The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-07-20
SENATOR ALDRICH.s REPORT.


SENATOR ALDRICH's REPORT.
The partial report of the committee
on finance through Senator Aldrich to
the Senate yesterday upon the effect of
the tariff laws upon wages and upon the
cost of the necessaries of life, makes one
of the most valuable additions to the
economic statistics of the country that
has ever been compiled. The methods
Of the committees procedure have been
such as to compel general confidence in
the accuracy of the results they have
obtained. The report says:
"In order to give the statistics col
lected the weight of undoubted au-
thority the committee decided that the
inquiry should be extended only to such
subjects, and carried on through such
agencies and by such methods as were
approved by the unanimous voice of the
committee, and this plan was scrupu-
lously followed. There was no expecta-
tion that the committee would agree
about the political, or even the economic
bearings of the facts ascertained, but
all were desirous that hereafter there
should be no reason to question
the integrity Of the facts" Re-
publican and Democratic members
have been throughout in perfect har-
mony as to ways and means, and are
now in absolute agreement as to their
figures. The committee visited the
principal cities and manufacturing
centres Of the country and took an enor-
nous mass of testimony. Carroll d.
Wright collated and tabulated the ma
terial submitted to him, and DIR. Roland
p. Faulkner, Professor of Statistics, of
the University of Pennsylvania, ana.
lyzed the tables and ascertained the re-
suits established by them.
And what are those results; what does
a thorough and impartial investigation
of the condition of the great body of the
people in this country since the Nc.
Kinley law went into operation disclosed
Upon the effects of the Mckinley law
the Republican party must make its
fight in the Presidential campaign. To
the upholding Of the tariff the party is
committed. Documents bigger with the
fate of Republicanism, therefore, than
Aldrichs report can hardly be
conceived.
In brief, the course of retail prices
from June I, 1889, at which point the
inquiry was begun, to Sept. 1, 1891, and
forward to May, 1892, to which date a
inquiry reaches, was
downward. The cost of living slowly
but steadily declined. Wages during
the same period increased, so that the
man has had at once more to
buy with and has been able to get more
for his money.
To look at the matter little more in
detail, the committees study of prices
covered els articles selected as fairly
covering the entire usual expenditure
by families with incomes ranging from
$500 to $1,000 per annum. Between
June 1, 1889, and Sept. I, 1891, the re-
tail prices of these 215 necessaries
dropped an average of "a of 1 per cent.
by one method of computation and 1.S
per cent. by another. From Sept. 1,
1891, to May, 1892, there was further
drop Of 2.1 per cent, making total
decline from the autumn of 1880 10 the
spring of 1892 of 2.74 or 3.9 per cent. in
the family's average cost of living.
The inquiry as to wages was limited
to fifteen occupations. Bakers, black.
smiths, bricklayers, cabinetmakers,
common laborers, farm
laborers, machinists, masons, iron
painters, plumbers. stone cut
ters, tailors and tinsmiths were receiv-
ing on an average .75 of one per cent.
higher wages on September 1, 1891,
than on June 1. 1889.
How was the workingman faring
during the same period under
free trade? Statistics covering the same
ground, collected by the same agencies
and treated according TO the same for
mulas were collected for Great Britain.
and comparison proves that the cost
Of living has riser as steadily in Eng.
land M II has dropped here. being 10
per cent. higher in the autumn Of 1891
than in the summer Of 1899. Wages in