The Winslow mail., 1900-09-20
What Is Going On in the Political
Arena If the Nations
Capital.
DO.HOTHING POLICY OF ADMINISTRATION
Work of Government bureau
Turned to Political Uses by the
publicans-Farmers Not to Be
Fooled by "Prosperity" PaIaver-
Doctoring the Census Returns.
Especial Correspondence


nif1cant fact that the republicans have
to educate their own advocates on the
arguments they are to advance.
prosperity is, of course, the key
note of the book The tables have
been largely prepared by the bureau
of statistics, a government bureau
which is supported by the whole peo-
pie for legitimate purposes and not
for the benefit of the republican ma
chine.
Still it has been seized by the ad-
ministration and made to grind out
a marvellous set of statistics. If the
workingmen are to indorse the ad
ministration they must be convinced
that wages have risen.
A table is given which purports to
be compiled from reports of labor or
ganizations. This is misstatement
number one, for at least one-third of
the trades quoted have no organiza-
ton and those that have are not
making statements for republicans
use.
Advances in wages for 1899 are
ranged anywhere from 10 to 800 per
per cent. 1t will surprise stage en-
ployes to learn that they are credited
with the 3C0 per cent. advance in
three years.
The textile workers are quoted as
having increased their wages from 12
to % per cent, when everybody
knows that they were cut 25 per cent.
just after Mckinley went into office,
that they had a long and disastrous
strike in order to restore the 25
per cent, and that about two-thirds
of them are now idle, cannot get work
even at cut rates.
The table is not even a skillful fic-
ton, for it puts the increase lowest
in the trades that owing to their
own eXertions have had substantial
advance and vice versa. This sort of
campaign fiction brings it's own re-
action very quickly. When a street
railway employe, for instance, hears a
republican campaign orator claiming
that Mckinley and prosperity have
raised his wages Is per cent, and he
knows that he had to go on strike
to keep his wages from being cut,
that workingman is going to believe
that the republicans are direct in
heritors of the talents of Ananias.
When this same workman reflects
that he pays trust prices for every
thing he eats and wears and that
they are from 25 to 40 per cent. high
er than in '96, he begins to wonder if
it won't be good idea to elect a
president with a different policy from
the "trust prosperity" one with which
we are burdened.
boomerang Statistics.
The statistics for the benefit of the
farmer are not convincing. The farm
er knows that the price of wheat, for
instance, has often been higher than
it is now, but he does not remember
the time in his experience when wire
fencing and lumber were so high that
he had to go without fences and
barns because he could not pay trust
prices for the materials after he took
the price determined for his wheat by
| the board of trade combinations.
The farmer knows very we'll that
the consuming capacity of the people
is not greater than it was three years
ago. To be sure plenty of poor peo-
pie would like to eat more bread, but
they have not the measure of pros
perity which will enable them to con-
sumo all they want of the farmers
products.
The republicans forget that manu-
factured statistics are always a boom
erang. They are contradicted by the
knowledge of the people. Statistics
about important matters are only be-
lieved when they coincide with the
! facts at hand.
| Dun's review of trade for July
strikes a pretty hard blow at the
prosperity argument. 1t is not try
ing to give the calamity howl either
In fact it endeavors to explain away
the unpleasant facts which it is forced
! to present in regard to the state of
trade.
Dun's report shows a total of 1880
| failures in all branches of business for
July, with liabilities of over $17,0O0,-
600. Its own comment on this state
of affairs is:
"The total shows a heavy increase
in comparison with the corresponding
month last year, which is mainly due
to phenomenally sound conditions at
| that time"
SO conditions were 100000 worth
more stable this time last year than
now. The slump has been going on
| for some time and the next three
months will show marked increase
in the number of failures. 1t looks
as though the republicans would be
obliged to drop their prosperity argu-
ment very shortly.
Aunipuiate the Figures.
The census employees are being
worked like a lot of sweat shop op-
eratives in order to collate and tab
ulate the immense mass of figures
that have been collected in time for
manipulation for republican campaign
purposes. There are a lot of ques-
tiors on the census schedules which
were put there for no purpose ex-
cept to extract information for re-
publican use.
The system in the census depart
ment is simple. Any returns which
do not carry out the republican the
ory can be ignored and other COM
oinations made. Nobody will be the
wiser. The work is so divided and
classified that neither employees nor
chiefs of divisions can be sure just
how the statistics are to be used in