The Springfield herald., 1904-10-07
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 What
the Figures Show.

expenditure for food was 1925 per fam
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 %, 40 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 3 per cent.
greater in 1903 than in 1893, and this
in spite OF the fact that the hours per
week had been reduced 3.7 per cent.
But more conducive to the wide dis
semination of the prosperity than these
proofs of tho 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 1903 the
increase in the number of employees re-
ceiving these wages with increased pur-
chasing power was 34.3 per cent, while
in the meantime the population Of the
United States only increased 81 per cent
Democrncy'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 nffording the most ac-
curate barometer of wages Here. they
say, "a large proportion of the employees
| are union men, whose wages are co1n-
\ paratively steady"
| Then the compilers of the Democratic
campaign book begin to jugsle 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 1SJ3-lS 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 force, were reduced in num-
bers the proportion of high priced en-
| ployes retained because of their expert
ence was greater.
| They also conclude their comparisons
| with the year ending June 3Oth, 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 19O3-1904 are
published next summer will it be pos
sible to make an authoritative compari
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 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 Compensation.
| 1903 1.3l2,53T S1IJ.32i, ,415
| 1897 ............... S2SfIG IGJ.GO1 .JlS
| Increase ......... 4S9,G1 $500, 1881
| Increase per cent. 59.4 Co.'S
| Increase of compensation relatively
over number OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. IL
That this relative increase of compen-
sation. compared with that in the num-
ber of railway employees, does not tell
the whole truth is proved by the follow
| ing table:
J AVERAGE DAILY CONVERSATION OF
| CERTAIN DISTINCTIVE CLASSES OF
| RAILWAY EMPLOYEES FOR THE
| YEARS ENDING JUNE BOTH. 1897,
AND 1908 (vidc sixteenth annual report
OF the statistics OF railways in the middle
n