Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1904-10-06
HIGH PRICES WORRY
CONSUMERS NOT ALONE IN
THEIR ANXIETY.
Republican Party is Endeavorlno to
Fix Up All Sorts Of Explanations
With Regard to the Present Cost
Of LiVlng--statlstlos Jusaled.

II there Is one thing that is worry
ing the administration officials at
Washington more than another In the
line Of campaign Issues, II lie the facts
tn 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-flfths of our
trusts were born under Dingley legis-
lation and that the cost of living is
higher than ever before. The Repub-
licRns would run away from them il
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 shlfty explanations and
excuses for high prices are being
fixed up by the Republican managers
and statistical iugglers. 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
others that prices have not gone up
as much as, while wages have gone
ZIP 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 we're
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 Blu
reau of Labor, of course) well au-
taenticated data showing that the
average wages have increased IN
larger proportions than the average
articles of ordinary household coil
sumption" He observed that high.
priced living expenses are preferable
to employment to only a portion Of
our people; that "the happiness of
the wage Garner is dependent upon
high priced farm products; and that
1.-The prosperity of the farmer is de-
pendent upon the ready and constant
employment of the wage-earner"
While he insisted that at 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 peroTa-
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
lcation 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
prices of spring chickens-largely in
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 conelu-
sion.
The bureau OF statistics OF the
/ treasury departnehf ie also hard AZ