Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-10-15
REPUBLICANS IN A HOLE.
Wages and Lower Prices
on Paper.

When the republicans get in a tight
place, due to discomfort from high prices,
low wages or waning prosperity, they
send for Col. Carroll B. Wright. They
state their troubles TO him and ask him
TO fix things up. He smiles, suggestive
ly, and says he will try. If he is sue
cessful-and he usually is-the repub-
licans see that his reputation as a sta
tistical authority does not suffer, no
matter how devious and crooked his
methods. He gets the required result,
is promoted to the highest position, and
is hailed as the statistical savior of
mankind. The republicans understand
their business as well as Col. Wright
does his business.
A year or so ago the republicans be.
came desperate. The census statistics
Of manufactures, instead of showing a
substantial advance from 1890 to 1900,
showed a decline in wages of 11s per
cent. AS Dingley bill trusts we're null
tiplying and were raising prices rapidly
and greatly increasing the cost of living.
wise republicans saw trouble ahead.
They consulted with their old friend,
Col. Wright, whose methods had Jug
gled the 1890 figures so that they showed
a substantial rise in wages, and who
supposed that he had the 1900 census
fixed to show a similar advance. They
told him that he must somehow make a
better showing for the wage Garner.
either by raising wages or by reducing
prices, or by both. Get your lal!or bu-
reau busy" they said, land do your best
for us. Discredit the census figures and
ask the people to wait for the only sta
tistics which will be worthy of consid.
Grafton. We will boost you as an au-
thority in the meantime, and, if the
census wage statistics now being pre-
pared by Prof. Dewey are not likely to
prove satisfactory, we will try to hold
them up until after the 1904 election"
Col. Wright agreed to do his best. In
March, 1903, the department of labor
issued a bulletin on the Course OF
Wholesale Prices, 1S9O-19O2," which
showed that prices were exactly as high
in 1902 as in 1890, and that they rose
only 25R per cent. from 1897 to 1902
This was about Is per cent less than the
rise shown by the statistics of r. G.. Dun
& Co., which are more carefully
weighted" On September 30, it was
announced from Washington:
THE bureau of labor, under the di.
rection of Carroll B. Wright, is about tc
issue the results of an exhaustive study
of the increased cost of living during the
last few years in relation to the in.
crease of wages. The work will be pre-.
sented in two volumes, n relating tt
expenditures and the other to earnings
The manuscript will 60 to the printer il
two days. The results of this inquiry
show that there has been a striking sim
ilarity between the advance in wage!
and the increased cost of living, and tina
neither has gone forward as much a.
popularity supposed. The current repor
that commodities have advanced q pc
cent. is shown to be wide of the mark
It. will be nearer Is or II per cent
Wages have so fully kept pace with in
creased cost of living that it may safe
ly be said that the condition of the la
boring mar Is better to-day than eve
before in the history Of this country"
Of course, these statistics, cominl
from such n high authority, will reas
sure the workingmen and make then
contented and happy. The man who's
wages have remained substantially tn
same as they were in 1897 and who i
paying IS per cent. more for what h
has to buy. will now feel that he is a
least as well off as he was at the begin
ming of republican rule. This Is all tina
he could expect and the most that tn
republicans claim. The prosperity tina
they talk about has all gone to the trusts
Until these new statistics are pub
lished and the methods of reaching then
are known, we cannot criticise them
except to say that they differ RADICAL,
from any others now extant. But t
show how worthless they will probabl
pe. except from a political standpoint
we may mention some of Col. Wright
past methods of raising wages-on pa
per:
Col. Wright won his first statistics
victory and ingratiatcd himself with tn
republicans, by falsitying and jugglin
the wage statistics of Massachusetts
One of his methods of raising wages
statistically. was to divide the totf
wages paid in 1886 by the average
number of wage earners. instead of b
the entire number employed, and be
/ tween whom the wages were actual
divided, as was done in 1875. In thi
q way he showed a decline Of only ten pc
: cent, whereas the actual decline wa
nearly 20 per cent. His same method
. continued to 1895, showed an increas
in wages when an actual decline had o,
v Cured.
In these ways, a well disciplined RI
' publican press makes small men gret
0 and great men small, for the time b,
ing. Future history will do much I
0 adjust matters, but the politicians al
t looking for immediate results and cal
n little for the higher historical c~riticisl
which may follow. If their pockets al
well filled with the proceeds of politics
s graft, they are willing to take the
chances with future critics.
s Great is Col. Wright. profession
G wage raiser and price reducer and of
cial statistical juggler of the G. o. p!
t BYRON w. HOLT,
Q The silence at Washington r
j. specting the case Of Miss Huldah Tod
fhe nOstmistress in Delaware who w