Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-03-31
WAGES CUT
Protected Trusts and Monopo.
lies In Full Control.
ALI GLASSES AT THEIR MERCY.

Cost of Living Now FOrty-three Per
Cent Higher Than When Dingiey
Bim Became a Lnyv-wages Have
Declined Twenty or Thirty Per
Cent-PEices stfn Advancing.
The object lessons now being put be-
fore the workingmen, clerks, profess
sional men and others with fixed sal
aries or incomes as to the benefits and
evils of Dingley tariff duties are SO
conspicuous that the ordinary wayfar-
ing man must see and understand
them. Never before was it so easy to
see things so clearly. If there ever
was a time when the wages and sal
airy men might be excused for thinking
that high protective tariffs were their
friends that time is not now. They
have but 10 open their eyes and look
about to see that the present Dingley
duties are cutting them both ways
by causing reduced work and wages
and by causingshigher prices and in
creased cost of living. What do we
now see?
With the cost of living at the highest
point recorded in modern times we see
hundreds Of thousands of workers
thrown out of work and hundreds Of
thousands working at greatly reduced
wages. Often the same tariff protect
ed trusts which are advancing the
prices of their products are compel
ling their employees to accept lower
wages.
We will first consider the increased
l,ls
every month index" numbers which
show the relative cost Of living at diff
ferent times. These figures are based
upon quotations Of $50 articles, with
due allowance for the relative impOr-
lance of each. 1t is the most accurate
and scientific of all the methods Of
showing the average price OF commOdi-
ties and the relative cost of living.
These figures indicate that the cost
of living was 6 per cent greater in 1900
than in 1890, 81 per cent greater in
1900 than in 1897, - per cent greater
on March /, 1904. than on July l, 1897,
and more than 6 per cent greater on
March 1, 1904, than on Oct. l, 1903.
Thus, while wages declined more
than ~ per cent from 1890 to 1900,
according to our census figures, aver
age prices rose per cent. This indi-
Gates reduction in actual wages of
nearly S per cent. AS we had even
higher protection in 1900 than in 1890
it is not easy to see how the working
man is being blessed by the protection
CT the Republicans-trustv variety.
But July 1, 1897, was just before the
passage of. the Dingley tariff bill,
which has given us the highest rates
ever known and which is the mother
OF hundreds OF greater trusts than the
world ever before saw. Under this
rariff-trust law the cost of living has
risen 43 per cent. The most reckless
Republican figure makers in the coun-
Try viii not claim that average wages
have gone up 40 per cent since 1897,
nor viii they deny that wages have
declined greatly since Oct. ]. 1903,
since which time the cost of living
has risen more than per cent.
There can be no doubt about the
great decline in wages since last Octo-
Der The Democratic leader of the
house of representatives, Hon. John
Sharp Williams. as we'll as Congress
men Robert Baker, Allan Benny, vii
liam Hughes, William w. Rucker,
Robert Lamar and others, has had
printed in the Congressional Record
evidence of wage reductions and closed
mills on a very large scale.
These include 100000 employees Of |
the steel trust whose wages We're re-
ported to have been reduced an aver
age of 10 per cent, but which, if we
may judge from comparisons of old |
and new scales in recent numbers OF |
the Iron Age, average more nearly 60 |
per cent and, for many skilled work |
ers. exceed 40 per cent
They include $4,000 employees in the |
cotton mills of New England who are |
now idle or working ut wages 10 per |
cent below those of last fall. They in |
clude some 100000 or 100000 en- |
ployees of the railroads who are either |
laid of or are getting wages from , to |
20 per cent lower than those received |
last year. They include, of course, |
tens OF thousands employed in mills |
outside of those in the steel trust and |
outside of the New England cotton |
mills 1t is safe to say that hundreds |
of thousands are now idle who were |
employed a year ago and that millions |
are now working at wages from . to |
30 per cent below those received a |
year ago.
Nor is this all. The mill closing, |
wage reducing and price advancing |
process is still going on. On Feb. II |
we were told that the eight plants of |
the National Glass company were idle |
and 1000 flint glass workers were on |
strike against the proposed reduction |
In wages. The National Glass Budget |
OF March u stated that after a ses-
sion lasting a week the window glass |
workers had consented to a % per |
cent reduction in wages. ON March IS |
II was announced that the Independ- |
ent Window Glass company" met at |
Columbus, o., land decided upon 4 5 |