Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1900-11-08
Communicated
EDITOR Mo. VALLEY TINES

pail, and ace its prototype frequently displayed,
and often, too, by those VINO never carried one.
that we have been m skins inquiries as to what
they were full of, and AZ nearly all of them
bear the picture of Mckinley and Roosevelt. We
had about concluded that the picture was only
en- advertisement f the contents and as the
o t.lds Ior good promises for Il Q
future, so the pail represented the future of the
"orkingman life of wage-work with no hope
If ever being anything but the servant of some
one else, dependent for the means to fill the
pail for himself and family upon the whim or
caprice of his employer. as we'll az upon the
supply and demand for the product of his la
Dor.
20 We looked into one of thes famous pals,
the same as we did in 1896, after hearing that
stirring campaign song, The Dinner Pail Brig
ade" We found therein about the same thinps
as found on the previous examination; only in
smaller quantities. We then decided upon a
more extended inquiry and visited the home of
thepail and found the same conditions. We asked
the owner of the pail the cause OF this, and he
aid that somehow money didn't go so far as it
used to We ascertained that while he worked
more hours than he did in 81, ~, and '9i vet
his wages per hour remained the same and that
the cost of the n cessaries If life had advanced
more than his increased hours of labor amount
to- for while ne now worked ten hours per day
he was then working eight hours, being an in
crease of Is per cent in time worked. while W.
found that the average cost of living had adj
vanud about 81 por cent, or that in point ot
tbility t" buy he was per cent worse off than
in 1886, the year of the awful times" of de-
nosracy.
Here iss.meth;ng really a touishing and ex.
planned in part, the deficiency, not only in th.
full dinner pail" but in tn. larder, :he ward
obe and the cal bin.
But we not yet satisfied with our esearcb
We had set out to find whether or not THAI
pa'l was full, and if st" what it WAS full Of and
II not, why not. So we questioned the owne,
II the Fail. one on the coat and one in the hand
md we learned further that in 1898 and 1896
hat the working hours of the institution wh.r.
he worked wa. eight but that considerable ex
~ time was worked, so that during tn. Sc tw.
years his average daily wages was .G7 pc
lay, and that since January /. 1897, his daih
W ses averaged 81 50, or in these prosperou.
yeats, he had received II oents per day less tina,
~ the days of democratic oppression. decreas.
It per cent in earn ngs. and an increase If 3:
er cent in the cost of living placing him at
'l.advan'age OF ~ per GENT ip the amount
could buy with his wages in 1890 as compare
With 1896,
We then asked the man of tbs full Dime,
1ail, why his badge was made to do tarvice "
The present campaign, and he said that thou.
snds Of men carried pail now who did nv,
nave chance to do 3" then. Upon investiga
ion We learned thtt there were about lG ne,
'ent more men employed in 1900 than ther.
we're IN ls:''i, but that the las TIA those EN-
''oyed in III by receiving less money. and by
aging more for the ne1essaries of hfe NOR,
han double the amount paid to those who ha,
occurred work in 1900, but were employed i.
SIG. But said my friend of the pail. 81,
96 there We're free soup houses estab ished b,
charitable societies, whe e these men and thei
families got enough to keep life in them unit
such time as they oouln Obtain work But nov
hese houses no longer needed for thes.
men e earning their own living" Oar r..
joinder was yes, my friend, they are earnin.
their own living. and you and your fellow la
borer are paying for it For while they can
,ne-sixth of tho earnings of &C. your l,ss Il
two-ff,hs of the earnings of '9G Or, to max.
It more pain, for every Ii cents these men ear,
you earn seven cents less and pay b; cent
more r q living, making net Loss to labor q.
a per cent.
My friend was unable to zee how he helped
to pay the wages to the men under discussion
40 we asked him how much he paid for his hare
coal and found 1t was 50 per ton. In '96 it wa,
IS. We asked him where that extra dol,a.
went and he answered: ito the coal COMPANY
And if he was right, then the company would
use that extra dollar to pay increased help, anc
| 40 in an indirect way, the man of the Dime,
pail paid, or he'ped to pay, the miner for his
| work. And IA there were six men, each Of
whom had contributed dollar, they had paiG
the miner one dollar and the other five went t,
the coal company.
| We asked him when-he built his wood hopse
| and learned it was in 'S5 and that the lumbe,
cost him SIG per thousand and that the same
LUMBER now would cost him @25. so that the
man who buys lumber in 1900 pays IS cents t,
keep these men from the soup houses and 81:
to the lumber companies and dealers.
| Our friend of the nner pail then thought
that the farmer was 80 much better off than he
was four ears ago. go in company we starte
out to find a farmer who could tel us all abou,
he prosperity, and found his pail was b1in
full and running oyer.
| We found one and this ia about what VIZ
learned: Cattle and hogs had advanced SO pei
cent; graf 80 per cent And we found as al
offset that the machinery which the farmer ha,
to buy had advanced about rs per cent, anc
hardware. such IS farmers buy about 40 Pc
cent. Lumber, lath and shinglea, about as pc
cent, and could find that the farmer had beer
benefited to only email extent by the almos
universal rise in price of everything, while tn,
Ia borer wac at a sore disadvantage.
30 we concluded that tho full dinner pal
must be the ssppo.ed abode of the brain. o
him who oarriea it. Fur surely man with hi
brains in his lead cannot be deceived by tn,
idle cry "of full dinner pail"
AID vALoEM
Mr. and Mrs. Chas Carlisle departed
this afternoon for their home in Iar-