The Elbert County tribune. [volume] (Elbert, Elbert County, Colo.) 18??-1920, 1904-10-06
Grotesque Attempt by Democrats to Twist Facts
for Campaign Consumption.
GROSSLY INACCURATE STATEMENTS
Country Is Not in Throes of Disastrous
Business Depression, and Workingmen
Continue to Prosper What
the Figures Show.

expenditure for food was $500 per fam
lily. or 4254 per cent. OF the average
expenditure for all purposes This data
was corroborated by other information
in less detail form, from 25.1i0 families,
and so is entitled to be accepted as rep
rcsentative.
The most cursory examination of the
above table reveals the fact that the
purchasing power OF wages, measured by
retail prices of food, was . per cent.
greater in 1903 than in 1893. and this
in spite of the fact that the hours per
week had been reduced 81 per cent.
But more conducive to the wide dis
scmination OF the prosperity than these
proofs of the increased purchasing pow
cr OF wages. is the fact revealed In the
column giving the relative number OF
persons employed In the establishments
investigated. Between 1894 and 1903 the
increase In the number of employees re-
ceiving these wages with increased pur-
chasing power WINS 34.3 per cent, while
in the meantime the population of the
United States only increased 81 per cent.
Democracv'. Last Rcsort.
Dishenrtened and Disguised with the
wide distribution Of prosperity in the
homes, workshops aud bank accounts OF
| American wage earners, demonstrated by
| these figures, the Democrats appeal to
''railroad labor as alfording the most nc-
curnte barometer Of wages" Here. they
say. "a large proportion of the employees
are union men, whose wnges are com
| paratiyely steady"
Then the compilers of the Democratic
campaign book begin to juggle with the
very averages and percentages they af-
feet to despise. They institute COMPARE
sons between 1892, when railway wages
were Mt sigh tide, and 1901, when they
had seaiSely recovered from Democratic
recession Of 1S93-1s9G. They suppress
the fact that the statistical average OF
rnilwa.t wages was less affected by the
Democratic hard times than the average
of other industries, for the obvious rea
son that as forces were reduced In mum
bcrs the proportion of high priced en-
pioyes retained because OF their expert
| ence was greater.
They also conclude their comparison.
with the year ending June Both, 1902
well knowing that the statistics of tn,
Interstate Commerce Commission FOL
that year only reflect n month or two
of the advance in railway wages of that
calendar year. which did not reach noot
tide until July. 1908. Not until tn,
statistics of the Interstate Commerce,
Commission for the year 1903-1904 ar,
published next summer will II be pos
sible to make an authoritative comparl
son of the wages of railway employee,
and the cost Of living in the year 1908.
But the report of the Commission fol
the fiscal year 1903 is available. and II
furnishes the following data, which
throws Light on the rich slice of pros
perity which has fallen to the share oil
railway employees:
NUMBER AND COMPENSATION OF
| RAILWAY EMPLOYEES IN THE YEARS
| 1907 AND 1903:
! Year. Number Conneusation
| 1908 ...--..........1.3Io.J37 sir. 32i Az
1877 ....-....-...-. s23,4sG 4C5.Gof .5fs
Increase ......... 4s9.c51 $500, 7I0 So
| Increase per cent. 5D.4 COT
Increase Of compensation relatively
| over number .........---........ IL
That this relative Increase of compcn
sation. compared with that in the mum
her Of railway employees. does not tel
the whole truth is proved by the follow
ing table:
AVERAGE DAILY COMPENSATION OF
CERTAIN DISTINCTIVE CLASSES or
| HALLWAY EMPLOYEES FOR TIFF
YEARS ENDING JUNE BOTH, 1897
AND 1903 wide sixteenth nnnuni report
Of the Statistics Of railways In the middle
States for 1908, y. 43.)