Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-10-11
GRAND OLD PARTY.
LABOR'S LOSS UNDER DEM
OCRATIC RULE.
Clothing Slightly Cheaper ana Much
Less Money to Spend for 1t - The
Country Is Poorer, But Grover Is
Richer Since 1892.
Is Clothing Cheaper:

Every voter can find out for himself
whether or not ready-made clothing, or
even that made up by the merchant
tailor, is cheaper than the same quality
of goods last year. The worllingman
is being told, but not in the advertise
ments of the dealers, that a full suit
including fall overcoat can now be
bought at price which he was COM
PEELED to pay for an overcoat alone one
year ago. This is another example of
the systematic Justification that is to
be relied upon to save the lower house
of congress the party in power. But
there is too much intelligence in the
land to allow the fraud to succeed.
Some kinds of clothing are cheaper
in some places. 1t would be strange
if it were not 50. Is there any neces-
sity or luxury of life except sugar and
diamonds that cannot be had cheaper
now than year ago?
But there is good reason why ready
made clothing should be cheaper. Mr..
Sidney Gushing, of Boston, who has
been clothing manufacturer all his
life, and who is president of the cloth
ing manufacturers association, says
that with the probability of free wool,
with a largely reduced duty on manu-
featured woolens, the worst possible
conditions were long since discounted
by the manufacturer and at present
fact. To adjust themselves to the
new conditions there was first cessa-
ton of manufacturing. There were
no buyers, and cOnse Iuently no sales,
says the Kansas City journal The
m n and women engaged in the in
dustry were clamorous for work at
any price, and manufacturers gave
them the work at rates that would
be some sort of a guaranty against
loss to themselves-and they are work.
ing at these wages to-day.
Let the Western laborer make q
note of it when he goes to buy him
self a winter overcoat, that sixty-five
cents was the amount paid for the
making of it, and that one short year
! ago $1.25 was paid for the same labor.
And let him reflect also that for the
sack coat fifty cents is paid for the
making to-day, whereas the man or
woman engaged in that work one year
ago received 81 for the same labor.
And the men, women and children
| employed in the manufacture of all the
materials:used in the making of this
clothing are receiving proportionately
less pay.
The manufacture of clothing is the
largest industry in the city of Boston,
and one of the largest in New York
and Philadelphia. Will the Western la
borer make his own figures to tell
himself how all these people are to
get all the comforts of a home on
such wages? And how much of the
! products Of Western farms and stock
ranches they will be able to buy in the
course of a year? And then let him
note that if he finds his clothing
cheapened at all the reduction in
price can be easily accounted for at
| the expense of the toilers and pro-
ducers of his own country. 1t is in
evitable that this sad condition of
| affairs will reduce the earning ca
pacity of the food producers of the
West, and in turn that of railroad
laborers and of all others following
industrial pursuits.
The purchasing power of the East
ern workingman and workingwoman
has been reduced by the Democratic
tariff by from twenty to sixty per
cent. 1t is sure to follow, if the con-
ditions which brought this reduction
about are continued, that the Western
| laborer will have to come down in a
like degree. What consolation is
! there to find that he has saved 50 on a
suit of clothes if he has lost 800 on
his years wages?
There is a great deal in this cloth
ing question if one is disposed to look
at it from a practical standpoint and
consider it honestly.