Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-07-20
"Watchword Of the Nation :"


The National Republican Commit
tee, under. the expert manipulation Of
that famous juggler, Gen. Dick, its
secretary, is engaged in cooking"
figures to sustain tbs claim of "Pros.
perity," which the party has been so
strenuously endeavoring to make the
watchword of the nation"
The committee claim to have re-
ceived replies to 200 blanks sent out to
members of the National Association
of Manufacturers, with the request
that they be filled out with the kind
OF information that may he used with
profit in the present campaign.
There will not, of course, be a glimmer
OF a doubt but that this august trust
endeavored to fulfill the request to the
letter.
Here are some of the figures pre-
sented: These 200 manufactures
employed in 1894. SO,4S3 operatives /;
in 1897, the number had increased to
los, 900; in 1898, to 131 ,42S and in
1899 to 1865. All this increase of
wage earners, it is assumed, of cou rse,
is, like the climatic conditions which
produce ample crops to supply the
famine demand of our neighbors
across the sea, entirely owing to the
beneficent smile of the good McKin.
ley and his order in 1896 to "Open
the Mills" The fact that the civilized
world was gradually recovering from
ono of ti,Use prolonged periodical hnsi-
ness prostrations which occur at ap-
proximaiely regular periods, seems to
have been entirely overlooked by the
committee and it only followed out
the advice of the great Blaine, to
"Claim everything, concede nothing"
in preparing statement plainly for
"bulletin-board duty" to serve a
purpose and be revised and corrected
after it has performed that function.
But listen to the further claim
made by this astute compiler of Stats
tics for party use. He says: "The
contrast is even more striking when
applied to the amount of wages paid"
and then proceeds to state the aggre-
gate for 1894 and 1899 as follows:
, 1891 with eo.ss employees, sss discussed
Now it looks, at first glance, that
the disbursement is just as much
"more striking" as seventy,eight mil
lions of dollars exceed forty millions !;
but let us see: from those same fig
ures we ascertain the fact that the av.
erage wages OF 1894, counting 307
working days. amounted to $45O.96 to
each, or $1.46.S per day, and for 1899,
3O7 working days. to $457 each, or
LAT per day-a fraction of one.fifth
of a cent favorable to the striking
increase" due to Mckinley prosperity
to Offset an increase of from Is to IS
per cent. in every commodity the
wage-earner has had to purchase for
his own and possibly family's subsist-
ence. N...
An increase Of the number OF wage.
earners on a payroll, indicates re-
turn of business to normal conditions,
but it would require a showing of q
material increase in the wage.rate to
substantiate the claim that the la
borer is as prosperous" as he was in
1894. 1896. or any other year, before
the costs of living had become subject
to the imitation of trust rule.
If the laboring man, the class such
articles are intended to influence,
will but study the figures presented,
and the facts claimed, in such state.
ments, instead of according them
credit from hasty and cursory read.
ing, he will generally find that they
have been ingeniously arranged so as
to carry an impression their true i'm
port by no means justifies. At least
that has been the result of investiga.
tions made by the writer. There 10
always n little joker hidden some.
where in the attempt made to show
prosperity for the masses in the ex-
perience Of the past decade.