Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-10-16
WAGES AND TINE COST OF LtVM0,
President Roosevelt Deliberately Seeks
TO Deceive the Public.

IT,
acceptance, which have aroused un
i favorable comment because of their in
k3euracy, none is destined to cause him
fndore trouble and to result in greater
harm to his canvass than that in
which he alleges that wages have been
increased during the last few years
IN greater proportion than The cost
OF living has increased. This state
ment has called forth storm OF pro
Test, not only from the press. but
among well-informed labor leaders and
political economists
Nearly every independent journal
has taken Ml Roosevelt to task One
OF these the Philadelphia Public
Ledger, published in the metropolis Of
the strongest prot ectioaist State IN the
Union, devotes column and half Of
Il It's space IN refuting the Presidents
/ statement. MIR. Roosevelt, to quote
him precisely, says:
AS conelusively shown by tie buI-
letin of the Bureau Of Labor. the p1tr-
i chasing power of the average wage re.
y ceived by the waee-Worker bias grown
& faster than the cost OF living
NJ The Philadelphia Ledger rogre1q mai
it cannot confirm This statement. 1t
4 says
~ More reliable. because more disin
terested. and more Hnpre emdiced Wit
nesses than Mr.. RooseVejt's Commits
sioner Of Labor, have time and again
declared il conspieuousIy ineXact.
Among the disinterested Witnesses are
both Bradstreet's 5 and Dnns carefully
compiled reports. and among he III
pre- JUDGED ones are several prominent
Dor leaders who have testified To- tie
truth respecting the wage scale of the
one part and the regular quotation of
the prices of The necessities Of life Of
The other part And the precise testi
mony given by these trustworthy Wit
nesses. is directly contrary TO The Presi
dent statement.
The prices of domestic commodities
have had an average increase from the
lowest standard reached in 1896 Of .
per cent No sensible and well IN
formed man Will seriously asscl1 hat
SSeince 1896 the average Wage rate Aae in
Increased 10 hal eNtenGZmore rhan oRe
third. There is no workman in The
4 land who can testify TO the accuracy
E of this The President : contention is
sf that the alleged greater prOportionate
s. increase of the average wage 10 the
@ increased cost of living has been due
<a.se The benetcent protection afforded to
81 labor by the tariff. Here again The
Il Presidents s position IS contested by
81 labor itself 1t is true that HE wages
Il Of artisans and their 0EsEiled helpers
i have been materially Increased since
1876. bun While there h3ye been slight
q increases al various fifsea OF the WAGES
of the socalled profecred Mort=mcn,
the aggregate differences have noe Kept
] step with the increase oi die eas1 OF
living
AT present the tendoHY all over
the country is to reduce he WAGES OF
those employed in protected industries
At Fan River, Mass 2..o00 textile
operators are out of work and de
prived OF wages because they would
not consent to a fiat wage reduction
of T. per cent In Chicago the Meat
Trust has crushed to death one of the
most powerful labor organizations be
cause it demanded a reasonable in
crease of wages for the undcrpaid
.lborers The Steel Iron and Tin
Trusts. interests protected by the tarlf
have been largely reducing their Wage
schedules, as has also the Glass Trust
The artisans. mechanics and all sorts
of their unskilled helpers. to whom the
tariff does moi even pretend TO give
pro,ection receive high wages. and
will continue to receive them so long
as their unions remain intact But
what single tariff protected industry
pays its Worhmen the same generous
reward for their labor that The un-
protected activities pay their en-
ployees for their labor.
It might be added that Commissioners
Nrigh, S remarkable statement and
tabulation upon which President
Roosevelt bases his remarks already
quoted, was discrediled long before the
candidates letter of acceptance was
made public, for Secretary Shaw in
stump speech delivered several weeks
ago stated hat the Commissioner OF
Labor has prepared a bomb Which
would blow the Democratic party sky
high, or words 10 that effect, He sad,
in so many words that 1his "homb
was in the nature of a carefully pre-
pared article showing that The Dem
ocratic contention that the cost OF
fINipp ha b1pn increased ON OF pro