The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-08-03

policy in power to make the best pos
sible statistical showing for the Gov
eminent with the quite natural object
of providing against a change in re-
sponsibility. Nevertheless, the Repub-
lican official propaganda must shortly
furnish to the country an admission
that there has been a very material
advance in the cost of living without
any perceptible advance in salaries
and wages. This will be shown in the
forthcoming annual report of the La
Dor Bureau of the Department of Com
merce and Labor.
For instance the figures on retail
prices for 1905 show that the cost of
meat, flour, vegetables and other ar
ticles of everyday consumption have
reached prices which render the prob
lem of making both ends meet as diff
ficult as ever.
/ An important feature of the report
will be the unavoidable admission that
wages have not CORRESPONDENCE adj
vanced within the year just fiscally
closed to offset the dearer prices of
feed properly to nourish the body. Ev-
cry one who works for salary has
long been impressed by this patent
fact. The Commissioner of Labor
created amusement all over the coun-
try in 1904 by getting out report
which showed the advance in wages,
but which also assumed to show that
the cost of living has not advanced.
This feat in figure manipulation was
accomplished by adding the cost of
flour, meat and other necessities in
the same column with certain non-es-
sentials Of living, such as spices, con-
diments, seasoning extracts, ETC., and
striking an average The result went
to sustain the contention that the cost
of living was as cheap as it had been
during the so-called era of hard times.
1t is a curious fact that the report
will show that the advonce in prices
has not been confined to the products
of mills and factories. 1t will show
that the products of the farm have adj
vanced almost as much as manufacture
ed articles that pass through several
hands before reaching the consumer !
The farmer sells his products at a
higher price than ever, although there
would appear to be no valid or plaus-
ible cause or excuse for the advance
in cost to the consumer. OF course,
in the case of the manufactured ar
ticles the existence of trusts, the re-
suit of tariff system which destroys
foreign competition, enabling home
to dominate and control
he domestic market, will explain the !
steady tendency of higher prices. No
such explanation is available in the +;
cost of things that go to make living {
.ndurable. t
The administration, which has given S
tse1f unreservedly over to the stand 1
,at policy, although President Roose- /
cit has time and again been adver- e
fsed by that class of his admirers v
7ho are apt with excuses that are t
ncomfums for everything he does, as o
avorfng revision Of the tariff, claims, S
Notwithstanding the Iop-sided condi- h
on which provides wages and COM t;
ensation for almost all kinds of work a
nd employment of Drawn and brain a
exatiously short of the cost Of living, "
nalloyed prosperity is booming and N
ulging along But the persons who IL
ave not had a raise In salary for IT
ears-nW a few of whom are honest lis
who take no chances of tt
yfng to make something on the side, lei
1T give themselves wholly to the at. Itu
nstituents-kn0w by the lar
oIffsh spectre Of debt ever lowering I'm
Ear that It is a prosperity which ish
ayes no checks with added figures in lof
cir mail boxes. it
Commissioner of Labor Charles p.
is anomaly; that every man will to
plain it according to his bias. He kn
ggests three answers that may be ph
ven by various people. The first lin
that the tariff is responsible; the to
cond, that the advance in the cost al
living is due to the increased pay sill
the union wage earners. us
Persons high in authority in the m;
are shy of discussing tn,
2 subject, for they realize that it will Sa
threshed out in the campaign, leav- hin
3 the contention for the standpat dis
cory that the times are prosperous
reality as we'll as in seeming, all est
which will be difficult to convince is
N who have been accustomed to ers
,derate salaries. tn;
A unique theory advanced by Gov a
lment officer is that the greatly in inc