Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1904-09-29
HIGH PRICES WORRY
CONSUMERS NOT ALONE IN
THEIR ANXIETY.
Republican Party Is Endeavorins to
Fix Up All Sorts of Explanations
With Regard to the Present Cost
of Living-Statisties Juegled.


If there is one thing that is worry
| ing the administration officials at
Washington more than another in the
line of campaign issues, it is the facts
in regard to the present extremely
high cost of living. The Republicans
anticipate that the wicked Democrats
| are going to charge the whole thing
up to the Republican legislation. They
will say that the Republicans passed
the Dingley high tariff law, that is
mother to most of our great trusts,
that have put prices up to the highest
point in modern times.
| There is no way of disputing the
palpable facts that four-fifths of our
trusts were born under Dingley legis-
lation and that the cost of living is
higher than ever before. The Repub-
licans would run away from them if
they could, but unfortunately such
facts are common knowledge. The
purser in every household knows that
prices of supplies are at the top notch,
though he may not know how they
get there or upon whom to place the
blame.
All sorts of shifty explanations and
excuses for high prices are being
fixed up by the Republican managers
and statistical jugglers. Some will at
tempt to justify high prices; others
to show that the prices of farm prod
ucts have gone up even more than
have those of trust products, and
| OIL thof
as much as, while wages have gone
up much more than, is generally sup
posed. These explanations will be
tried on in different localities and the
Republican spell-binders will choose
the ones which appear to fit their
various localities best. The great
ones, Of which Secretary Shaw is the
chief, will use all of them at once.
Thus Secretary Shaw punched all
explanations and openly and boldly
defended high prices in his speech in
Wilmington, Delaware, on June 6,
1904. He admitted that prices were
high, but he promised that before
the campaign proceeds very far there
will be furnished from the highest au-
thority in the United States (the Bu-
reau of Labor, of course) well au-
thenticated data showing that the
average wages have increased in
larger proportions than the average
articles of ordinary household con-
sumption" He observed that high
priced living expenses are preferable
to employment to only a portion CT
our people; that "the happiness of
hn iy 6nnnnhGanf
high priced farm products; and that
"the prosperity of the farmer is de-
pendent upon the ready and constant
employment of the wage-earner."
While he insisted that sit is immeas-
urably unimportant what price we pay
so long as we pay the price to our
selves" yet he showed his preference
for high prices by closing his perora-
ton with the outburst: But may the
good Lord deliver us from another
period when living expenses are
cheap"
The criticism and ridicule leveled
at Secretary Shaw's speech lauding
high prices will make the Republicans
chary of experimenting further in this
line. They will now await with anxi-
ETY. the new prices and wage tables
which Mr.. Carroll D. Wright, the head
Of the labor bureau, has contracted to
make for them. This is guaranteed
to show that average prices have not
risen more than have average wages,
and that the greatest rise has been
in farm products. This will please
the farmers, who have the most votes,
and will give the least possible Of
tense to the wage earners. clerks and
professional men, whose votes are
fewer and harder to combine.
Beyond a reasonable doubt, Mr.. Car
roll D. Wright will fulfill his part of
the contract. He can prove almost
anything in regard to prices and
wages. His peculiar methods of CLASH
ication and of making averages en-
able him to make statistics to order.
He has already classified cotton, the
price of which is now very high, as a
farm product, and wool, the price of
which has risen but little, as a manu-
featured product. He is likely to
classify last years fowls as farm prod,
ucts, and spring chickens as manufac.
tured products, if he finds that the
|
cubated-are high, while the prices
of old hens are only moderate. He
gets average prices" by putting in
the prices of unimportant articles, like
nutmegs or pepper, along with impor.
tant articles, like pork or -four He
can easily find enough of these incon-
sequential articles, the prices of which
have declined during the last seven
years, to Offset the great advance in
the price of important articles of con.
sumption. His averages" for wages
are juggled most scientifically and are
susceptible for any purpose or conclu.
sion.
The bureau of statistics of the
treasury department is also hard at
work making Republican statistics
The New York Tribune of June 13
announced that this bureau has lust
produced statistics showing that "prac
tically all the farm products in their
natural state show an advance" but
that 1.-The cost of living for the month
of May just ended has been less than
for the same month in 1903"
With all of the statistical experts in
: all the government Offices experiment.
ing with price and wage figures and
J hard at work-at government expense
upon the Republican campaign book
we may expect some startling results
:. But the Republican party never need
ed statistical aid more than to-day
Can their experts save them with tall
: figures? Byron W. Holt.
The Tariff and The Railroads
The Iron Age said recently: RE