CanÌƒon City record. [volume] (CanÌƒon City, Colo.) 1883-192?, 1904-11-03
Another GIaring Instance Of
Democratic Juggling with
Government Statistics.
LABOR Bulletin IGNORED
In Order to Make Political Capital and
Also to Misrepresent Conditions
and Deceive yoters-cam.
paign Textbook Trickery.

Democratlc newspapers for the past few
weeks and of the recently issued Demo-
cratic Campaign Text Book discloses
disposition on the part of the managers
of the Democratic campaign to discredit
the report on wages and cost of living
made by the Bureau of Labor in its July
Bulletin tNo. 3d. In view of the repu-
tation of Commissioner Wright for abso-
lutte fairness in the collection and pres
entation of statistics il is o, some in
terest at this time to review his report
in the light of the indignant criticisms
which il has brought forth. and it may
be said at the outset that a careful e1-
animation of the report reveals the some
what remarkable fact that practically
every criticism made has been answered
in the Bulletin itself. Indeed. it would
almost appear that the compilers of the
Text Book either did not make use OF
the Bulletin or had no desire to be con-
Tinced Of the truth of the figures pub
lished therein, and that their insinua-
tions and clumsy misstatements of fact
were made for the purpose of misiead-
ing the public mind- Let US proceed
to the most specific of the somewhat
vague charges that are made.
1t is first charged that the report pub
lished in the Bulletin was tquoting the
Text Book prepared ostsnsibly As an
ofhcial document. but in reality. it seems,
for the special use of the Republican
Campaign Committee" The 'weil-nigh
conclusive" evidence submitted in sup
port of this charge consists of state
ment by Secretary Shaw in June last
that such a report would be published.
As a matter OF fact, it had been known
to the public for several years that the
Bureau of Labor was engaged in collect
ing data for such a report and the por-
tion of the report relating to cost of Ev-
ing was actually published in Bulletin
40 as early as November. 19O3-nearly
eight months previous to Secretary
Shaw's statement
Not what Deaocrats wanted.
1t is clearly stated in the Bulletin
itself that the investigation was begun
in the winter OF 19O0-190l. and without
doubt the records of tk~ bureau and
the testimony of hundreds of manufac-
turers whose pay rolls were examined
would have proved the truth of the state
ment. had the truth been desired in Dem
ocratic quarters But no-for political
reasons, the facts disclosed were not
pleasing, and it seemed necessary to
adopt some method. apparently any
method that would detract from an ex-
hibit of q remarkable condition OF indus
trial depression was desired Conclusive
evidence is at hand that the gathering
of these statistics was begun in the win
ter of 190o19o1. and that they were
not cooked up for the occasion as
charged. but it is not to be expected
that this absurd charge will be with
drawn, although as a matter OF fact the
figures as TO wages and cost of living
referred to have been corroborated by in
dependent Investigations which have been
concluded by the State bureaus OF sew
eral important Stares-
IL is charged also that by giving equal
weight 10 unimportant articles of con-
sumption and articles of prime neces-
sity an unduiy small increase in cost Of
living is secured L, is sravely asserted
that nutmess. pepper. alum. etc. arc
given equal weight with such important
articles as lard. beef. eggs. -four, etc.
This charge might. indeed be couvinc-
ing IL it contained even a slight element
of truth. Unfortunately for the criticism,
however, the Bulletin itself states that
all articles OF food are weighed exactly
according to the amount consumed in the
average workingman's family. In this
Bulletin the exact quantities are given
and the method clearly explained. so
that the charge can only be construed as
a deliberate attempt to mislead the vot-
SAs VA thc tSuUAEN anu not an error
on the part of the compiler OF the text
book. As a matter OF fac: the most
careful search of Bulletin - shows that
the unimportant articles referred TO. such
as putty. nutme-s. alum. pepper. etc,
are not even mentioned therein. These
articles are found, however among the
a60 articles entering into an index of
wholesale prices which has been publish
ed annually by the bureau for the past
three years. but this index has no con-
nection whatever with the report on cost
of living. One pauses to wonder at the
fact that the Democratic managers are
So lacking in resource as to adopt the
clumsy trick of injecting figures from
another report into discussion of the
report on cost of living. and pretend that
they were part OF the latter report Ii
must be assumed that in this section
there was the studied intention TO mis-
represent and convey an impression to
the public utterly contrary TO the truth
and entirely unwsrranted by the facts.
The entire portion of the Text Book I'M
der the caption "Absurdity OF Repuhli-
can Averages" tpsgeS 124 and 1851, and
much that follows on paSes l26 and l2s.
IS OF the character Just mentioned
A Ladicreus Complaint.
The further complaint that the figures
for cost of living are based on retail
prices instead of Wholesale eau only be
understood by assuming that the use OF
the latter would have given the Demo-
cratic campaign managers little less
discomfort. Bulletin 81 clearly explains
the reasons for the use of retail prices
as basis for cost of living in prefer
ence to the wholesale. 1t is true that
wholesale prices have been used at times
to indicate the tread Of cost of living.
but they are considered by economists
as unreliable for the purpose OF indicst-
ing ths Avfsnf or thA iner.ezs ~. H.