The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-06-25
FACTS ARE BETTER THAN THEORIES.


While class of writer's who have flu
ency instead of the power of broad gen.
eralization have been insisting that be-
cause a limited number of people have
become millionaires the condition of all
others has been becoming narrower and
harder, and while specialists in econom-
les have declared theories that lead to-
ward socialism, the practical statisti-
clan at the head of the United States
Labor Bureau has been dealing with
facts simply to ascertain the tendency
of the mass of people who work for
wages. Pursuant to a vote of the Sem
ate finance committee in 1891 Commits
siOner Wright had his trained agents
collect statistics regarding wages and
all the necessaries of life during the
year 1860 and the year 1891. Last fall
some preliminary statistics were given.
and now the result of this extensive and
ccurate investigation has been put out
in book form. 1t is book of facts
rather than theories. As such it con-
tains more accurate information than
all the theories which have been put forth
by those who believe that all questions
relating to economics can be solved by
syllogistic reasoning.
The year 1860 was selected by the Sem
ate committee because the country had
90 far recovered from the panic of 1857
that prices were normal. What do the
figures of Commissioner Wright show?
Taking the prices of 1860 at 100, In 1891
food had risen to 1889, clothing had fall
len to 91.1, fuel and light to 81. metals
and implements to 74.9. drugs and chem
icals to 66.3, ouse-furnishinR goods to
70.1, while lumber has risen to 1928. 1t
also appears that the tariff does NOT so
potentially affect prices as ultra free
traders have asserted. While the price
of few articles, such as are not pro-
duced in sufficient quantities at home to
meet the demand, is enhanced by the
import duty, as rule the price is not
materially influenced by the tariff.
The statistics regarding wages show q
most marked increase since 1860. Start
ing with wages in 1860 as 100 in all the
general industries, it was found that
during the period when the country used
q deprecated currency as the measure
of labor value wages fell in gold so low
that in 1865 what would bring 100 in 1850
was worth only 66.2 in gold in 1866. AS
the country approached specie resump-
ton wages improved. being 1900 in 1879,
the date of specie resumption, and grad
ually rising to 1907 in 1891. Thus it
appears that labor suffers most when
paid in a deprecated currency and
fares best when the money in
which it is paid is the money of the
commercial world. No account is taken
in the statistics for the reduced hours
of labor, which have been considerable
since 1860, when from sun to sun was
the mechanics day, and twelve OF
thirteen hours constituted the day of
| the factory worker. The conclusion of
the whole matter is that while the re-
duction of all articles which are the
products Of labor and machinery, in
Guiding food. has been rs per cent, the
increase OF the general compensation of
labor has been 60 per cent. since 1860.
If lumber is left out of the list, the fail
in the price of food, clothing, metals
and implements and house furnishing
goods, taken together, was from 100 in
1860 to S2.3 in 1891.
1t would be much better to study such
facts and to heed the lessons they teach
than fo lisfen IN tho sophistrias Of fhoaa
who advocate the untried theories of So
| cialism or the faisehoods of those who
would lead people to believe that the
many, more and more, are slaves to the
few, and that the condition of the many
| grows more hopeless as the years pass.