Courier Democrat., 1904-08-04
THE STAND PAT POLICY
High Prices Blessing, Accord
ing to Secretary Shaw.

High Prices Blessing, Accord
ing to Secretary Shaw.
TRIES TO BOLSTER UP WEAK CASE
Futile Attempt to Prove That the
Worker IL Prosperous-How the
Trust Evil Has Increased the Cost
Of Living-The Truth Suppressed.
There is no escape for the Republic
ans from the stand pat position OH the
tariff taken by them. They are COM
PEELED by events to contend that pros
perity is widespread. But Secretary
Shaw in opening the Republican cam.
paign in Delaware under the auspices
Of the Wilmington Roosevelt Working
mems club endeavored to make labor"
see that its welfare depended upon
the success of the Republicans. whose
policy had produced high prices and, as
he claimed, correspondingly high wages
and 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
Wilmington workingmen, Universal
and constant employment at reasona-
BILE wages, even in the face of high
priced living expenses. is preferable to
employment to only portion of our
people, though at the same wages and
at much reduced living expenses"
Are the workingmen of Wilmington
blessed With universal constant en-
ployment," as Secretary Shaw would
have them believe? The reports of the
condition of the shipbuilding industry,
car shops, woolen mills and some other
industries which are carried on at Will
1nington do not by any means support
the Shaw theory that employment Is
universal and constant" but rathe:
that a great many men are idle and IL
number working on short time. That
this is the condition of the manufac
turing and railroad centers nearly ev-
erywhere is unfortunately true. and no
one should know it better than s'ecre-
tary Shaw, who has all the government
sources of information at his COM
mand.
But instead Of telling the whole truth
and nothing but the truth about the
conditions that prevail for the .Amerj-
can worllingman under the high priced
trust era that Republican policies have
produced Secretary Shaw promises to
furnish "well authenticated data from
the highest possible authority in the
United. States showing that the aver
age wages have increased in larger
proportion than the average articles
Of ordinary household consumption"
It is common report that Secretary
bureau of statistics the data that Sec
retary Shaw gives notice of appearing
in fact. that the matter for the Re-
publican campaign booksis being pre-
pared at government expense and to
make a showing favorable to the ad-
vantages of high tariff and high trust
prices.
Government statistics are notorious
~ unreliable when manufactured to
suit partisan purposes, and, although
the expert statisticians of the DEPART
ment of commerce and labor may
prove that all of us are living in lux
ury, every one can Judge of his own
condition better than partisan figures
can prove it to him.
There will doubtless be 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, ull-
der present high trust prices, those Of
us with restricted incomes can make
expenses come within what is recefy-
ed. The true test of prosperity is
comfortable living and the amount re-
naming after all the bills are paid for
necessities that can be expended for
luxuries 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
expert figures or the special pleading
Of Secretary Shaw can determine fer
them.
If the voter concludes that he is pros
porous and is willing to continue to
pay high prices and his own share OF
the enormous profits that the high tar
i6 allows the trusts to plunder him Of
he should vote the Republican ticket
and thus support the stand pat policy
Of no change in present conditions. but
If he is not satisfied. if he feels that the
wages he is receiving do not allow him
and his family to live in comfort be-
cause the cost of living has advanced
more than wages have increased, then
logically it is against his interest to
stand pat, and a change is necessary.
AS the Republicans declare against
any change. the voter must turn to the
party whose declarations and tradition
al policy are to reduce the tariff that
trusts cannot find shelter under it.
Such change in the fiscal policy Of
the United States is advocated by the