The Indianapolis journal., 1894-01-23
ERRORS OF GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS.

severed his relations with his former
clients.
ERRORS OF GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS.
While there was much in the Sunday adj
candid consideration and many things to
commend, he made several assumptions
from individual cases or left others to make
conclusions which are not warranted For
instance. upon insufficient testimony he de-
clared that two employees of railroad in
Cleveland were discharged because they at
tended Populist meeting. Professor Com
mons seems not even to have inquired of
the railroad managers regarding the dis
charge OF the men, but assumes that II was
as he stated because some one had told him
so. If the Professor Is making such de-
fective testimony the basis Of broad conclu-
sions his deductions misleading and
mischievous Moreover, in his address he
did not assert that this case was an excep-
tional one. but left the hearer to assume
that it stood for universal practice. Such
is not the case. Not one corporation in a
hundred takes note Of the voting of it's en-
ployes. The presidents of two railroad cor
porations doing large business in this city
are Democrats, while their two representa-
tive men in this city are jealous Repub-
icans. The Journal knows, from inquiries
made of several of the leading manu-
facturers of this city during 1892, that they
absolutely did not know the politics of their
employees. There is reason to believe that
this Is the case generally.
The Professor stated as a fact, as IL II
were a general practice. that man who
got employment on a street railway in
Cleveland was discharged befor, his first
day was over because he had not paid the
foreman $40 at the outset and pledged 81 a
week of his pay to that person. Did the
Professor go to the mana gers. one of whom
is Representative Tom Johnson, to ask If
such an outrage could be perpetrated? 1t
appears not. He took the statement of the
discharged man his friends. and upon
that made an assumption so broad that
the ignorant would assume that such rob-
berry is as general as street railway organi-
zations. Such outrages that referred to
cannot escape detection, and there are not
half dozen corporations in the country
that would tolerate such robbery a day
after 1t proved to exist.
Because three savings banks failed in Buff
falo recently. the managers being trusted
because they were men of good reputation
Professor Commons assumed that the saw
ings bank system is the cause of so large
losses to depositors that 1t discourages saw
ing In 1892 there were 1.O59 savings insti-
tutions in the United States, of which 643
were conducted on the mutual system The
resources of these banks were S1,96i, ,044, SOL
There has not been savings bank failure
in New England in ten years, and In the
Middle States such misfortunes have been
of so rare occurrence that the banks have
been and are entitled to general confidence
If Professor Commons is correctly re-
ported the most remarkable of his asser-
tions was that at the Progress Club, which
was as follows
The claim by many that the workingman
gained by fall In prices is false The cal
culationS were largely based on wages paid
| TO organized labor which constitutes less
| than III per cent Of the workingmen.
1t must be that the reporter did not clear
| ly understand the Professor, since 1t does
not seem probable that, with a single as
sertion. he would dismiss all the statistics
| OF the census, the figures and illustrations
| Of the foremost statistician and free-trade
| advocate in New England, Edward Atxin-
| son. and the exhaustive statistics of Com
missioner Wright, of the United States
Bureau of Labor. collected by his trained
subordinates and edited by experts for the
| Senate finance committee, which gives the
| average wages for fifty-two years. The as
labor unions is a novel one. and one which
will not stand investigation. Side by side
in this and other cities. men in the leading
| industries, union and nonunion, are paid the
/ 1lc SldllSllCS OF the census Include
| all industries and all employees as do those
| of State bureaus like Massachusetts and
| New York. The political economists of the
Sumner-Perry school reject all experience
and facts drawn therefrom. The Johns
Hopkins school has professed to draw its
conclusions from facts and experience, but
if its disciples accept ex parte testimony as
conclusive evidence. treat rare exceptions
as generalizations, and assumptions like
this about wages as established truths il
is not great improvement over the ole
school. one of whose leaders has declared
that economics was a science of assump-
tions." Such defects as are above pointed
out in Professor Commons's lectures are
calculated to discredit his really useful sug
gestons.
| NO REFUGE FOR HONEST WOMEN
n dispatch in yesterdays Journal placed
-I,..r-.