River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-10-06

lily, or 4Z.J4 per cent. OF the average
expenditure for all purposes This data
was corroborated by other information
in less detail form, from 25,440 families,
and so is entitled to be accepted as rep
Pesentative.
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
er of wages, is the fact revealed in the
column giving the relative number of
persons employed in the establishments
investigated. Between 1894 and 1908 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 Fl per cent.
Democracy's 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 af-
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 1893-1S96. 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 as forces were reduced in num-
bers the proportion Of high priced en-
ence was greater.
They also conclude their comparisons
with the year ending June 30th, 1902,
we'll knowing that the statistics of the
Interstate Commerce Commission for
that year only reflect a month or two
of the advance in railway wages Of that
calendar year, which did not reach food
tide until July, 1908. Not until the
statistics of the Interstate Commerce
Commission for the year 1903-1904 are
published next summer will it be pos
sible to make an authoritative compare
son Of the wages of railway employees
and the cost of living in the year 1903
But the report of the Commission for
the fiscal year 1908 is availa BILE, and it
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 1903:
Year. Number CONDENSATION
1903 ,312, 537 $775, 80, 415
1897 ............... 1923, 416 465, 6O1, 51S
Increase ....... 4S9,O61 .$3O9, 719 1874
Increase per cent. 59.4 66.5
Increase of compensation relatively
over number IL
That this relative increase of compen-
sation, compared with that in the num-
Der of railway employees, does not tell
the whole truth is proved by the follow
ing table:
AVERAGE DAILY COMPENSATION OF
CERTAIN DISTINCTIVE CLASSES OF
RAILWAY EMPLOYEES FOR THE
YEARS ENDING JUNE BOTH 1897,
AND 1903 wide sixteenth annual report
of the statistics of railways in the middle
States for 1903, p. 43.)