Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-18

Indignation against any single act OF IeRzs-
lation as that which overwhelmed the nd
vocates of this measure in 1890, and as a
result we now have the senator from Rhode
island and all the other friends of the pro
tective system who have recently spoken
upon the subject confessing that high
prices are not beneficial to the people and
that the original and avowed purpose of
the act was wrong; in other words, they
now contend that the act has been e sue.
cess solely because it failed to accomplish
what it was intended to accomplish.
Aldrich's False Conclusions.
My purpose here today is to show that
the tariff act of 1890 did, in fact, interfere
with this natural tendency toward de-
cline in the prices of commodities and a
rise in the rates of wages; that it did, in
fact, make it harder and more expensive
for the masses Of the people of the United
States to live.
1.-THE senator here read an extract from
the speech of Senator Aldrich, who claimed
that prices had so far declined and wages
so far advanced as to make a total gain to
the people of 1926 900, 600 per year as re-
suit of the Mckinley bill and continually:
Mr.. President, admit that on single
day after the passage of the Mckinley bill,
and during the period covered by the in
vestigation, the retail prices of the 2l5 ar
ticles selected by the committee, taking
them altogether and giving to each one
the same Importance, 64-100ths of l one
per cent. lower than they were at the be-
ginning of the period, and that ON the
same day, which was the last day included
in the investigation, the cost of living in
the United States, giving to each article
its relative Importance as an element in
expenditures for consumption, had de-
creased 44-100ths of per cent. from the
rate prevailing at the beginning of the in
estigation-that is, the cost of living, in
Guiding rent, which was not investigated
by the committee<at all, had been reduced
44-100ths off per cent. below what it was
during the first three months of the in
vestigation. But that single day has been
separated by the senator from Rhode
Island from all the other days embraced
in the twenty-eight months, and taken as
the basis of all the tables presented and
statements made by him, as if it was d
fair representative of the whole period
The investigation began on the 1st day
of June, 1899, and continued month by
month in seventy different cities in the
United States until the 1st day of Septem-
ber, 1891, embracing a period of twenty
eight months. The prices of these 215 ar
ticles for the first three months at these
seventy different places and at quite
number of establishments in each place
were taken as the basis of the investiga-
tion-that is to say, the average prices
which prevailed during the months of
June, July and August, 1889, on all the
articles were taken as the unit of price,
each unit or index of price being repre-
sented by 100, and as the prices subse-
quently rose or fell the fact was noted, and
the percentage of rise or fall was recorded
in the tables. Now submit to the senate
and the country that no just or valuable
conclusion for any purpose whatever can
be drawn from calculations based upon
prices which prevailed on one single day
during those twenty eight months, that
day being, as have said, the last one on
which an investigation was made
The Cost of Living Increased.
[Senator Carlisle here referred to a
statement of Senator Aldrich that in the
same time the cost of living had increased
in England. He declared that the COM
mittee had made no such inquiry; that no
such results could be drawn from any
facts before the committee, ana that other
statements in Senator Aldrich's speech
were not in evidence Defore the committee,
and continuedI
Mr.. President. I propose to show. or at