Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-08
COWHERD MAKES REPLY
REFUTES STATISTICS PUBLISHED
BY BUREAU OF LABOR.
Declares Cost Of Living Has Increased
in Much Greater Proper
ton Than Wages.

Chairman Cowherd of the democratic con-
gressiCnal campaign committee, has issued
a statement in refutatien of the recently
published tables from the bureau of labor,
relative to the increase in wages and the
cost of living. Mr.. Cowherd's conclusions
as follows:
In the bulletin on cost of living and wages
recently issued by the bureau of statistics
the methods adopted are as remarkable as
the conclusions reached Wholesale prices
have always been the standard by which
the rise fall of the cost Of living has
been computed Had Colonel Wright fol-
lowed the customary course of using whole
sale prices he would have been confronted
with the excellent tables issued by Dun
ard Bradstreet, both recognized commercial
authorities.
Duns table of prices shows that from
July, 1897, the low pont, to March 1894, the
I highest point, cost of living increased 40
! per cent. The most skllful juggler could
/ not show such q rise in wages. Party
| necessities therefore would not permit Mr.
Wright to use this table. and he dare not
| refute it. So he adopts the shifting, uncer-
| tain and unknown standard of retail prices.
| Wholesale prices are fixed and stable, the
| same in every community, with cost OF
| freight added. There is neither stability
nor uniformity in retail prices. Coffee sells
| in the same city for from 10 to 40 cents,
tea from ~ cents to $50, best creamery
butter from IS to 30 cents per pound. A
bright tielo agent selecting his stores ana
localities could find evidence in retail prices
to support any theory.
This was the way in which the cost Oh
living was reduced
Methods Employed.
The methods employed to raise wages
were equally as questionable. Every one
| krc WIS that the greatest increase in wages
| ba in those industries where
urion labor is strongest and where the
strength of the union has been developed
| during the period under investigation.
These conditions are peculiarly applicable
| to the building trades Out of the 3,4G9
| establishments selected by Mr.. Wright for
! comparison, 1,199, or more than one-third'
are in the building trades. Or the remainder
| ,1S5 are Likewise in the unprotected ihous-
| tries.
The greatest employers of labor in the
| country are the railroads. and no other IN
| dustry is better barometer OF the average
wage The railroads employ all kinds of
| labor skilled and unSkilled. union and non
| union. In no other industry are as com
plete and accurate statistics available
| Each railroad reports to the interstate com
merce commission the total wages paid dur
ing each year and the total number of
workmen on June 30 of that year. The
average wage is therefore easily OBTAIN
able
nolllOoA " oSSS'
Why were no railroad wages included in
Mr.. Wrights report? The answer is APP
parent. The last report of the interstate
commerce commission shows an increase of
railroad wages of only 3 per cent. The
railroads employ more than 100000 men.
Mr. Wrights figures cover 1852. Miners:
one of the next largest bodies of la borers,
also omitted Mr.. WrightS table does
not show that any of these 1861 men re-
ceived more wages in 1903 tran in 1907, OF
any other year. 1t only claims to show tht
hourly wage for these particular men has
increased.
In other words, had a mill raised the
wages of its employees 10 per cent aud then
shut down one half the time, this would
have figured in Mr.. Wright's table
increase in wages. 1t would have been
just as easy to have selected an equal num-
Der of establishments. whose output, quail
ity of work, and number of employees WIS
decreasing, and shown a reduction Instead
of an increase in wages. Then, too by
taking hourly wages Mr.. Wright would not
have to consider the 100000 men row out of
employment. BY careful selection of his
establishments he did not have 10 con-
slider the 10G0.00O men whose wages, the
trade journal tells us, were reduced in 1903
and 1904 from 10 to 30 per cent.
We shall appeal from Col. Wright and
his expert statiStcians to one who ;ig-
ures more skillfully and carefully than he
the housewife with the market basket,
who must make her husbands scanty
! wages cover the constantly increasing cost
of the family's daily needs.