Evening journal., 1906-08-16

compare the relative increase in wages
and cost of living in the last few years.
The Labor Bureau of the United
states in its last bulletin on this ques-
ton made a very careful analysis for
the fourteen years from 1890 to 1904.
In that comparison and analysis it was
shown that the weekly earnings Of all
employees had increased 5S.4 per cent.
from 1894 to- 1904, and. that the retail
prices Of food products had increased
IN the same time only u per cent.
This, l believe, is the only careful and
scientific investigation that has been
made of the subject.
Plant the Factory BY the Farm
The Republican party has always
followed the maxim, PLANT the factory
by the farm" that there may be the
closest possible exchange between the
two great bodies Of producers. one of
the old complaints here in the West
was that the manufacturing was prin-
cipally in the East; but the continua-
ton of a settled policy of protection
has gradually extended the Industrial
development to the West and the
South, bringing agriculture and manu-
facture closer together. The new sta
tistics Of manufactures compiled by
the United States Census Office last
year show more clearly than any pre-
vious census the general benefit Of the
protective policy. The prosperity that
has come to the country under the
/ Dingley law has not been spasmodic
nor sectional, except that it has pro-
duced greater extension of manufac-
turing into the Central, Western and
Southern States. This new census
shows first, that there has been
larger per cent. Of increase in the capi-
tai put into manufacturing plants in
the last five years than there has been
in the product of these industries. The
actual increase in capital was $780,
900 OO0 or Al per cent greater than the
capital invested in 1900. The actual
increase in output was 1884 900, 000
or about 80 per cent over that Of 1900.
Capital has grown confident of its in
vestment and has turned back into the
plant a larger share of its earnings to
Increase the demand for labor and ul-
| timately increase the output.
| This census also shows that in the
! five years from 1900 to 1905 the increase
in the number Of wage-earners en-
! ployed was 16 per cent. over the num-
Der in 1900, and the total wages paid
80 per cent. greater; in other words,
the increase in the total wages paid
was almost twice the ratio of the in
crease in employment To my mind
there could be no more complete an
swer to the complaint that wages have
not advanced since 1900.
Manufactures in West and South
But the most significant figures in
this new census are those which show
where the greater Increase in indus
trial plants. capital. employment,
wages. and output took place. 1t was
In the Central Western and Southern
states which few years ago were
designated simply as agricultural sec
tons of the country. OF the three bill
lion and a half dollars of new capital
put into industrial plants in these five
years mere than one-half of it was i'm
the Central, Western and Southern
! states. New England increased her
Industrial capital only S26A000000; the
Middle Atlantic States. S13s4, 900 900
Southern states. S575o0O,O00 the Cen
trail states, S1n4O00,0O0, and the far
Western States, $27l 100000. The per-
centages of increase We're: New Eng
land, "A per cent; Middle Atlantic,
37.5 per cent; Southern. per cent.
Central, AZ per cent. and Western, 7S
per cent. While the increase in the
old manufacturing centers Of the East
was normal and healthy. the increase
in the Central, Western and Southern
States was in the nature of great
boom in Industrial development.
The comparative increase in labor
and wages also were much greater in
the West and South than i'm the old
manufacturing centers OF the East
The increase in wage-earners in New
England in the five years was little
more than 10 per cent, and the total
wages paid 1914 per cent; in the Mid
die Atlantic States the increases were
wage -earners, 16 per cent, total wages
25.S per cent; Southern States, wage
earners, % per cent; total wages, 49.4
per cent; Central states, wage-earn-
ers. 1871 per cent; wages, 80 per cent.
} Western States, wage-earners, 20 per
, cent; wages. SO per cent.
More than this, the wonderful de-
velopment OF manufacturing Industry
in the South and West has already
moved the industrial center of the
country nearer to its geographical CEN
ter, and it is safe to say that to-day
fully one-half of the capital, wage
: earners, wages paid. and output from
our manufactures is in the Central
, Southern and Western States. The
industrial census of 1905 shows this
and demonstrates that under the eco
nomic policy of the Republican marty
with its steady and prosperous devel-
, opment, our manufacturing has stead
lily advanced into the great agricultu-
! Ial sections, placing the factory beside
the farm, to make the exchange be-
tween the two great bodies of pro-
ducers the more direct aud equitable
and make them more dependent upon
each other.
! Prosperity on the Farm
: Not alone in manufacturing has
! there been this doubling-up process in
prosperity under Republican admins
tration. The farmers have doubled
their crops and the money they have
received in exchange. The farm value
+ OF those three great staple crops OF
the West, corn, wheat and oats, in 1896
/, amounted to S934OO0. 900. and last wear
II aggregated S1.9i2 100000. or more
than double the value IN the last year
} Of Democratic administration. The
value of farm animals also doubled In
the same period. increasing from ST.
72S.000,000 in 1896 to S3,675. 600 900 i'm 1906