Milford chronicle., 1904-11-04
Another GIaring Instance Of
Democratic Juggling with
Government Statistics.
LABOR BULLETIN IGNORED
In Order to Make Political Capital and
Also to Misrepresent Conditions
and Deceive YOters-Cam-
paign Textbook Trickery.

/ weeks and Of the recently issued Demo-
/ cratic Campaign Text Book discloses 4
] disposition on the part of the managers
/ of the Democratic campaign to discredit
/ the report on wages and cost of living
made by the Bureau of Labor in its July
/ Bulletin (NO. so. In view Of the repu7
/ tation Of Commissioner Wright for abso-
| lutte fairness in the collection and pres
entation Of statistics it is of some in
/ terest at this time to review his report
/ in the light OF the indignant criticisms
which it has brought FORTH and it may
be said at the outset that a careful ex-
animation OF the report reveals the some
what remarkable fact that practically
every criticism made has been answered
in tie Bulletin itself. Indeed, it would p
almost appear that the compilers Of the
Text Book either did not make use Of
the Bulletin or had no desire to be cOn-
yinced OF the truth of the figures pub
lished therein, and that their insinua-
tiODs and clumsy misStatements Of fact
were made for the purpose Of mislead-
ing the public mind Let us proceed e
TO the most specific OF the somewhat
vague charges that are made.
1t is first charged that the report pub
lished in the Bulletin was Quoting the
Text Book prepared ostensibly as an
official document. but in reality, it seems,
for the special use OF the Republican
Campaign Committee" The 'well-nigh
conclusive" evidence submitted in sup
port of this charge consists Of 4 state
ment by Secretary Shaw in June last
that such a report would be published.
As matter OF fact. it had been known
to the public for several years that the
Bureau Of Labor was engaged in collect
ing data for such report and the pOr-
tion Of the report relating to cost Of liv-
ing was actually published in Bulletin
40 as early as November, 1903-nearly
eight months previous to Secretary
Shaw's statement
Not What Democrats Wanted.
It is clearly stated in the Bulletin
itself that the investigation was begun
in the winter OF 1900-l001, and without
doubt the records OF the bureau and
the testimony Of hundreds of manufac-
turers whose pay rolls were examined !,
would have proved the truth Of the state
ment, had the truth been desired in DEM
ocratic quarters. But no-for political
reasons the facts disclosed were not
pleasing, and it seemed necessary to
adopt some method apparently any.
method that would detract from an exc
hibit OF a remarkable condition of indus
trial depression was desired Conclusive
evidence is at hand that the gathering ,.
OF these statistics was begun in the win,
ter OF 190O-190l, and that they were
not cooked up" for the occasion as
charged, but it is not to be expected
that this absurd charge will be with7 a
drawn, although as a matter Of fact the Il
figures as to wages and cost Of living.
referred to have been corroborated by in :,
dependent investigations which have been :;
concluded by the State bureaus OF sew !,
era important States ,sl
1t is charged also that by giving equal !,
weight 10 unimportant articles of con-
sumption and articles of prime neces- =
sty au unduy small increase in cost Of
living is secured. II is gravely asserted 4
that nutmegs, pepper, alum. etc, are i
given equal weight with such important I
articles as lard, beef. eggs, -four, etc,
This charge might, indeed be convinc-
ing if it contained even a slight element )
of truth. Unfortunately for the criticism,
however the Bullctin itself states that y
all articles of food are weighed exactly,f II
according to the amount consumed in thats,
average wdrkngmans family. In this .
Bulletin the exact quantities are given
and the method clearly explained. so &
that the charge can only be construed as
deliberate attempt to mislead the vot5 ,
ers Of the country and not ms an error
OH the part Of the compiler Of the text
book. As q matter OF fact the most /.
careful search Of Bulletin SO shows that
the unimpoUant articles referred to, such
as putty, nutmegs. alum. pepper. etc, !,
are NOT even mentioned therein. These
articles are found, however, among the
260 articles entering into an index Of J,
wholesale prices which has been publish 7
ed annually by the bureau for the past
three years. but this index has no con- q
nection whatever with the report on cost
Of living. One pauses to wonder at the
fact that the Democratic managers are
so lacking in resource as TO adopt the ;
clumsy trick of injecting figures from IS
another report into a discussion OF the i.
report on cost Of living. and pretend that {,
they were a part Of the latter report. II Z
must be assumed that in this section
there was the studied intention to mis- i
and convey an impression to. AZ
the public utterly contrary to the truth &
and entirely unwarranted by the facts.
The entire portion OF the Text Book un- !
der the caption "Absurdty OF Republi-
can Averages" (pages 124 and 125), and
much that follows on pages 126 and1127,
IS of the character just mentioned.
a I.udicrous Complaint. "a
The further complaint that the figures
for cost Of living are based on retail
prices instead OF Wholesale can only be
by assuming that the use of
he latter would have given the Deiho-
ratio campaign managers a littl9 less
discomfort. Bulletin SO clearly explains
he reasons for the use OF retail prices
IS a basis for cost Of living in prefor-.sg
,nce to the wholesale. 1t is true that
Wholesale prices have been used Mt times =
o Indicate the trend Of cost OF living.
lut they are considered by economists d.
ls unreliable for the purpose Of indicat-
ng the extent OF the increase or ie-
,rease Until the present day investiga-
ion by the Bureau Of Labor no recordsis
# retail prices covering any consider
ible period had ever been collected, ow- y
ne to the very great expense Of MAKING