The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-01-11
PEBBLES STATISTICS
The Work of the Indiana Bureau
Used to ASSail State Industries.
Dishonest Manipulation of Statistics by
Free-Trade Editors Exposed-A
Sample of Estimated Profits.


| information or lack of information are at
a premium If it were the purpose of the
statistician to show that the profits OF
manufacturers In Indiana are exorbitant
and wages paid employees utterly made
quate in comparison with the share seized
by the employer, he can congratulate him
self on achieving a pronounced success r.
on the other hand, Ii was the purpose Of
| that official to give all the facts connected
with production and distribution, showing
| all the expenses of production, like salaries
| OF statesmen, clerks, taxes, interest. rents
| all the costs of production as well as the
| value of the productive bureau miserably
| fails. And yet, If statistics are not to give
| all the information, they are worse than
useless. because they are useful only for
| those whose mission it is to assail Indiana's
| industrial enterprise.
The inquiries which the bureau is max
| ing for it's next report are more definite
| than those must have been upon which
| previous reports have been based, but they
| are entirely inadequate to call forth such
| full and accurate information make
| statistics Of value. The following Is the
| list of questions proposed, and the answers,
| which, for the sake of illustration, are
| made to correspond proportionately with
| Value of buildings, ground and machin-
| cry, $65, 500.
Total annual cost of materials used, $780,
| 0O0
products $4,000.
! Total number of months industry in oper-
alton last year, 1912.
Total amount paid in wages past twelve
months $50, $50.
| Total number Of persons employed. 20.
| Number Of men employed, So.
Number of boys employed, 8.
| Number of women and girls employed, q.
Highest daily wages paid skilled labor,
| Lowest daily wages paid skilled labor, 20
| cents per hour.
Highest daily wages paid unskilled labor.
| Lowest daily wages paid unskilled labor,
| 10c per hour.
| Average daily wages paid boys. s1-3
Average daily wages paid women and
| girls-women 1919 cents; girls, 2-S cents
| per hour.
Number of hours constituting a days
| work, 10.
| If such returns as the above were faith
| fully and intelligently compiled they would
| show the wages paid to certain classes of
| employees; but, compared with the net re-
ceipts from sales, they show just what the
| foes of the American manufacturer are
| seeking to convince the American people of,
| namely that the manufacturer realizes
|
capital employed, and deprives labor Of its
| just share.
In States like Massachusetts, where 1t is
the aim of the heads of the bureau to give
| full and accurate information. the ques-
| tions propounded cover all the clerical
| service salaries of bookkeepers, superin-
| tendents, statesmen, the cost Of insurance,
| interest taxes and incidentals But the
| head of the Indiana bureau specially di-
| reefs that wages of clerks, bookkeepers,
| typewriters, general superintendent. etc..
shall not be included. as if the girl who
| runs a typewriter in connection with the
business Of a factory is in any sense less
| connected with the production and distr1bu-
ton of factory than the girl who runs a
| sewing machine in the workroom
| enemy OF the various industries or this
| country has used such statistics as the
above when given In the census, 10 man man
| inn rich very rapidly. He reasons thus:
Cost of material used, 100000; cost of labor
ured products, sl5OO0O-gross profits, gig,
| $50 or one-third more than the cost OF all
the labor! Thereat the roe s sets up P,e ms rs
| deceive people VINO have not nae the Iacts
| before them. =, ,,.
| to show the real facts in regard TO the
| class of industries to which TINS return re-
lates, ne would have ascertaineo All tne
| items Of expenditure, which, in this case
" Salaries and wages excluded by the
ss.iso; Commissions of travelling salssmen.
5000; taxes s,O59.36; insurance, sl.5o5 o.; ;
water tax. 1920; amount of interest paid
| on borrowed money invested in stock, 49,
oOo-totai. S22. 562 SO. This leaves Nls7 for
interest on the money invested in the plant
and annual wear and tear OF machinery,
which is estimated at 10 per cent. The an
nuai return on money invested in large
part of the industries of this class mas
never netted over per cent. year, ana
vet Indiana's statistician leaves one TO IN
fer that the profits in one of them Is S2s-
$50 on an investment of $4,000. This is the
sort of information CD that Indiana ex-
ponds $4,000 a year to get!
| USES OF MISINFORMATION.
It is not improbable that those newspa-
pers which have made it their vocation to
assail what they are pleased to call the
/ "baron robbers of the protected indus
tries would cease TO Islander manufacture
ers since they could pick out figures to mis-
represent them from the most intelligently-
prepared and elaborate reports of State
statisticians. From the last volume of In
diana statistics an Indianapolis paper which
has not the pretext of loyalty to party as
an apology for it's unfair treatment of the
business of Indianapolis manufacturers.
made the following deductions regarding
| the two wooden factories in this city:
I'm the latest report of the Indiana Bureau
| of Statistics there are reports from two
| Indianapolis wooden mills. The average
| yearly wages in this industry CTable III,
| page $780, including $500 to a super1ntend-
| emit are sfS5. The largest amount received
is that paid to foremen, who average s6So
| who run from 81 TO So rs a day. The card
| ers in the year covered by the report, got
| s173 They worked only 156 days. and they
| were paid at the rate Of from % cents TO
| $50 a day. The average OF the highest
| wages paid-and the superintendent Is in
| Guided in these calculations-WaS 2O5; the
] lowest wages averaged $1.45. and the total
| average of wages was N.73. There Is some
| slight discrepancy in the tables. but there
| are probably ninety-three hands in the
| Indianapolis wooden mills who are classed
| as receivers. At S4S5 a hand which
| is the average, the total wages bill for the
year was $45, los. The total value of the
| product as given in Table 1, was $500, 000
That is the element of wages constitutes
only IA per cent of the product. Ii
the State Statistician Is right, our wooden
men have got their business organized most
| thoroughly. for the wage product per hand
s4s5 as wages for turning out s.. 400 OF
4 goods.
and distribution had been given I'm full, as
they might have been, by throwing out
pages OF useless matter and putting In
| facts il would have been difficult, but not
impossible for the malignant foe OF pro-
tected industry TO have so misrepresented
them All things are possible with the un-
scrupulous. For instance, in the report re-
farred yo in the FOREGOING quotation the