Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1904-10-07
WAGES AND COST OF LIVING
Grotesque Attempt by Democrats to Twist Facts
for Campaign Consumption.
GROSSLY INACCURATE STATEMENTS
Country Is Not in Throes of a Disastrous
Business Depression, and Workingmen
Continue to Prosper 49, What
the Figures Show

| lily, or 42.54 per cent. Of the average
expenditure for all purposes This data
was corroborated by other information
in less detail form, from 2J,440 families.
and so is entitled to be accepted as rep
resentative.
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 q 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 COMPARE
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 as forces were reduced in num-
bers the proportion of high priced EN-.
ployes retained because of their expert
eBee was greater.
They also conclude their comparisons
with the year ending June 30th. 1902,
well knowing that the statistics Of the
Interstate Commerce Commission for
that year only reflect n 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 1908 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 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 or
HALLWAY EMPLOYEES IN THE YEARS
1897 AND 1903:
Year. Number Comnensation
1903 ........l3I2 5a7 s575 9Si Az
increase ......... 4S9,UBl $500, 40 S.l4
Increase per cent. 59.4 G6.5
Increase Of compensation relatively
over number OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. IL
That this relative increase OF compen-
sation, compared with that in the mum
Der OF railway employees, does not tell
the whole truth is proved by the follow
ing table:
AVERAGE DAILY COMPENSATION OF
CERTAIN DISTINCTIVE CLASSES or
RAILWAY EMPLOYEES FOR THE
YEARS ENDING JUNE BOTH 1897.
AND 1908 wide sixteenth annual report
81 the statistics OF railways in the middle