The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-08-08
WRIGHTS TIRE
Is PUNCTURED
Statistic Sharp JuggIed With
Figures in His Report.
FACTS PLAINLY SET FORTH
INTERESTING STATEMENT oF
CONGRESSMAN CoWHERD.
FACTS PLAINLY SET FORTH
IAtAsHNGToN. Aug. 7.-Chairman

EEF ASHINGTON, Aug. Chairman
w Cowherd Of the Democratic con
gressional campaign committee
to-day issued a statement in refutatiOn
Of recently published tables from the
bureau of labor relative to the in
crease in wages and the cost Of living.
Mr. COwherd's conclusions are as fol-
lows.
In the bulletin on cost of living and
wages, recently issued by the bureau
Of statistics, the methods adopted are
as remarkable as the conclusions
reached Wholesale prices have al
ways been the standard By which the
rise or fail Of the cost Of living has
been computed. Had Colonel Wright
followed the customary course Of using
wholesale prices, he would have been
confronted with the excellent tables
issued by Dun's and Bradstreet's, both
recognized as commercial authorities
Dun's table Of prices shows that from
July. 1897, the low point, to March,
1904, the highest point, cost Of living
increased IS per cent.
For Political Purposes.
''The most skiIlful juggler could not
show such rise in wages Party ne
cessities therefore would not permit
Mr.. Wright to use this table, and he
dare not refute it. So he adopts the
shifting, uncertain aud unknown stan
Gard of retail prices. Wholesale prices
are fixed and stable, the sane in every
community, with cost of freight added.
There is neither stability nor unifOr-
nifty in retail prices. Coffee sells in
the same city for from 10 to 40 cents,
tea from 20 cents to S1.50; best cream
cry butter from is TO 90 cents per
pound.
a bright field agent selecting his
stores and localities could find evil
dence in retail prices to support any
theory. This was the way in which
the cost of living was reduced. The
methods employed to raise wages were
equally as questionable. Everyone
knows that the greatest increase in
wages is TO be found in those indus
tries where union labor is strongest
and where the strength of the union
mad been developed during the period
under investigation The conditions
are peculiarly applicable 70 the build
ing trades out of the 1929 establish
ments selected by Mr.. Wright for COM
parison 1,199. or more than one-third,
are in building trades. OF the re-
mainder 1,1S5 are likewise in the IN
protected industries.
Railroads Were Omitted.
1.-THE greatest employers of labor in
the country are the railroads, and no
other industry Is a better barometer
Of the average wage The railroads
employ all kinds of labor, skilled and /
unskilled. union and nOn-uniOn- In no /
other industry are as complete and |
accurate statistics available Each /
railroad reports 10 the Interstate COM /
merce compassion the total wages dur /
ing each Year and the total number /
of WOTkmen on June 30 OF that year. /
The average wage is therefore easily /
4.r-a Il
wages Included in Mr. Wrights re- /
port2 The answer is apparent. The |
last report Of the Interstate commerce
shows an increase of railroad wages /
of only 3 per cent The railroads en- /
Tloy more than 1s3G0 600 men. Mr.. 1
WrightS figures cover 1857. Miners.
One of the next largest bodies of Ia !
borers, also are omitted. Mr. Wright's 4
table does not show that any one of 4
these 1857 men received more wages /
IT 1903 than in 1902 or any other year. /
Il only claims TO show the hourly wage /
for these particular men has increased. /
In other words, had q mill raised the 1
wages Of its employees 10 per cent and \
then shut down One-half the time. this
would have figured in Ar Wright's /
table as an increase in wages II /
would have been just as easy to have
selected an equal number of esta blish- /
ments, whose output, quality of work 4
ana NUMBER or employees was deCTeaS-
ing and shown reduction instead OF /
an increase in wages
Method of Juggling.
Then. too. by taking hourly wages. +
Mr. Wright would not have TO con-
slider the 600 600 men now out of en-
plOyment- BY carefully selecting his 4
ESTABLISHMENTS he did not have 10 con-
slider the 100000 men whose wages, /
the trade journals tell US. were re- /
duced in 1903 and 1904 from 10 to 80 per /
cent We shall appeal from Colonel
Wright and his expert statisCians TO /
one who figures more sISilfulIy and
carefully than he-the housewife with 4
the market basket who must make her /
husbands scanty wages cover the con-
SANITY increasing cost of the famiiv's I
aaiIE needs