Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1904-08-04
WAGES AND PRICES.
REFLECTIONS FOR THE MAN OF
LIMITED INCOME.
1t Will Take More Than JuggIed Sta
tistics to Convince the Voters They
Are Not Being Robbed by the Ra-
pacious Trusts.

There is great controversy going
on between the nonpartisan statisti-
clans in private life and those who are
employed in the government service
as to the relative cost of living and
the wages paid for the past ten years.
The government statisticians are
getting considerably the worst of the
argument, for their figures are shown
to be totally unreliable in many i'm
portant matters. In fact the govern
ment figures have been. disproved by
the vast difference between those fur
nished by two different departments
on the same subject. For instance, &C.
cording to the Agricultural department
figures there are over twelve million
mere sheep in the United States than
the census figures show for the same
year, to wit, 1899. The figures for the
hay crop were even farther apart. The
Bureau of Statistics publishes Dunn's
index figures showing the cost of liy-
ing to have increased 40 per cent. The
Bureau of Labor publishes figures to
show the increase has only been 16
per cent. There is no doubt that the
Dul eau VI 1dDOI IllSS " DOloISl up
protection by scientific plan of addi-
ton or subtraction or division.
Secretary Shaw in a speech the
other day promised that figures from
the highest authority were forthcom-
ing that would prove that the rise in
wages had more than kept up with the
increased cost of living. Carroll D..
Wright and the expert statisticians of
the Bureau of Labor are now at work
on these figures and will doubtless
prove what Secretary Shaw and the
| Republican leaders desire to have
proven. A government statistician
that cannot prove by his figures what
the politicians want to show would
| soon find his salary reduced or his
place given to another. 1t is safe to
predict that these coming statistics
will show that those who are earning
| wages are getting more each day in
proportion to the cost of living than
they have in the past. That is, that
after paying all the bills for necessi-
| ties there is more left for luxuries, or
to put into the savings bank.
Now Mr.. Wright and his Bureau of
! Labor figures may prove that increase
on paper, but those who earn the
wages and expend them can give more
accurate statistics on the subject than
| all the statisticians that are in the
employ of the government.
| Every one who has to rely on linn
tied income is feeling the pinch of
high prices, for there is scarcely an
| toll IF Nv rr-h; oh hoc ~
increased enormously. Indeed Dunn
index figures, mentioned above, which
are acknowledged to be the most fair
and reliable of any published, show
that the cost of living has advanced
since 1897 40 per cent. Have wages
increased in like manner, or more, as
! Secretary Shaw promises to have
shown by the highest authority?
The surplus left, after paying the nee
essary expenses, is the test of prosper
| ity, and that can only be settled by
each individual or family. If there is a
surplus, then you have reasonable
prosperity. If you are scrimping and
buying the cheapest and poorest and
can then only just make both ends
meet, all the Shaws and Wrights can
not make you feel you are prosper
Gus.
When the Republican spellbinders
flash these wonderful figures, as from
Aladdin's lamp, at you this fall, you
may feel prosperous for while under
the spell of their oratory, but after the
dance is over and the lights are out
and you think it all over, that fieeting
view of prosperity has flown, as with
the owner of the wonderful lamp when
he had lost it, as told in the Arabian
Nights. Then, as you lie upon your
husk mattress, if you are poor, or
your luxurious couch, if you are rich
you decide upon the ticket you will
vote and your chances of being most
comfortable with Roosevelt, high
prices and promises, or Parker and
reasonable prices and true prosperity.