Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-06-30
MAKES STRANGE ARGUMENT
Secretary Shaw Tries to Prove That
High Prices Are a Blessing to
Workingmen.

Workingmen.
There is no escape for the repub-
llcans from the %stand-pat position ON
the tariff taken by them. They are
compelled by events to contend that
prosperity is widespread. But Secre-
tary Shaw in opening the republican
campaign in Delaware under the aus
pieces OF the Wilmington Roosevelt
W~orkingmen's club endeavored to
make labor" see that their welfare
depended upon the success of the re-
publicans whose policy had produced
high prices, and, as he claimed, cor
respondingly high wage 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 Will
mington ~workingmen: universal and
constant employment at reasonable
wages, even in the face of high priced
living expenses, is preferable to en-
ployment to only a portion of our peo-
pie, though at the same wages and at
III reduced living expenses
Are the workingmen of Wilmington
blessed with universal and constant
employment" as Secretary Shaw
would have them believe? The re-
ports of the condition of the shin
building industry, car shops, wooden
mills and some other industries which
are carried on at Wilmington do not
by any means support the Shaw theory
that employment is universal and
constant" but rather that a great
many men are idle and a number work
ing on short time. That this is the
condition Of the manufacturing and
railroad centers nearly everywhere is
unfortunately true, and no one should
know it better than Secretary Shaw,
who has all the government sources
OF information at his command.
But instead of telling the whole
truth and nothing but the truth about
Ghe conditions that prevail for the
American workingmen under the high
priced trust era that republican pol
lcies have produced, Secretary Shaw
promises to furnish "well authenticated
data, from the highest possible au-
thority in the United States, showing
that the average wages have increased
in larger proportion than the average
articles Of ordinary household con-
sumption"
1t is common report that Secretary
Cortelyou is having prepared In the
bureau of statistics the data that Sec
rotary Shaw gives notice of appearing.
in fact that the matter for the repub-
lican campaign book is being prepared
at government expense and to make a
showing favorable to the advantages of
high tariff and high trust prices.
Government statistics are notorious
ly unreliable when manufactured to
partisan purposes, and although
the expert statisticians of the DEPART
ment of commerce and labor NAV
prove that all of us are living in lux
ury, every n can judge of his own
condition better than partisan figures
an prove it to him.
There will doubtless be a great num-
Der of Roosevelt workingmen's clubs
organized BY the republican politicians
Ill over the country, but it will keep
Secretary Shaw and other republican
'pellbinders busy explaining how, I'M
Ter present high trust prices. those Of
is with restricted incomes can make
expenses come within what is received,
The true test OF prosperity is a COM
ortable living and the amount remain
ng after all the bills are paid for nee
that can be expended for lux
tries, or that can be saved for the
'roverbial rainy day. Each family can
Iecide II they are satisfied with their
condition more certainly than
Xperts' figures or the special pleading
t Secretary Shaw can determine for
hem. S
Ii the voter concludes that he Is l
.rosperous and is willing to continue
} pay high prices, and his own share
| the enormous profits that the high
ariff allows the trusts to plumber him
he should vote the republican ticket
nd thus support the ~stand-pat policy Y
t no change in present conditions. \
ut If he is not satisfied, if he feels
the wages he is receiving do not |
low him and his family to live in I
,mfort because the cost of living has {
ivanced more than wages have in
'eased, then logically it is against his e
lterest to stand pat and a change is {
ecessary. AS the republicans declare T
sa1nst any change, the voter must =
to the party whose declarations
Id traditional policy are to reduce the d
riff, that trusts cannot find shelter lie
1t. Such q change in the fiscal il
'licy of the United States is advocated O
the democrats. Not a radical change
at would upset business and injure r
NEST manufacturers, but the tariff SO a,
vised that the trusts that sell cheaper o,
road than at home would be prevent q,
from doing SO any longer. That is W
g iowa idea" Of a large faction Of II
pub!icaps Of Secretary Shaw's own b,
ate, fflt he and his partisans were Il