The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-09-19
WHAT EARNINGS WILL BUY.

New York Tribune.
Distinguished Democrats returning
from Europe bring with them hopeful
predictions and presumably hopeful feel
ing, No doubt they have been much i'm
pressed by the revival of business which
has occurred during the last three
months, and calculate that the country
must be prospering so greatly that Demo-
cratic legislation will get the credit. 1t is
the natural supposltlon for men who have
been away. Men who have been at home
know that the working force, though
better employed, Is not fully employed,
and that wages, though advanced for sew
eral hundred thousand men about half
the decline since Mr.. Cleveand's nlugur-
alton, are for the remaining 95 per cent
of the working force as low as ever.
They also know that the working voters,
who are nearly the whole number, are
not better satisfied with the Democratic
party on its legislation than they were
last November.
This is the danger about which the
Democratic PARTY is laboring to cheat
Itself as usual BY dint of repeating un-
truths designed to deceive Republicans
the party persuades itself that everything
is as prosperous and labor as well re-
munerated in things which wages will buy
as ever. After time this will be found
a costly mistake, for the men who re-
ceive the wages know the facts, and are
not deceived in the least. 1t Is within
their persona, knowledge that prices OF
the things they have to buy have not
declined as much as the wages they re-
ceived, True. prices of all products,
taken as whole, have been lower in
this same month Of September than ut
any previous date in the history of the
country, but the decline has been almost
wholly In prices OF farm products and
of that decline the workngmen do not
Immediately get the benefit In the retail
prices,
Farn products taken as n whole, were
never before so low as In July, 1894, nut
are now fully per cent ,ower than they
were then, the relative Importance OF
different articles being considered. In
October, 1882, the same quantities OF
products at New York wholesale prices
cost Sil755 which now cost SSS576-a de-
cline of 1874 per cent All other products
have declined In value about s per cent,
farm products suffering most, as Is usual
In every period of depression, from the
reduced ubilfty of the people to consume.
But consumers do not get bread cheaper,
nor most kinds Of meats, nor are most
kinds of vegetables reduced to actual
consumers as much as In the wholesale
markets. But while prices Of all kinds
OF products average IS per cent lower
chan In October 1892 the greater proper
ton OF the working force h1s re,l-
tive,y larger reduction in wages, though
not as yet es much reduction In retail
prices,
There nre many men, OF course, who
fee, these consequences, though they do
not keep such precise records that they
can tel exactly where their difficulty
is. The Democratic managers may be
sure that these voters, of whom there
are millions. viii vote according to their
lndlvidueI impressions. There Is some
thing ,ert after the weeks work, or there
Is not. Either II Is rs much as 1t used
te be or II is not Blanket sheets illed
with figures, whole volumes of statls-
ties, Will not get these voters away from
a realization of the fact that at the end
of the week or month they are not as
wen off as they usei to be, even II they
have worked, and worked fuA time.
though many still have not
our Democratic friends are making the
o,d mistake IN thinking that the voters
OF the country are Incompetent fools
VINO WIZ never know what hurts them
when they are hurt The voters do not
need to study anything more elaborate
tiian their own pocketboo<s at the end
OF each week. II the Democratic policy
pays for them. giving them better en-
p.oyment and wages In proportion 10 the
cost OF living than in 1892, they will re-
member the fact II 1t does not, they
WI, remember that fact also.