Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-08-08
WRIGHT Is WRONG
State ment That Wages Keep Pace
With Cost OF Living Dis
puted.
A REPRESENTATIVE TALKS
Points Out That 100000 are on Strike
Because income is Too
Small.

| dSHInStOn, aug. o. Every puT-
chaser of household supplies for the
last 10 years knows that the report
of the department of labor. on the cost
of living contains statistics utterly I'M
reliable. which have been manipulated
i'll the interest of protection and of the
republican party" said Representative
| Cowherd. of Missouri, chairman of the
democratic congressional committee.
The truth of the matter is, there are
100000 wage earners today on a strike;
! they are on strike either because the
cost of living has reduced the purchas-
ing power of the wages received or
| because their wages have been reduc-
ed within the year"
Retail Prices Uncertain.
Continuing. Mr.. Cowherd says:
Had Col. Wright followed the Gus
| tOmary course of using wholesale
prices he would have been confronted
with the excellent tables issued by
Dun and Bradstreet. both recognized
commercial authorities. Dun's table
of prices shows that from July, 1897,
est point. cost of living increased 43
per cent. The most slIillful juggler
could not show such a rise in wages.
Party necessities, therefore, would not
permit Mr.. Wright to use this table
and he dare not refute it. So he adopts
the shining. uncertain and unknown
standard of retail prices.
Retail Prices Uncertain.
Wholesale prices are fixed and sta
Bile, the same in every community, with
cost of freight added. There is Meth
er stability nor uniformity in retail
prices. Coffee sells in the same city
for from 10 to 40 cents, tea from 90
cents to $3.50, best creamery butter
from 10 to 30 cents per pound. A
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.
The methods employed to raise
wages were equally as questionable.
Everyone knows that the greatest in
crease in wages is TO be found in those
industries where union labor is strong
est and where the strength of the union
has been developed during the period
under investigation. These conditions
are peculiarly applicable to 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 the building trades. OF the re-
mainder 1,165 are likewise in the I'M
protected industries
railroads Good Test.
THE greatest employers OF labor in
the country are the railroads, and no
other industry is better barometer
of the average wage. The railroads
employ all kinds of labor. skilled and
unskilled. union and nonunion. In no
other industry are as complete and
accurate statistics available Each
railroad reports to the interstate com
merce commission the total wages
paid during each year and the total
number of workmen June 80 of that
year. The average wage is therefore
easily obtainable.
Why were no railroad wages in
cluded in Mr.. Wright's report? The
answer is apparent. The last report
of the interstate commerce commits
sion shows an increase of railroad
wages of only per cent The rail
roads employ more than 100000 men.
Mr.. Wrights figures cover 17G,S27.
Miners Omitted.
Miners, one of the next largest
bodies of labOrers, also are omitted.
Mr.. Wright'S table does not show that
any of these 17G.S27 men received
more wages in 1903 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 a mill raised the wages of it's en-
ployes 10 per cent. and then shut down
one-half the time. this would have fig
ured in Mr.. Wright's table as an in
crease in wages. 1t would have been
just as easy TO have selected an equal
number Of establishments. whose out
put, quality OF work and number of
employees were decreasing and shown
a reduction instead OF an increase in
wages.
"Then, too, by taking hourly wages
Mr. Wright would not have to con-
slider the 100000 men now out of en-
ployment. BY carefully selecting his
establishments, he did not have TO 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 Col.
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 fam
live daily needs