The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1892-08-12
A verdict Accora,nr 70 The PAGES.

Like a jury that sits to Investigate the
facts. not to express opinions of the law or
to influence proposed changes in ii. Senators
Aldrich, Allison, HiscOck, Jones, of Nevada,
Harris and Carlisle went TO work sixteen
months ago to investigate the course of
wages and prices following the passage of
the Mckinley bill. Four of them are re-
publicans and protectionists, two of them
democrats and free traders all or them
wanted to learn the facts without any color
ing by partisan or economic opinions. So
they agreed, from the start, to agree. That
is, there was to be no minority report made
by this subcommittee, of the senate finaGce
committee, for the majority agreed not to
report any fact that was not so clearly
established as fact as to be conceded by
the minority. No expressions of opinion
were to be made in the report concerning
the economic or political bearings Of the
facts found; the facts, and nothing but the
facts, were to be sought and presented.
And for this purpose the committee secured
the cooperation of such leading statistic
ians and professional investigators as labor
commissioner Carroll ID. Wright, eX-super-
inlendent of census, Francis A. Walker,
Prof. Henry G. Adams, Prof. Edmund j.
James, Edward Atkinson, William M. Gros-
venOr and DIR. Roland u. Falkner of the
University of Pennsylvania, who was APP
pointed to be the official statistician of the
committee. The result is a report of the
utmost value, and one which anybody can
procure by addressing Senator Aldrich.
Senator Hiscock, OF any other member of
the senate The dates of comparison chiefly
used are June, 1889, and September 1891,
and the report of this jury, drawn to sit on
the Mckinley law and render verdict ac-
cording to the facts, shows that in sew mtg
cities PA articles, including the necessaries
of life, have declined in average retail
prices 64-100 of l per cent; that the average
wholesale prices have declined 33-100 of l
per cent; that agricultural prices advanced
1857 per cent, and that the average of
wages has advanced 3-4 of per cent. Look
at these figures again:
Average decline in prices, 0.64 per cent
Average advance in wages, O.75 per cent.
Average rise in farm products, 1857 per
cent.
That there might be no mistake about the
course of retail prices, they were again col
lected OH May LIST, 1892, in three cities far
apart and distnctively representative of the
manufacturing, the commercial and agri-
cultural consumers-Fall River, Chicago
and Dubuque; and they slowed that 215
articles had declined an average of 3.4 per
cent, as compared with June, July and
August, 1889. The articles of which the
retail prices were grouped were classified
into food, clothes and clothing, fuel and
lighting, metals and implements, lumber
and building materials, drugs and chemi-
Gals, house furnishing goods and miscellane-
Gus necessaries. The committee announces
as the result of its computation (the higher
prices of farm products apparently not cut
tipU Ounh tiOural that tstha cost Of living n
a family in ordinary circumstances was
44-100 of l per cent. less on September |,
1891, than on September 1, 1882" In tif-
teen occupations selected by the committee,
average wages were found to be 0.3475 per
cent higher in September, 1891 than during
June, July and August, 1889. The occupa-
tons selected were those bakers, brick
layers, backsmiths, cabinet makers, carpen'
tiers, common labOrers, farm laborers,
machinists, masons, iron molders, painters,
plumbers, sailors, StOne-cutters and tim
smiths. Wages in a number of other in
dustres were found to be 31-100 of l per
cent higher. Care was also taken by the
committee to secure new and reliable statis-
tics of wages and the cost of living in Great
Britain. 1t was found that the cost of living
in Great Britain had increased 10 per cent
between June, 1889, and September, 1891,
and that bakers, blacksmlths, cabinet
makers, carpenters, laborers, machinists,
iron molders, painters and plumbers get, on
average, II per cent more wages here than
in Great Britain.
Su III are the facts reported by six reputa-
BILE members of the United States senate
democrats uniting with republicans in eff
forts to secure their correctness, and indoors
ing them as correct.-New York Press.