Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-08-29

 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 8 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, iu fact make it harder and more expensive for the masses of the people of the United States to live.
 TThe 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 S325, 900, 900 per year as re- suit of the Mckinley bill and continuedl:
 MT. President, I admit that on a single day after the passage of the Mckinley bill, and during the period covered by the in- vestigation, the retail prices of the 215 ar ticles selected by the committee, taking them altogether and giving to each one the same importance, 64-100ths of 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 H-100ths of 1 per cent. from the rate prevailing at the beginning of the in- | vestigation-that is, the cost of living, in- | cluding rent, which was not investigated | by the committee at all, had been reduced 44-1O0ths of per cent. below what it was during the first three months of the in- vestigation. But that single day has beer 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 fair representative of the whole period.
 The investigation began on the 1st day of June, 1889, and continued month by month in seventy different cities in the United States until the 1st day of Septsm- Der, 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 a 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-eigh 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
 olittee had made no such inquiry; that no
 such results could be drawn from any
 facts before the committee, and that other
 statements in Senator Aldrich's speech
 were not in evidence before the committee,
 and continued
 MT. President, I propose to show. or at
 least endeavor to show, that the prices ot
 commodities in the United States, whether
 considered by wholesale or by retail, were
 enormously increased by the passage ot
 the Mckinley act and the agitation which
 preceded it, and that the cost of living ir
 the United States, giving to each one oi
 these articles its proper degree of impor
 tance in expenditures for consumption
 was increased during the period covered by this investigation more than $285 900,
 900, and that over $1S5, ,OOO, 900 of that in
 crease occurred after the passage of the ac
 of 1890.
 venture to make the statement, whicl
 think nobody can refute, that @ yer!
 large proportion of the increase in pricel of manufactured articles and in the costto living which occurred before the passa9 of that act was on account of the fact tha it was pending in congress with an almos absolute knowledge on the part of the pro ducers of protected articles everywher
 that it would be passed and become law 1 propose to show, in the second place that the rates of wages in fifteen substar . tially unprotected industries in this cour try, selected by the committee, were il 9 creased during the period covered by tn - investigation, and that during the sam period the rates of wages in fifteen pro t tected industries in the United States, als e selected by the committee, fell, and tha the fall was greater after the passage ( @ the Mckinley bill than it was during tn | whole period preceding it's passage. ' Unless the 2l5 articles thus selected b ' the committee are fairly representative : the total quantity of articles consumed b
 the people, our investigation is worth bu 5 little, so far as it attempts to ascertain tE t cost of living It would of course valuable to show the course of prices c e those M5 articles; but repeat, unless the IS fairly represent all the articles which entt [; into consumption. the investigation is Il but little value so far as it attempts B. state the effect of increase in prices upc
 the cost of living.
 a [The senator here presented elaborate le tables showing a trick in the committee ot method of proving a decline in prices; e. took prices at date in 1889, when they hs IT risen in anticipation of the Mckinley bi l- and at another in 1891, when they were n Ihe lowest. He addedl:
 To go no farther back to find the inf
 ence of the Mckinley act upon the rets le prices of commodities, we find that fire n and including Oct. 1, 1890, until June IT. 1891, the prices increased as follows: st Oct. l, 1s9O the increase was $1 ,sSS, ,SSS ov CT the prices on Sept. l; on Nov. 1, 1890. u re increase was 6, Ale, ,666; on Dec. 1, $7, 50 ed 900; on Jan. 1. 1891, it was 10,0SS, ,SSS; m Feb. l, 1881, it was $11, JOSS, 1888; on March tn 1891, it was $11 ,Oe6, ,666 on April 1t W CT SIP 666 ,666; on May it was $s,75O.ooo al