New-York tribune., 1885-10-19
DEMOCRATIC PROSPERITY.
WHAT cLEvELAND's ELECTION HAS COST.
A COMPARISON OF WAGES AND PRICES.

A COMPARISON OF WAGES AND PRICES.
According to Democratic promises, we have
been enjoying great business prosperity during the past
year. One year ago in the country farmers were going
up and down soeinnly beseechng their ncighbors to
vote for Cleveland, reform and prosperity lor ht
Cleveland been Of iucaiculahe service to the butter
INTEREST," About this city, great army OF business men,
who should have been intelligent. paradcd heroic
aly foot-ore and sometimes wet but fired with zeal or
Cleveland. REFORM and revival OF Southern tra1e
For the first time suce 1860 the business Interests OF
the peOI were successfully used in some measure I'd
dcude them, and the perpetual clan.or OF Frce lrle
journals which took care not 10 state that they were the
organs OF importers foreign sreculators. really I'M
pressed the mndS of many with the belief that pros
perity would come by express train II they Woud Only
trust old Democratic party once more anu vote l'
Cleveland and REFORM" These multiplied pledges ana
representations and the strong delusions whch they
then produced in the minds OF some men ordinarily
shrewd may be proby recolloctcd at this time IN con
necOn with few facts to cast light upon the result Oh
the experiment
The facts are painfully familiar to most people PROD
ably there is nobody in this country VINO needs ~ be tod
that the country has endured more severe lndlsld
depression during the past year :han 1t had seen TOT
many years within sixty days after Cleveland eec
t1on IL was reported by Bradstrees that over 3ooooo
men we're ont OF employment ard yet tho depression
ha but just begun II continued with closing factories
and reduction OF wages every side until midsummer.
II 1t be true as economic journals maintain that the
reduction in wages has exceeded 10 per cent on the
average IL may be proper to remember hat the wages
paid yearly to wage earners in this single state ord-
narly exceed 81 900. that the loss In wages
alone even il none Of the workers hal been left without
employment would have exceeded 0oon 900 This was
the rst and most impressive Of the Democratic
prosperity which we we're promised.
But q great many people in the state are not wage
earners but produce by their laOor, on farms or
elsewhere and To them prices arc important than
wages The farmer can well afford to pay good wages
to the men he needs to employ he good prices
for his products What OF prosperity, then, has
Gle, Glands election brought to those who live and sup
port others by the sale OF their producsi Again. the
facts arc painfully familiar II Is hardly necessary 10
say that past has on the whole one 81 the most
dismal and disastrous years OF the last hall century
Indeed OF many products prices have not been lower In
more forty years than they have been since Ceye
lands election and in the lowest prices
ever known nave been recorded since that event.
But the Journals filed with evidences OF i'm
rrovement i'm business. Every scrap of such evidence
those journals which supported Cleveland anXipusy
gather up aud publish for they well know that the prom
iscd prosperity has not yet been realized by the people
Improvement there has been, and all are relpicel to
know that it has begun How much 1t was needed only
those can fully realize who have had to support them
selves and families either from the OF their labor
or the sale IF their products during the ast year.
much of the Improvement there is, how greatly II
was needed an d how far we had gone downward and
ba kward after Cleveands election prior to the recent
beginning OF this recovery Of prices may he in measure
inferred from some quotations. The following are not
the lowest prices Of the year by any but the
rent quotations of last week. compared with prices about
the middle of October last year. just before Ceyeands
election After the two OF quotations the
cottages of advance decline within tho pas, year
given: