The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-05-29
TRUST SYSTEM
Has Reduced Earnings Of The
WOrkingmen and Increased
Cost of Living.
New York Worldly

The man Is deaf and blind who doe.
not hear and see the sounds and sign.
of another great Industrial struggle II
the United States. What Is the rea
meaning of the strikes which are be-
ginning to dislocate business in almos
every part Of the country? Does the
sap rising in man in the spring time
impel him to strife? Are these spa.
rate strikes in every state the result
of separate and independent condi.
tions, or are they the consequences Of
one general cause?
President Mckinley and his respon.
sible spokesmen point to the present
''unexampled prosperity" Nearly every
Republican state convention has for.
mally rejoiced in the bettered condition
of the American workingman. Senator
Hanna has boasted that where wages
y have not been increased they have al
ueast not been lowered.
And yet the American workingmar
refuses to be happy and contented, and
stubbornly insists on striking for more
wages. News of strikes comes from
every part of America. These struggles
are increasing in numbers and in
fierceness every week.
The plain undisguisable fact is that
wages have been steadily falling, even
while they have seemed to be rising
The average American workinsman's
wages have been greatly reduced with
in the past two years. The man him
self may not appreciate that fact, but
he knows that he is increasingly hard
up, that he cannot save money; that 1t
fe
Of debt.
The explanation Is simple and easily
proved. While wages have remained at
practically the same level the cost of
living has increased from rs to so per
cent. The trust system has lifted the
price of the necessaries Of life 80 high
that all other prices have kept pace
with the rise--except wages.
1t does not make much difference
whether you increase the cost Of living
or cut down wages-the result to the
man is the same.
Let any fair-minded man in the Uni
ted States ask his wife, or his mother,
or his housekeeper, how much she has
to pay for household supplies, compar-
ed with the same purchases year and
4 half ago, and he will be surprised,
perhaps, to discover that he is paying
from 25 to so per cent more now than
he did then.
1t is an indisputable fact that the
cost of necessaries of life in the United
States has enormously increased with
in the space of q few months. 1t Is
within the power Of any man who reads
this statement to verify 1t before to-
morrow by simply investigating the
facts in his own home. It Is also an
indisputable fact that the great cause
of this rise in prices is the monopoly
feature of the trust system. 1t Is also
an indisputable fact that wages have
been advanced only in a few cases, and
the average advance has been less than
There is the truth. The trust system
has really reduced the earnings Of
American labor. 1t ia harder for the
employed man to live now than 1t was
when he voted to put the party Of the
trusts in control of the national govern
ment.
Hence the clamor of discomfort which
is ringing throughout the country.
More men are at work now than were
employed in 1896, but they are In reality
working for lower wages. The same
men could have been at work four years
ago had they been willing to accept
such an enormous reduction In their
wages.