The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-05-04
N HALE and N kinney
WHAT STATISTICS of STATE b.
REAU OF LABOR SHOW AS TO
RATES OF WAGES
ANONYMOUS TALES FALSE
LibeIs on Labor bureau Appearing
I'm Republican Papers Have
Neither Sponsors Nor
Bases.

The Republican jobsniths of this state,
whose sole occupation for years past has
been to keep one another in office, main
tain as part of their equipment a roor-
bach hatchery In which falsehoods are
tncubated for wholesale dissemination
throughout the state. The object of these
falsehoods is, of course, to win recruits
from the ranks of the unknowing and
gullible ones to help keep said jobsmiths
in office. The roorbach hatchery is cor
Quoted under the guise of correspon-
dence bureau, by individuals who find it
desirable to conceal their Identities
Those departments of the state govern
ment which have been wrested from the
clutches of these jobsmiths have been
made the pivotal points around which to
spin their yarns. Having come to shame
in the matter of attacks on the bank ex-
aiming department, the grain depart
ment and others the labor bureau has
been made next in order. In regard to
that department the claim has been in
vented and set In circulation that Labor
Commissioner McHale,' In their own
language, us engaged in the preparation
Of his annual report for publication as q
campaign document" Following this
statement is the stereotyped song about
wages being at present so high in con-
that it would be absurd to seek for i'm
| provement through a change of parties
in power.
The statements anent the labor depart
ment, chosen as Illustrative in this case,
are easily proven to be malicious false
| hoods. In the first place there are no an
nual reports prepared or published by the
labor bureau of this state. Such reports
as are published are compiled at the end
Of RI tod -
the governor previous to the converting Of
the legislature. Commissioner McHale's
| term of office having commenced only a
year ago last January, and his report
not being due until the end of his term
in January next, by which time elections
both local and general will ell have been
held, 1t is easy to see how absurd is the
claim that said report is to figure in the
elections to be held two months previous
TO its publication.
AS matter of fact the labor bureau
is not now in charge of the Republican
machine, which did not hesitate to pros
titute the office and inappropriate state
funds for the preparation and publication
Of gold standard treatises, to the ex-
clusion of all other functions pertaining
to the department, SO flagrantly that Re-
publican law makers blushed for its in,
deeency.
AS for this braggadocio about prosperity
wages, which is forever brought forward
to do duty as Mckinley campaign ma
terial, it is found to be as void Of truth
as everything else emanating from the
roorbach hatchery in question.
A canvass OF the pay rolls of sixteen
of the larger manufacturing establish
ments of one of the Twin Cities will IL
lustrate the absurdity of the claim. These
sixteen establishments employ 2,1s2 people,
or al 100 of for oh
third of all these employees, or in exact
numbers 766, are paid less than SIS per
week. and considerably less than one
fourth of the whole number earn in ex-
cess of $40 per week The total earnings
of the entire number of employees in these
sixteen manufacturing establishments
amount to $15,S0S per week, which, divide d
by 1882, the whole number of employees.
gives an average Of $7.H per week, or
$l.20 per day Considering the fact that
the labor here represented comes under
the head Of skilled labor, and that a GER
tain percentage thereof is subject to more
| or less -idleness during the year, it is very
evident that so far as wages are con-
| cerned labor has nothing to thank the
Mckinley. administration for, inasmuch
as the laborers could not, at the present
cost of living, very well keep body and
soul together for less.
T. J. Meighen, of the First district, was
! at the state house yesterday renewing his
! acquaintances among his friends. Mr..
Meighen says the Mckinley prosperity
cry has but little influence among the
farmers. Wheat and other cereals are
just where they were, if not lower in
price than few years ago, yet all arti-
cles used on the farm have doubled in
price. Here the farmers are touched in
a tender spot, and politically the en-
thusiam over the Republican party is not
as evident and pronounced as it was a
few years ago. Mr.. Meighen predicts VIC
tory for the allied forces in the state next