Mexico Missouri message., 1904-12-22
THEORY VERSUS FACT
FRAUDULENT FIGURES AS TO
PRICES AND WAGES.
Republican Attempt to Show the Pur-
chasing Power Of Earnings Has In
creased Clearly DlsproVed-The
Worker Can Decide for Himself.

lection mas been furnished by the De-
partment of Commerce and Labor.
The highest authority" has, after a
year and a half Of labor by hundreds
Of experts, endeavored to prove that
wages have relatively advanced more
than the cost Of living. Those who re-
ceive wages and have been economic.
ing to make them meet expenses may
know better but the highest author
ity" attempts to prove that although
retail prices for necessities have ad-
vanced 10.5 per cent wages have more
than kept pace by jumping up 1928
per cent.
That is extraordinarily good news to
the harassed hOusekeepeT, who finds
she has been dealing with the wrong
shop, where prices have been about
one-third higher than they we're a few
years ago. Most wage earners will
be very much dissatisfied with their
present wages when they discover
that the report of the Department of
Labor reclares that the wages paid to
others than themselves have been in
creased 1873 per cent, while theirs
have either been reduced or remained
stationary.
But let us hope that the government
statisticians have made no mistake in
their figures although the well known
facts would seem to indicate they
have. Nearly every one is grumbling
at the increased cost of living and
wholesale prices have advanced. &C.
cording to Dun's Index Numbers AZ per
cent up to March, 1904. AS Dun's fig
ures are admitted by all impartial sta
tisticians to be prepared on the best
system possible, as the quantity of
each article used by each average in
dividual is weighted according to the
amount actually consumed. Whole
sale prices are considered reliable as
such prices are universally alike and
not like retail prices, different in near.
ly every store.
But wholesale prices and Dun's fig
ures were too unstable for the high
est authority" for too great an advance
in prices was indicated, so the high
est authority started out at govern
ment expense to make prices of its
own, by having the clerks of the De-
partment of Commerce and Labor
send all over the country to inquire
about prices at the retail stores. AS
every one knows. 1t is not difficult to
find vast difference in price, for the
same or a similar article, at retail
stores, according to their location and
style Of business. You can buy beef
steak all the way from ten cents to
forty cents a pound. Many other nee.
essaries show very nearly as great
difference.
The highest authority" saw this OPP
portunity to juggle the figures and
prove by them that there had only
been a small advance in prices and
therefore the Democratic talk Of high
trust prices was nothing but partisan
nonsense.
1t was also incumbent upon the
highest authority" if 1t would do it's
duty to the Republican party, to prove
that wages have advanced enormous
~, even more than prices, for the
wicked Democrats were pointing to
the numerous strikes that are in prog
ress to prevent cuts in wages, and to
the reductions made that the men
have accepted rather than strike To
accomplish this feat the highest au-
thority" took pains to select for it's
figures only those industries that had
been able to keep up wages, such as
the building trades, piano makers,
ETC.. with which the workers are so
strongly organized, that the masters
have, so far, not been able to make
reductions.
Now the proof Of the pudding is in
the eating and those who receive
wages know better than the highest
authority whether they are getting
more or less than they we're. The wife
who has been going to market for
years keeps pretty close run of prices
and can tell with much more certainty
how much the beef trust, the oil trust,
the sugar trust, the steel trust, the
hardware trust, the coal trust, the
fruit trust, the salt trust, the biscuit
trust and the numerous other trusts
have advanced prices, than the "high-
est authority" can. II wages have ad-
vanced more than prices, so that the
purchasing power of wages is 1.S more
than they were, as the highest au-
thority' tries to show, the high trust
prices are rendered nugatory and the
protection the tariff gives the trusts
is the blessing the prOtectionists de-
clare 1t is. But if wages have not ad-
vanced as fast as prices have and If
many wage earners are working short
time and many not employed at all
and prices have advanced as Dun's fig
ures show, about 43 per cent, then the
tariff should be revised so that trust
prices would fall and the purchasing
power Of wages be cOTrespondingly in
creased.
ldealism Va. Dollars.
quite agree with your correspond
emit "R," in last Sundays issue where
Il q.