech. Mr.. Wells had
Iasserl ed that the average advance in Currency
wages since 1860 had been but 80 per cent. for
unskilled and 60 for skilled Labor, while the
average increase in the cost of supporting a
family lin cisies) had been 73 per cent. This
position he now maintains aga inst Mr. Kelley's
assault, backing it by long array of new sta
tstcs
Mr.. Wells is a skillful manag er of statistics,
and, as he has a wide field VIII ence to gather
them, and is unlimited in his choice of them
when gathered, he has no difficulty in making
out his case. And yet we are sure Mr.. Kelley
can overthrow his positions and 'demOiisi. Lis
conclusions if he will devote to ehe task half
the time given by Mr. Wells to his exhibit.
For example,:
Mr.. Wells makes lout an advan CO in tho
average rents of premises occupied as dwell
ings by the laboring class in cities Of 10 to 125
per cent. In doing this, he takes. NO account
of the fact that the means of cheap convey
ance for the masses to and FROM the outsk rts
and suburbs of cities have been largely multi
piled and diffused, so that their laboring cl Lass
is not now obliged to live 80 densely as it i'd
We, for example, boarded land lodged, iii tie
more than thirty years ago, on the corner of
Wall-st. and Broadway, along with many clio rks
and others whose total income did not exc 3ed
$500 per annum each. No one could now b0; lrd
there, or lin q similar locality, for thrice what
we then paid. Button the other hand, most
clerks and other employees who work in cur
lower Wards, who formerly lived. within O.
radius of one mile from our City Hail. now
live two to ten miles away-some even 80 far
as Mount Vernon, Fordham, or YO1kers-
noints which can be reached from our City
Hall far more easily and cheaply than they
could then be. Conveyance from suburban
homes to downtown warehouses or factories
has scarcely increased in nominal cost these
eight years, while it is decidedly cheaper than
il was thirty Iyears ago. This is an important
element of the cost Of living to eur City en-
ployes which Mr. Wells wholly ignores-ln our
view, unjustly.
So of Textile Fabrics and Cloths These are
dearer than they formerly were; but tho differ
eDce is not nearly 80 great as in the cost OF
! Food. Mr.. Wells leaves them wholly out OF
his exhibit, to the advantage of his conclusions,
| but TO the disadvantage OF his reputation as
public officer, paid to discover and proclaim the
naked truth.
Mr.. Wells states that the United States paid,
during the last fiscal year, an average OF
s19 70 Currency per barrel for the Flour
bought for the Army and Navy in this city in
1868, against SO n (golD paid in 1s59-6O. Now
we know that Flour was exceptionally high
here last year, because Of heavy export de-
mand caused by the short crop Of 1853 in
Europe and yet we must say that any shrewd
merchant, who hadiwanted as much Flour as
the Government bought here in 1868, and had
the cash to pay for it, would have bought il
considerably below $12 ~ per barrel.
And this reminds us that Mr.. Wells's statis-
tician is Mr.. Edward Young of our Custom
House. who undertook, some months since, to
manipulate the cost of living here so as to JUS
tify Mr. Wells's conclusions. In doing 80, he
found particular brand Of Flour known as