The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1904-07-09

Secretary Shaw Tries to Prove That
High Prices Are a Blessing to
Workingmen.

There is no escape for the repub-
licans from the stand-pat position on
the tariff taken by them. They are
compelled by events to contend that
prosperity is widespread. But Secre-
tary Shaw in opening the republican
campaign in Delaware under the aus
pices Of the Wilmington Roosevelt
Workingmen's club e%ndeavored to
make labor" see that their welfare
depended upon the success Of the re-
publicans whose policy had produced
high prices, and. as he claimed, cor
respondingly high wages n steady
employment. Secretary Shaw is an
adept at telling half-truths and then
building thereon an argument to prove
his contention. He said to the Will
mington workingmen: Universal and
constant employment at reasonable
wages, even in the face of high priced
living expenses. is preferable to en-
ployment to only a portion of our peo-
pie, though at the same wages and at
much reduced living expenses"
Are the workingmen of Wilmington
blessed with universal and constant
employment" as Secretary Shaw
would have them believe? The re-
ports of the condition of the ship
building industry, car shops, wooden
mills and some other industries which
are carried on at Wilmington do not
by any means support the Shaw theory
that employment is universal and
constant" but rather that a great
many men are idle ard a number work.
ing on short time. That this is the
condition of the manufacturing and
railroad centers nearly everywhere is
unfortunately true. and no n should
know it better than Secretary Shaw,
who has all the government sources
of information at his command.
But instead of telling the whole
truth and nothing but the truth about
the conditions that prevail for the
American workingmen under the high
priced trust era that republican pol
icies have produced, Secretary Shaw
promises to furnish well authenticated
data, from the highest possible au-
thority in the United States, showing
that the average wages have increased
in larger proportion than the average
articles of ordinary household con-
sumption"
It is common report that Secretary
Cortelyou is having prepared in the
bureau of statistics the data that Sec
rotary Shaw gives notice of appearing,
in fact that the matter for the repub-
lican campaign book is being prepared
at government expense and to make a
showing favorable to the advantages OF
high tariff and high trust prices.
Government statistics are notorious
ly unreliable when manufactured to
suit partisan purposes, and although
the expert statisticians of the depart
ment of and labor may
prove that all of us are living in lux
ury, every n can Judge of his own
condition better than partisan figures
can prove it to him.
There will doubtless be a great num-
Der of Roosevelt workingmen's clubs
organized by the republican politicians
all over the country, but it will keep
Secretary Shaw and other republican
| spellbinders busy explaining how, un-
der present high trust prices, those OF
us with restricted incomes can make
expenses come within what is received.
The true test of prosperity is a COM
Portable living and the amount remain
ing after all the bills are paid for nee
| essities, that can be expended for lux
uries. or that can be saved for the
proverbial rainy day. Each family can
| decide if they are satisfied with their
present condition more certainly than
experts figures or the special pleading