The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-10
COST OF LIVING AND SCALE OF
WAGES.

WAGES.
The steady and enormous increase
in the price of living has been felt
by every family in America. 1t is not
a theory that confronts the house
wife, but a real and serious condition
how to feed a family on the same
amount of money as was needed to
keen good table in 1897 aud 1895.
Dun and Bradstreet show that the
cost of living has increased forty
three per cent, and yet the Republic
can campaign spell-binders deny this
trade statement and falsely allege that
the rate of wages has increased more
largely than the cost of living. To
support this claim they are paradinS
the statistical figures of so-called
"experts" But there is a better way
to ascertain than figures, based upon
ONLY a few trades. The better way is
for every wage-earner in the country
to keep books for himself, on one
side put down any increase in wages
earned, and on the other side let ms
wife put down the increase she has TO
pay for supplies. That object lesson
in every home will satisfy nearly every
wage-earner that the claim is not true
AS a matter of fact the rate
of wages has not gone UP in many
lines at all and in the bulk of the in
dustries which employs labor the in
crease i'm wages has been small.
Chairman Cowherd, of the Demo-
cratic Congressional Executive Com
nittee. has prepared careful, full
and accurate reply to the Republican
claim that leaves it no peg to stand
up. Closing the reply. Mr.. CoWherd
says
"In the bulletin recently issued the
methods adopted are as remarkable
as the conclusions reached. Whole-
sale prices have always Deen lhe
standard by which the rise or fall or
the cost of living has been computed.
Had Col. Wright followed the Gus
tomary course of using wholesale
prices he would have been confronted
with the excellent tables issued Dy
Dun and Bradstreet both recognized
commercial authorities. Dun s taple
of prices shows that from July, 1897,
the low point, TO March. 1904. the
highest point the cost of living in
creased 43 per cent. The most skllful
juggler could not show such rise IN
wages.
Party necessities, therefore, would
not permit Mr.. Wright to use TINS
table. and he dare not refute it. so
he adopts the shifting. uncertain and
unknown standard of retail prices
Wholesale prices are fixed and stable,
the same in every community, with
cost of freight added. There is neither
stability nor uniformity in retail prices
This was the way in which the
cost of living was reduced. The meth
DDS employed to raise wages We're
equally as questionable. Every one
knows that the greatest increase in
wages is to be found in those indus
tries whore union labor IS strongest
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 eStab
lishments selected by Mr. Wright for
comparison, 1,199. or more than one
third, are in the building trades. OF
the remainder 1.1S5 are likewise in
the unprotected industries.
Z "The greatest employers of labor
in the country are the railroads, and
no other industry is a better barome-
ter of the average wage. The rail-
roads employ all kinds of labor, skill
ed and unskilled. union and nom
union. In no other industry are as
complete and accurate statistics avail
able. Each railroad reports to the
Interstate Commerce Commission the
total wages paid during each year and
the total number of wOrkmen on June
80 OF that year. The average wage is
therefore easily obtainable.
why We're no railroad wages in
cluded in Mr.. Wright 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 railroads employ more than L.
100000 men. Mr.. Wrights figures
cover 1887.
Miners one of the next largest
body of laborers are also omitted.
Mr.. Wright's table does not show
that any one of these 1861 men
received more wages in 1903 than in
1902, or any other year. 1t only
claims to show that the hourly wage
for these particular men has in
creased. In other words had a mill
raised the wages of its employees 10
per cent. and then shut down one
half the time. this would have figured
in Mr. Wright's tables as an increase
in wages