Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-10-06


expenditure for all purposes. This data
was c0rroborated by other information
in less detail FORM from 25,44O families,
and 50 is entitled to be accepted AS rep
! resentatiYe.
The most cursOry examination OF the
above table reveals the fact that the
| purchasing power of wages, measured by
retail prices Of food, was ) per cent.
greater in 1903 than in 1893, and this
! in spite Of the fact that the hours per
week had been reduced 81 per cent.
But more conducive to the wide dis
seminatiOn of the prosperity than these
proofs of the increased purchasing pow
or of wages is the fact revealed in the
column giving the relative number OF
persons employed in the establishments
investigated. Between 1894 and 1903 the
Increase in the number of employees re-
Ceiving these wages with increased pur-
chasing power was 343 per cent, while
in the meantime the population of the
United States only increased II per cent.
Democracy Last Resort.
Disheartened and Disguised with the
wide distribution of prosperity in the
homes workshops and bank accounts OF
American wage earners, demonstrated by
these figures, the Democrats appeal to
railroad labor as affording the most ac-
curate barometer OF wages" Here. they
say, "a large proportion of the employees
are union men, whose wages are com
paratively steady"
Then the cOmpilers of the Democratic
campaign book begin to juggle with the
very averages and percentages they AZ
feet to despise. They institute compari-
sons between 1892, when railway wages
were at high tide. and 1901, when they
had scarcely recovered from Democratic
recession of 1893 1896. They suppress
the fact that the statistical average OF
railway wages was less affected by the
Democratic hard times than the average
of other industries. for the obvious rea-
son that rs forces were reduced in num-
hrrs the proportion of high priced en-
playes retained because of their expert
ence was greater
They also conclude their comparisons
with the year ending June Both. 1902.
well knowing that the statistics of the
Interstate Commerce Commission for
that year only reflect month or two
of the advance in railway wages OF that
calendar year. which did not reach food
tide until July. 1903. Not until the
statistics of the Interstate Commerce
Commission for the year 1903 1904 are
published next summer will il be pos
Sihle to make an authoritative COMPARE
son or the wages of railway employees
ana the cost of living in the year 1908.
But the report OF the Commission for
the fiscal year 1903 is available. and il
furnishes the following data, which
throws light on the rich slice of pros
perity which has fallen to the share OF
railway employees:
NUMBER AND COMPENSATION OF
RAILWAY EMPLOYEES IN THE YEARS
1897 AND 1909:
Year. Numher Comnans,ttoo
ib9 ........... 1.3l2.53T $T75,32 415
'S"' .''..'......-... S23iT6 465. Go1 ,5lS
Increase .,....:.. iS9Nl $500, ,ss4
increase per cent, ~.4 66,5
increase OF compensation relatively
"fF hulhhtE Observation-Disclosures. IL
That this relative increase of compen-
sation, compared with that in the num-
her of railway employees. does not tell
the whole truth is proved by the follow
| ing table:
AVERAGE DAILY COMPENSATION OF
! CERTAIN DISTINCTIVE CLASSES OF
HALLWAY EMPLOYEES FOR THE
YEARS ENDING JUNE BOTH, 1897
AND 1908 wide sixteenth annual report
OF the statistics OF railways In the middle
/