The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1904-08-12
CHAIRMAN COWHERD ON
COST OF LIVING AND
WAGE EARNING.

| day issued statement in refutation OF
the recently published tables from the
bureau of labor, relative to the increase
in wages and the cost Of living. MIR.
Cowherd's conclusions are as follows:
"In the bulletin on cost of living ana
wages recently issued by the bureau Of
statistics the methods adopted are as re-
markable as the conclusions reached.
Wholesale prices have always been the
standard by which the rise or fall 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 ty Dun and Bradstreet, both
recognized commercial authorities.
"Duns table of prices shows that from
Jnly, 1897, the low point to March, 1904,
the high point, the cost of living increas-
ed 43 per cent. The most skillful jug
gler conld not show such ris e in
wages.
| "Party necessities, therefore, would not
permit Mr.. Wright to use this table, and
he dare not refute it. So he adopts the
shifting, uncertain and unknown stand
ard of retail prices. Wholesale prices are
| fixed and stable, the same in every COM
munity, with cost of freight added. There
is neither stability nor uniformity in re.
tail prices Coffee sells in the same city
| for from 10 to SO cents, tea from 20 cents
to 81 80, best creamary butter from 1S to
30 cents pound.
GA bright field agent selecting his stores
and localities could find evidence in retail
prices to support any theory. This was
the way in which the cost Of living was
reduced.
1.-THE methods employed to raise wages
we're equally as questionable. Everyone
knows that the greatest increase in wages
is to be found in those industries where
union labor is strongest and where the
strength of the union has been developed
during the period under investigation.
These conditions are peculiarly applicable
to the building trades. Out of the 1929
establishments selected by Mr.. Wright
for comparison 1899, or more than one
third, are in the building trades. Of the
remainder 1885 are likewise in the unpro-
tected industries.
1.-THE greatest employers of labor in the
country are the railroads, and no other
industry is better barometer of the aver
age wage. The railroads employ all kinds
of labor, skilled and unskilled, union and
non union. In no other industry are so
complete and accurate statistics available.
Each railroad reports to the interstate
commerce commission the total wages
paid during each year and the total num-
Der of workmen ON June 80 of that year.
The average wage is, therefore, easily
obtainable. Why were no railroad wages
included in Mr.. Wright's report?
'The answer is apparent. The last re-
port of the interstate commerce commits
sion shoMs an increase of railroad wages
of only 3 per cent. The railroads employ
more than 100000 men. Mr.. Wright
figures cover 1852. Miners, one of the
next largest body of laborers, also are
| omitted.
"Mr. Wright's table does not show that
any one Of these 176,927 men received
more wages in 1908 than in 1902, or any
other year. 1t only claims to show the
hourly wage for these particular men has
increased. In other words had mill in
creased the wages of its employees 10 per
cent and then shut down one-half time,
this would have figured in Mr.. Wright's
tables as an increase in wages.
at would have been just as easy to have
selected an equal number of establish
ments whose output, quality of work and
number of employees was decreasing and
shown a reduction instead of an increase
in wages. Then, too, by taking hourly
wages Mr.. Wright would not have to
consider the Goa, 900 men now out of en-
ployment. By carefully selecting his es-
| Establishments, he did not have to consider
the 10000 men whose wages, the trade
journals tell rs, were reduced in 1908 and
1904 from 10 to 80 per cent.
1--WE shall appeal from Colonel Wright
and his expert statisticians to one who
figures more skillfully and carefully than
he-the housewife with the market basket
who must make her husbands scanty
wage cover the constantly increasing cost
of the family's daily needs"