Milford chronicle., 1904-10-07

] lAY. OF 19sUL per NEhAs VI tAA3 tAf.-t.SN
expenditure for all purposes. This data
/ was cOrroborated by other information
\ in less detail form. from %, ,44O families
and so is entitled to be accepted as rep
! resentative.
! The most cursory examination or the
above table reveals the fact that the
purchasing power Of wages, measured by
retail prices Of food, was per cent.
greater in 1908 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 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 p 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 1S93-1S96. They suppress
the fact that the statistical average oe
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
ence was greater.
They also conclude their comparisons
with the year ending June Both, 1902.
well 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 1903 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 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 available, 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 Compcnsation.
1903 ...............l ,312,j31 SI7J.321.4 .415
1897 .......-....... S23,4I6 465.GO1 SIS
Increase ......... 4s9.OGt S3O0. .719. .ss4
Increase per cent. 594 6G5
Increase Of compensation relatively
over NUMBER OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 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 |