Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-06-09
Trnat. and Wages.

~~-C 0OAACAAul AAatCA4AA PAOGtSA-NS
of part of the people of the United
States and the lack Of it with the
greater number is an anomaly that is
startling and naturally leads to inves-
tigation to discover the cause. To
judge by the numerous strikes that
are in progress there must be a large
percentage of workingmen that do not
consider their condition prosperous.
Before strike Is decided upon or or
dered majority Of those striking evil
IDENTIFY consider their circumstances SO
| unfortunate that they are willing to
make themselves and their families
more uncomfortab for a time. In
| order that in the end they may be
prosperous, or at all events that their
case may be bettered 1t Is out of all
reason, that all these workingmen who
have voluntarily surrendered their
rs for an Indefinite period, would
ave done so if their condition was
prosperous. If the ordinary citizen is
living comfortably and laying up a
bit for a rainy day. he is enjoying
prosperity. If he and his family are
obliged to be satisfied with the bare
necessities of life and then can hardly
make both ends meet, one can hardly
blame him for striking, for his predic-
| ament, short of starvation, could hard
ly be worse. That is the plight of a
vast number of hard working and in
dustrious citizens to-day.
Wages are about 10 per cent higher
than in 1899, but the cost of living has
advanced nearly 40 per cent. So the
margin, if there was any, in 1899, is
wiped out and it is only by reducing
expenditures that the weekly or
monthly bills can be paid. Every citi
zen who is receiving no more emolu-
ment now than in 1899 is in the same
fix as the workingman who is striking.
1t is only by cutting off all Injuries
and pleasures and restricting expep54-
lures 20 absolute necessities that those
with like restricted incomes are able
to make both ends meet.
The plutocratic press is very gener-
ally denouneing the workingmen for
demanding more wages and are much
exercised lest this general demand to
participate in the prosperity will bring
about conditions that will restrict and
soon overthrow 1t. One of these news
papers, the Journal of Commerce and
Commercial Bulletin, of New York,
admits that the organization of capital
and its greed is the chief source of the
trouble that the rich are growing rich
er and the poor poorer, but it joins
organized labor with the trusts as be-
ing equally responsible when it says:
at is broad fact in this era of pros
perity that its benefits are enjoyed in
but moderate measure, If at all, by
large majority of the people. The
small capitalist in business, the manu-
facturer and trader in a modest way,
the great mass of clerks and others in
salaried places, the independent and
occupations, with the rising cost of liv-
ing caused by the high prices that
large profits of combined capital and
high wages of organized labor induce,
have the same struggle for a comfort
able existence that they had in less
of their share of prosperity by the
greed of aggressive combinations of
capital and labor"
That is rather tough on President
Roosevelt, who is daily declaiming
that universal prosperity prevails and
no 70 icT. u,
the present conditions. His claim that
to stop a big bad trust from charging
exorbitant profits might hurt others
and ruin the small manufacturer is
not borne out by the facts. All the
combines are making too much and
the good trust is not visible to the
naked eve. If the trusts rSust be al
lowed to continue TO overcharge the
consumers, the latter must be paid or
allowed to make enough to be able to
pay the exorbitant trust prices. If the
present prosperity will not stand that
strain, it is a delusion and a snare for
all but the favored ones. If President
Roosevelt could throw off the shackles
that the cunning of the protected
trusts have now bound him with and
aid instead of hinder the reform eIe-
ment of his party, the tariff schedules
that protect the combines could be re-
vised and the exorbitant prices that
now prevail would be reduced forth
with. AS it is, the voters who are
being ground between the millstoHes
must await their opportunity to bring
about reform until the election of an
other Congress in 1904. There is no
hope from the Republican party; 1t is
controlled by the monopolists.
Advance in Window Glass Prices.