Rocky Ford enterprise., 1904-11-04
Another GIaring Instance Of
Democratic Juggling with
Government Statistics.
LABOR BULLETIN IGNORED
u Order to Make Political Capital and
Also 10 Mlsrepresent condilioss
aad Deceive voters-Cam.
Daigs Textbook Trickery.

/
cratic Campaign Text Book discloses .
! disposition on the part of the managers
of the Democratic campaign TO diScredir
the report on wages aud cost Of living
| made by the Bureau OF Labor In Its July
Bulletin (No. 53). In view of the repu.
tation of Commissioner Wright for abso.
| lutte fairness In the collection and pres
| entation of statistics IL IL OF some in'
tcrest at this time to review his report
In the light of the indignant criticisms
which IL has brought forth. and II may
be said at the outset that careful ex.
| animation Of the report reveals the some.
what remarkable fact that practically
| every criticism made has been answered
In the Bulletin itself. Indeed. II would
| almost appear that the compilers Of the
Text Book either did not make use OF
the Bulletin or had no desire to be con.
| vinced Of the truth of the figures pub
lished therein. and that their insinua.
| tons and clumsy misstatcments u fact
were made for the purpose OF mislead.
Ing the public mind. Let Us proceed
| to the most specific OF the somewhat
vague charges that are made.
Il 10 drst charged that the report pub.
iished Ia the Bulletin was Quoting the
Text Book prepared oassnsibly as an
oficial document. but In reality. Il seems.
for the special use OF the Republican
Campaign Committee" The "well-nish
conclusive" evidence submitted In sup
port Of this charge consists OF = state.
ment By Secretary Shaw In June last
that such Q rcporf would BE- Published.
As . matter of fact. Il had been knowa
to the public for several years that tbs
Bureau Of Labor was engaged In collect
Ing data for such q report and the por-
ton OF the report relating to cost Of liv.
ins was actually published In Bulleiin
10 a. early a. November. i0G5-nearly
eight nouths previous to Secretary
Shaw's statement.
Nat what Dsaaersts wasssd.
II 10 clearly stated In the Bulletin
Itself that tho investigation WAS begun
In the winter of l0OO-l0Oi. and without
doubt the records Of tbs bureau aud
the testimony Of hundreds of manufac.
turcrs whose pay rolls were examined
would have proved the truth Of the statc-
ment. had the truth been desired In Dem.
ocratic quarters. But no-for political
reasons. the facts disclosed were not
pleasing. and Il seemed necessary to
adopt some method. apparently any
method that would detract from an ex.
Lbit Of q remarkable condition OF indus
trial depression was desired. Conclusive
OF these statistics was begun In the win
ter Of lD00.DOi. and that they were
not cooked up' for the occasion a.
charged. but Il 10 not to be expected
that this absurd charge will Be with.
drawn, although as q matter Of fact the
figures a. to wages and cost Of living
referred to have been ccrroborntcd By In.
dependent invcstig tons which have been
concluded BY the State BUREAUS Of sew
erai important States.
IL IL charged also that BY giving equal
weight TO unimportant articles Of con.
sumption and articles OF prime necss.
sity an unduly smaii increase In cost Of
living Is secured. Il IL Eravely asserted
that nutmess. pepper. alum, ETC.. are
given equal weight with such important
articles As lard. beef. eggs. -four. etc.
This charge might. indeed, be convinc-
ing IL Il contained even q slight element
Of truth. Unfortunately for the criticism.
however. the Bulletin itself states thaA
all articles of food are weighed exactly
according to the amount consumed In the
average workingman's family. In this
Bulletin the exact quantities are given
and the method clearly explained, 80
that tho charge can only be construed as
. deliberate attempt to mislcad the vot.
crs of the country and not as an error
oil the part Of the compiler OF the text
book. As q matter of fact the most
careful search of Bulletin 53 shows that
the unimportant articles referred to, such
as putty. nutmcss, alum. pepper. ctc..
are not even mentioned therein. These
articles are found, however, among the
2G0 articles entering into an index Of
wholesale prices which has been publish
ed annually by the bureau for the past
three years, but this index has no con.
ncction whatever with the report on cost
OF living. One pauses to wonder at the
fact that the Democratic managers are
so lacking In resource as to adopt the
clumsy trick Of injecting figures from
another report into 4 discussion of the
report on cost OF living. and pretend thne
they were n part of the latter report. Ie
must be assumed that In this section
there was the studied intention to mis-.
represent and convey an impression to
the public utterly contrary to the truth
and entirely unwnrrantcd by the facts.
The entire portion of the Text Book un.
der the caption "Absurlity of Republi.
can Averages" (pages 124 and 1851, and
much that follows on pages 128 and 127,
is Of the character just mentioned.
A Ludicrsus Complaint.
The further complaint that the figures
for cost OF living are based on retail
prices instead of Wholesale can only be
understood by assuming that the use Of
the latter would have given the Demo.
cratic campaign managers a little less
discomfort. Bulletin 53 clearly explains
the reasons for the use of retail prices
az basis for cost of living In prefer.
ence to the wholesale. 1t Is true that
wholesale prices have been used at times
to indicate the trend OF cost Of living,
bnt they are considered by economists
as unreliable for the purpose of indicate
ing the extent of the increase or .le-
crease. Until the present day invcstigs-
tion by the Burcnu Of Labor no records
of retail prices covering any consider
IL H.. L.